A tense and ambivalent relationship : the Cuban intellectual milieu before ‘the Soviet’ in the first revolutionary years (1959-1966) = Una relación tensa y ambivalente : el medio intelectual cubano ante 'lo soviético' en los primeros años revolucionarios (1959-1966)

Abstract

Based on a diverse variety of sources, including archival materials, interviews and news- papers, this article seeks to demonstrate that the Cuban Revolution was not from the outset a project inspired by an “orthodox” communism. Close ties with the USSR led to doubts and theoretical debates (encouraged by Che Guevara’s thesis: “foquismo”) in a country where many feared a passive integration in the socialist sphere. Intense controversies erupted within the intellectual milieu during the 1960s (like the “manual controversy” in 1966), reflecting divergent sensibilities regarding “things Soviet” and differing ideas about the role of artists and the avant-gardes in a revolutionary society. The “normalization” of Cuban-Soviet relationships, noticeable at the end of the decade, was only possible after a long period of disagreements, apprehensions and doctrinal controversies.