Castro Ruz Fidnl (Castro Ruz Fidel)

(p. 1927)
Born August 13, 1927 at the estate near the village of Maillard Biran (Oriente province). With a first marriage, two children, Angel Castro, fathered five illegitimate children by his cook, Lina Ruz Gonzalez. Fidel was the second of them, Raul - junior.
Primary Fidel and his brothers were in a Catholic boarding school in Santiago. Fidel also studied at the Jesuit College of Belen in Havana and at the Faculty of the University of Havana, graduating in 1950.

The university Castro joined the Party of the Cuban people (a so-called. Orthodox). During the campaign 1952 was nominated to the House of Representatives from one of the areas of Havana. March 10, 1952, General Fulgencio Batista coup d'ц?tat, overthrew the government of President Carlos Prio Sokarrasa and canceled elections. In early 1953 Castro established a clandestine organization dedicated to overthrowing the dictator, July 26, 1953 led an armed attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. The assault failed, and Castro was arrested. Seven months later, in court, he said in his famous defense speech History Will Vindicate Me (Historia me absolvera), which called on to continue the struggle for civil liberties. Castro's speech, published clandestinely, has become an important advocacy document 1950.

In 1955, Castro was granted amnesty and emigrated to Mexico, and December 2, 1956 with a group of like-minded people landed in Oriente province, with the intention to unite with the Cuban revolutionary groups. Lost in the battles of the detachment, Castro took refuge in the mountains of Sierra Maestra, and then within two years waged a guerrilla war against Batista's army. In the end, Batista fled the country on Dec. 31, 1958.

Castro took over command of the Cuban army, and in February 1959 took over as head of government. In 1976, declared himself President of the State Council of the Cuban National Assembly, and thus combined the head of government and head of state.

In 1960, Castro has been in contact with the Soviet Union, causing even greater concern about the U.S. government, irritable nationalization of American property in Cuba after 1958. In January 1961 the diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba were severed. In April 1961, tensions between the two countries reached its peak in connection with the incident, has been called 'invasion of the Bay of Pigs'. In 1962 the outbreak of a so-called. Cuban crisis. Nuclear war narrowly avoided after the Soviets agreed to withdraw missiles from ships in coastal waters of Cuba and the United States promised to refrain from attempting to overthrow the Castro regime.

In 1961, Castro openly declared its commitment to Marxism-Leninism. Following the example of other socialist countries, the Cuban government nationalized the entire industry, transport, communications, media and the overwhelming majority of land ownership. In the 1960's unannounced part of Cuba in guerrilla warfare in Bolivia and Venezuela protests moderate Communist parties, Moscow's policy-oriented. In 1968, Castro supported the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact countries.

Castro felt a special interest in the revolutionary movements in Africa. With the consent of Moscow, Cuba has sent thousands of soldiers in Angola (1975), where they fought on the side of the pro-Soviet forces. In early 1978 with Soviet support of the Cuban helped Ethiopia to reflect the attack Somalia. At the same time Castro has been supporting the Government of Ethiopia in the fight against the Eritrean rebels. By the end of 1960 40 thousand. Cuban soldiers were in different countries. At the beginning of 1960 Castro had to suppress several anti-government riots, tens of thousands who disagree with his policies of citizens were imprisoned and more than two million emigrated, mainly in the U.S..

In 1977, Castro tried to resume diplomatic relations with the United States, severed in 1961, and to this end, freed many political prisoners, allowing them to leave the country. As a condition for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the U.S. offered Cuba to withdraw its troops from Angola and Ethiopia, but Castro did not react to this proposal.

In the late 1980's, when Mikhail Gorbachev began democratic reforms, Castro continued to uphold the principles of Communist discipline and a centralized economy. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba has lost an important ally and its main trading partner. In mid-1990 Castro went to the moderate liberal reforms in the economy. In January 1998, visited Cuba, Pope John Paul II, at the request of which were released from prison, many political prisoners. In December 2000, after a visit to Cuba by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Castro went to the resumption of economic relations with Russia.