Russia-Cuba: together we create a multipolar world order
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January 5, 2022, 09:00 | |
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At the end of 2021, a charity evening was held in Moscow in honor of the presentation of the Fidel Castro Foundation for Assistance to Russian-Cuban Relations. The organization was established six months ago by public figures and experts whose lives and work are related to Latin America in general and Cuba in particular. Among them are representatives of the Russian Society of Friendship with Cuba, the Interregional Public Organization "Commonwealth of Warriors-Internationalists of Cubans", the movement "Venceremos" and not only.
Leonid Savin, the head of the organization, told about the Fund and its achievements for six months of work in his welcoming speech. According to him, the Foundation was established to strengthen ties with Cuba both in Russia and other countries of the post-Soviet space. These ties, according to the plan of the founders of this structure, should be formed both at the level of states and at the level of public figures, people's diplomacy.
In particular, among the tasks are the promotion of scientific, cultural and information interaction between Cuba and Russia, the implementation of cultural and educational programs and activities related to Cuba, the implementation of projects in the field of architectural structures, visual, choreographic and other types of art related to the heritage of Cuba, the popularization and promotion of the history of Cuba and its significant figures, research on Cuban topics, patriotic education of children and youth in the context of the history of Soviet-Cuban and Russian-Cuban relations.
The Foundation involves the organization of extensive educational and publishing activities: the works of classics: José Martí, Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara, as well as works by contemporary Cuban authors, will be translated and published into Russian. In addition, it is planned to publish in Spanish the works of Russian writers, which would help the Cuban audience to form an opinion about modern Russia and life in it, to understand the position that our country takes on a number of topical international issues.
Educational programs are already being implemented. According to Leonid Savin, with the help of the representative of the Foundation in Cuba, Professor of the University of Havana, Doctor of Historical Sciences Oscar Julian Villar Barroso, it was possible to send several people to Russia to study and improve their skills.
It is logical that the first step to popularize Cuba, its history and culture in Russia will be the installation in Moscow of a monument to the leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro, after whom the Foundation is named. Through the efforts of its representatives, it was possible to create a project of a monument that could become the dominant of the square of the same name in the Russian capital, to complete its architectural image.
At the presentation of the Foundation, sculptors of the studio of military artists named after Mitrofan Grekov - Alexey Chebanenko and Andrey Bely, who developed the project of the monument and will be engaged in its direct creation. They talked about how the idea of the monument arose, how they were inspired by the image of a Cuban revolutionary, and how they see it, embodied in stone, about the long and painstaking work on their idea. In addition, the authors presented not only the photo images from which it is planned to be made, but also ready-made sketches of the monument.
Other guests who joined shared their impressions of Castro as a person and agreed that the monument to Commander will contribute to a better understanding of Cuban history and culture by young generations of Russians who have not left a period of rapid development of Soviet-Cuban relations.
In addition, public activists shared the idea of erecting a monument to the Russian traveler, scientist, naturalist and writerator Fyodor Karzhavin in Cuba, who became the first Russian to visit Latin America. In particular, Karzhavin lived in Cuba for two years, leaving a mark on its history and giving the Cubans their first impressions of Russia.
This autumn, the Institute of Latin America hosted a round table "Karzhavin Readings" dedicated to the 275th anniversary of the traveler's birth with the participation of the Ambassador of Cuba to Russia. The event is planned to be made annual and give it an international status.
Such actions will undoubtedly contribute to the establishment of cultural dialogue between our countries, but cultural exchanges and educational programs, according to the plan of the founders of the Foundation, our interaction should not be limited.
Opening the presentation, Leonid Savin presented to the guests the materials of the online conferences held by the Foundation with the participation of experts from Latin America, who discussed the place of Latin America in today's geopolitical transformations of the world.
The colonization of America by the Spaniards began with Cuba, and the struggle for the liberation of European metropolises from power began with Cuba. In a bipolar world, Cuba was again in the vanguard - Cuba became the epicenter of liberation from North American hegemony and capitalism.
Which ideological model is more suitable for Cubans and all Latin Americans in their eternal struggle for freedom and independence - this issue concerns all Cubans and the intellectual elite of the countries of the region. To answer difficult questions about the ideology and concept of Latin American liberation in a multipolar environment, scientists, politicians, public figures from Havana, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Bogota, São Paulo and other cities in the region held a series of round tables, symposia and congresses.
Latin America is a separate civilization designed to become a separate pole of a multipolar world, and again, as many times in history, Cuba has a leading role to play in this.
This role should not be underestimated. According to the experts present, it was Cuba that opened a new page in the history of the Western Hemisphere. Fidel Castro managed the seemingly impossible - to make a socialist revolution in the very citadel of international imperialism, under the very nose of the United States.
It is worth recalling that, according to the "Monroe Doctrine", the United States considers Central and South America its "Backyard", the territory of its exclusive geopolitical and economic interests. Cuba, under the Batista regime, was almost a U.S. colony, fully controlled and controlled. That's why what Castro and Che Guevara managed to do seemed unthinkable. They were not only able to overthrow the neo-colonial regime, forcing the United States to get out of Cuba, but also brought to America the ideas of the Russian Great October Socialist Revolution, which were unimaginable before them. If the revolution in Russia changed the world, the revolution in Cuba changed America forever, became a guiding star for other peoples who also suffered from Washington's neo-colonial policy and sought to gain true independence. The example of Cuba showed that it is possible, Latin America seemed to wake up after many years of hibernation, many countries began their liberation struggle, inspired by the Cuban example.
The 90s were the most difficult test for both Russia and Cuba, which, having lost the support of Moscow, was left alone with the unipolar world, being on the margins of the only remaining superpower. But Cuba, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, survived. And today, when a new, reviving Russia is just beginning to declare itself in the world, it is Cuba that is again at the forefront of the formation of a new order.
Today Latin America is experiencing a "left-wing renaissance": Venezuela, Argentina, Chile - undoubtedly others will follow. Again, the Cuban revolution and the figure of Castro become a guiding star for many. In the context of the destruction of the unipolar world, when new poles begin to form in different parts of it, Russia and Cuba must again reach out to each other.
In fact, the friendship of our peoples, even in the most difficult times of the 90s, has not gone anywhere, and this is in many ways also the merit of Fidel Castro. Fidel has not been with us for five years, but we see that the foundations he has built are still strong, the results of his policy aimed at the future have also been manifested in such a topical issue as the fight against the pandemic. Cuba has been able to vaccinate the vast majority of residents, and with a vaccine of its own production, which it sells to other countries, which few developed economies can boast of today.
Fighting the pandemic, ensuring international security, building a new geopolitical configuration of the world - all these issues we must solve together. And in these conditions, it is relevant to establish where necessary - to restore or establish links from scratch at all levels. Not only cultural and scientific, but also economic, political and, if necessary, military.
Together, we are creating the future, Gustavo Cobreiro, Education Advisor to the Embassy of Cuba, said at the presentation of the Foundation.
There is a lot of work to be done, which politicians are not always ready to take on right away, but public activists are ready to start doing it. In this context, the emergence of the Fidel Castro Foundation may be a small but very serious and promising step forward.
Source: http://evrazia.org/article/3023