By Armando Hart
Armando Hart is the former minister of culture of Cuba. Our translation largely
relies on a CubaNews translation by Ana Portela.
These thoughts are intended as a tribute to all revolutionaries,
without exception, who suffered the great historical drama of seeing the
socialist ideas of October 1917 frustrated. We write this with admiration
and respect for the Russian people, who were the protagonists of the first
socialist revolution in history and who defeated fascism decades later
under the leadership of Stalin. The same Russian people, 130 years before,
defeated the military offensive of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Fundamentally, I have the experience of fifty years of working for
socialist ideas in the beautiful trenches of the Fidel and Martí-inspired
Cuban Revolution, that is to say, the first revolution of Marxist orientation
that triumphed in what has become known as the West.