Victoria, 16.06.2024
This story was told by my friend, an old sailor and ladies' man, Stanislav K.
Stanislav, or Stan as he is called here, was born and raised in Odessa, Ukraine, where he had an exceptionally turbulent youth. He then spent many years sailing on vessels of the Black Sea Shipping Company. Eventually, the winds of fate brought him to the Canadian shores, and here in Canada, he served for some time in our Royal Canadian Navy.
Old seaman Stan has been to many places and has countless stories to tell. And he tells them well, especially about Cuba. I've already shared his story about how the much-admired degenerate and pervert Che Guevara personally executed dock workers who weren't quick enough. Here's a new story Stan shared with me recently:
"...I was watching a video on YouTube, and one of the participants in the dialogue was talking about how cleverly Che won his struggle for Cuba. After reading that panegyric to Cuban communists, I decided to add my comment. So here it comes:
The story about Che Guevara prompted me to write this comment, or rather a post. So, Cuba... Havana... 1981...
I was visiting a woman who held a high rank in the Cuban army, either a lieutenant colonel or a colonel. She occupied a prominent position in the Ministry of Defense. By 1981, she had graduated from a Cuban military school and a military academy in Moscow. She lived not just in an elite neighborhood in Havana, accessible only with a special permit (on the way to her place, we passed through a small checkpoint with a barrier and armed guards; we were in her "Lada," while she proudly displayed her special ID), but also in an exclusive building that had once been a luxury condominium, with all apartments owned mostly by US citizens.
I was impressed by her apartment: it had ten rooms and occupied the entire floor. The view was 360 degrees, offering a breathtaking panorama of Havana and the sea from approximately the 15th floor. She lived there with her maid, who took care of us that evening – cooking, serving food, and drinks... And when the small company and the hostess had enjoyed a few cocktails, I dared to ask her a question that had lingered in my mind, just as her answer did. And today, I can say that her response somewhat sobered me and partially stripped away the idealism that young people often possess.
I asked, "How did it happen that after the revolution you participated in (she was a girl in one of the 'bearded' squads and personally knew Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and others), some Cubans live so richly and luxuriously, while the masses of ordinary people, whom I constantly see here in the same port area and other less prestigious districts of Havana, languish in poverty, with several generations cramped in one small and shabby apartment, standing in line for years for a refrigerator and a TV, unable to travel abroad, etc.?"
Her answer simply shocked me! Do you know what she said? "We didn't make the revolution for those pigs!" she said, pointing her hand through the huge window where we were standing, somewhere down towards the port from where my friend and I – her long-time good acquaintance – had come to her, as we were part of the crew of the container ship "Salvador Allende."
I will never forget her gesture: she held a smoking cigar in the hand she pointed downwards, while sipping a cocktail prepared by her maid...
A little later, I dated a girl who graduated from the Vladimir Lenin School in Havana, was the daughter of the chief architect of Havana, and studied in Leningrad. I also met many other children from elite Cuban families, and after that, I finally understood for whom they made that revolution in 1958-59. They simply replaced Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship with Fidel Castro's.
Moreover, I am sure it happened with the tacit consent of the USA. It's no coincidence that Fidel's first visit was to the United States. Many people (but not me) still don't fully understand why Che & Co. won... Today, there is enough information available about the successes of pre-revolutionary Cuba. And the "successes" of contemporary Cuba are evident even in Canada where I live. In over 25 years of living here, I have met many Cubans who fled from Che and Fidel's victory, whose families survive there only because their relatives who fled and settled in Canada, the USA, and other Western countries regularly send them money.
And how much cargo was transported to Cuba from the USSR, starting with food, light industry products, equipment, machinery, and even coffins, on those ships of the Black Sea Shipping Company on which I personally worked! Without those supplies, the "victorious revolutionaries" had no chance of surviving..."
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