Hana Bortlová. Czechoslovakia and Cuba in the Years 1959–1962. Praha: FF UK (ed. Scholia), 2011. 188 pages. ISBN: 978-80-7308-358-8
Abstract:
The book analyzes the topic of relations between Cuba and the former Czechoslovakia in the early years of the Cuban Revolution (specifically 1959–1962) which has so far attracted very little research. It is based primarily on archival records of the Czechoslovak communist leadership, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Civil Intelligence Service (which in those days was part of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior). Czechoslovakia acted as an important mediator of Soviet influence in Cuba. The Czechoslovak goods, known in Cuba since the interwar period and also from the less distant times of General Batista, initially propitiously supplemented the export of Soviet ideology and later – from the second half of 1961 when Cuba joined the socialist camp – became an essential part of the so-called international aid provided to Cuba by the Soviet bloc. Financial assistance, primarily supplies of complete industrial equipments covered by generous state loans and supplies of Czechoslovak arms constituted the backbone of Czechoslovak policy towards Cuba. In accordance with Soviet interests, Czechoslovakia assisted in the consolidation of the Cuban socialist system in other ways, too: it helped to create the Cuban secret services, offered military trainings to members of the Cuban armed forces in Czechoslovakia and provided Cuba with Czech military experts, technicians and scientists. An important part of the Czechoslovak policy towards Cuba was the scholarship grant system which enabled young Cubans to study at Czech and Slovak universities. The dynamic development of relations with Cuba in the late 1950s and early 1960s also engendered growing interest of Czechoslovakia in other Latin American countries. In 1960 the idea of Czechoslovakia acting as an "ice-breaker of the socialist camp" in Latin America was born. Although this concept had a short life, the wave of interest in Latin America was taken advantage of in order to create an environment more conducive to academic research of Latin American issues and to improve the conditions of study in this field. Czechoslovak Hispanists and Latin-Americanists could use the opportunity to travel to a Spanish speaking country – many of them for the very first time since the beginning of the Second World War in 1939. The number of translations from Spanish into Czech and Slovak increased significantly and the first book on history of Latin American literature in Czech was published. In the favorable political environment of the second half of the 1960s the Center for Ibero-American Studies was founded at Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague.
Key words: International Relations, Cold War, Foreign Policy of Czechoslovakia in Latin America, Czechoslovakia and Cuba.
