Here you have an article published by Ariel Glaria Enriquez, in Havana Times (Oct. 29, 2016), about the Russian presence in Cuban daily life.

Photo taken by the author. Russian Embassy in Havana.

The 1962 Missile Crisis, which put the world on the brink of a nuclear war, was the prelude to the presence of the Russians in my country for several decades.

However, the USSR’s strategic and political interest in not losing this unexpected ally and their absolute influence on the Caribbean island didn’t become immediate until after the crisis. Their opportunity would come when Cuba officially supported the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Nevertheless, it had been some time since Soviet oil had been flowing into Cuba, Russian canned meats were famous on the island, as were the steel-tipped military boots, automatic Kalashnikov rifles and the complete set of Lenin’s works, which soon became a decorative item in Cuban living rooms. An obvious reference to the leather bound book spines found in bourgeois libraries.

To read the whole article, and have access to the collection of pictures, click here. Also, you can see more pictures on the same topic here.