The Cuban Revolution in light of the key questions of revolution theory

The article examines the Cuban Revolution through the lens of the key issues of revolution theory. Questions of the causes of revolutions, their classification, stages, social base and ideology are still the subject of serious scientific discussions; therefore, the analysis of historical examples does not lose its relevance. The Cuban Revolution is of particular interest in the study of patterns of revolutions because it represents, at first glance, an unusual example among a number of previous revolutions and many that followed. The author insists that the Cuban Revolution is characterized not only by successful technologies of organizing and managing social protest and using radical mass forms of social protest in political struggle, which became popular in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, but also by certain patterns characteristic of the phenomenon of revolutions. The algorithm of the Cuban Revolution and its social base finds similarities with other revolutions, especially the so-called “Third World revolutions” or “Eastern-type revolutions”. The author notes that, on the question of the causes of the revolution, researchers are grouped into two “camps”: (1) the reasons were economic underdevelopment and the poverty of Cubans, (2) other reasons because Cuba was an economically developed state for Latin America with a standard of living that was relatively high for the region. In addition, the key question is whether the factors chosen by researchers are the causes of the revolution or only the causes of the spillover of radical mass forms of social protest (trigger). Moreover, the author considers that the reasons given do not explain satisfactorily the reasons for the rise of social protest and its growth into radical and mass forms. At the same time, the solution of the agrarian issue included in the program of the Cuban Revolution unites it with many other revolutions, both before and after it.

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