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Havana: The Special Period

October 23, 2019 by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

The Special Period (of War) in Time of Peace began in Cuba with the end of the Cold War in 1990. At that time, the nation was abandoned by the Soviet Union. Dire economic circumstances were further complicated by a tightening of US sanctions against the island nation.

In the absence of the Cold War and its sponsors, Havana was forced to look for ways to solve its social and economic challenges without external assistance.

Cuba was not totally unprepared, however. As early as 1986, Cubans were rejecting Soviet models of economic and social planning and were insisting on a return to the core Revolutionary project that spurred social development in the 1960s. You can read more about this period of time here.

While corrections were seen as a necessity and new programs were soon underway, the Period of Rectification (1986-1990) came to an abrupt end with the introduction of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union and the democratization of Eastern Europe.

Because Cuba’s economy was so intertwined with that of the Soviet Union, the impact of change could not be gradual. Rather, it was a shock that permeated every city block and household in Havana.

At the same time, the US tightened sanctions against the island as a whole through first the Helms-Burton Act and later through the Torricelli Act.

The end of the Cold War meant the near total collapse of Cuba’s principal trade agreements with the Soviet Bloc.

As early as the late 1980s, Gorbachev was unwilling and (eventually) unable to fulfill his trade obligations with Cuba.

The economic shock that resulted affected every aspect of Havana’s urban environment.

The absence of imports, especially, threatened the viability of the city’s industrial, transportation, and agricultural infrastructures because, under agreements with the former Soviet Union, Havana had been an oil driven city, insensitive to energy conservation or efficiency.

According to Richard A. Dello Buono

Cuba imported approximately $7.2 billion of goods from the Soviet Union in 1988, mostly oil, machinery, wood, metals, and fertilizer. The Soviet Union, in turn, received some $6.5 billion of Cuban goods, mostly sugar, with nickel and fruit providing the bulk of the remainder. In mid-1990, the Soviet ambassador to Cuba ‘declared that Russia and Cuba are interdependent, indicating that 30% of the Soviet Union’s sugar and 50% of its citrus fruit was coming from Cuba as well as significant amounts of nickel and cobalt, and increasingly, medical services’.

In fact, 98% of all Cuba’s petroleum had come from the Soviet bloc.

In 1988, for example, 12-13 million tons of Soviet oil were imported and, of this total, the Cubans were able to re-export two million tons onto the world market.

In 1989, Cuba was forced to cut the re-exports in half, significantly impacting the country’s ability to generate hard currency and, by 1990, Havana was forced to cut oil re-exports entirely since only 10 of the 13 million tons promised by the Soviets were received.

By the end of 1991, oil imports had fallen still more. Cuba received only 6 million of a promised 13 million tons and, by this time, the shortfall in oil and associated factors began to severely impact the city’s economy.

While oil was critical, other losses were also important since 85% of all exchanges had been with the Soviets.

In terms of exports, 66% of all Cuba’s sugar, 73% of the island’s nickel, and 98% of the country’s citrus fruits had been exported to the Soviet Bloc.

Aside from oil, 66% of the country’s food, 86% of all raw material, and 80% of machinery and spare parts came from Soviet dominated trading partners.

Consequently, when the support was withdrawn, factory closures became common, food scarcity was widespread, and the (already inadequate) technology base began eroding.

Photograph by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.

Filed Under: Havana

Havana (Cuba): A Cold War City No More

May 21, 2019 by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

Note: This will be our last regular post until fall. Over the summer, you can follow @coldwarstudies on Twitter. You can also join the Cold War Studies Facebook community. We’d love to have you. Meanwhile, have a wonderful summer and we’ll see you in September.

By the mid 1980s, Havana was receiving more military assistance from the Soviet Union than ever before. Moreover, the city had mobilized its population for war in response to the Reagan administration’s  increasingly heated rhetoric. Nevertheless, despite a continued willingness to accept the protection of the Soviet nuclear umbrella and massive deliveries of Soviet weapons, Cubans were beginning to express their disgruntlement over the impact of the institutionalization of the 1970s. One Cuban scholar argued that:

By early 1986, there was sufficient evidence to show the problems that arose not only from errors and/or deficiencies in technical operation and control, but from something much deeper, namely, the consolidation of an “ideology of economics” that was associated with a belief in a “socialism of the productive forces.” This ideology, operative for decades in the former Soviet Union and the ex-socialist countries of Eastern Europe, had been assimilated by Cuba in the 1970s, giving rise to a parallel conception of bureaucratic-led development. This ideology was a subversion of socialism and one which in fact later become [sic] defeated, ironically, by the productive forces of world capitalism.

A colleague adds that the period from 1971-1985 saw the “erosion of the most rigorous and original aspects of the Cuban Revolution.” Discussing the “errors” of this period she states”

1984 saw the beginning of the most severe internal criticism concerning this erosion which later culminated in the period of Rectification in 1986 . . . . With regard to the economy there was criticism of the system of economic management . . . . An analysis of obsolete standards governing labor participation was formed and a call was issued for the end of state paternalism.

An interpretation of the problem by a non-Cuban scholar notes that there was:

. . . the creation of imbalances in the Cuban economy by encouraging monoculture sugar production and facilitating the failure of economic diversification and industrialization; the manipulation of Cuban economic dependence to obtain the adoption of Soviet approaches to economic management, organization and planning and the abandonment of a Cuban road to socialism; growing Cuban indebtedness; the extraction of economic benefits through a division of labor; and finally, the economic dominance to cause changes in key policy areas such as revolutionary strategy, to secure diplomatic and ideological support against China, and to gain strategic advantages vis-a-vis America.

Scholars were not the only ones to delineate problems. Ordinary Cubans were also critical. They knew that their salaries didn’t cover their expenses and they were aware of the many inequities in the work place. They noticed when their colleagues “received a full day’s pay for half a day’s work for the state and then spent the afternoon pursuing their private gain at other jobs.” They could see that “managers contracted skilled labor at higher than prescribed wages without subsequently enforcing labor discipline to increase productivity” and they observed that “management regularly inflated prices to meet output in value without regard to the quality of production.” The people were upset and demanded change.

Although there had been important achievements in health, education, and the status of women and blacks, there was consensus among all segments of society for the need to “revitalize the Cuban socialist project by emphasizing the most genuine elements of the Revolution. There was a demand for greater attention to social development and for the political integration of religious believers into the Communist Party.

In response, the government attempted “to redefine its own model based on new guidelines.” This focused on restoring “the original aims of the Revolution seeking the creation of a society where moral values, solidarity, and cooperation can overcome individualism and selfishness as the basic mechanisms that motivate people.” The objective, of course, was a return to the concept of conciencia expounded by Che Guevara in the early years of the Revolution.

Institutional changes were also in evidence. Popular Councils were created in order to increase local participation in politics and there was a 50 percent decrease in the number of government officials. Also, those workers in the lower 10 percent of the labor force received salary increases of 10 to 18 percent. Further, guidelines for management were re-evaluated, and there was the beginning of a process “to make ideological discourse more flexible.”

Overall, the government was responsive to calls for a return to the social project of the Revolution. As evidence, “in Havana alone, 100 children’s centers were opened in 1989; 20 clinics were finished in four years along with 24 special schools and 50 production lines of construction materials for home building under a program that called for 20,000 homes per year.”

The construction program had a dual purpose. In addition to marking a renewed commitment to revolutionary promises regarding adequate housing for every Cuban, the program absorbed much of the surplus labor created by personnel cuts resulting from the new emphasis on efficiency in the workplace. By mid-1989 over 33,000 workers had been placed in micro brigades.

In sum, during the period of Rectification, Cubans, deservedly proud of their strong social achievements, took a critical look at their past relationship with the Soviet Union. They determined to forge a new future which was to build on the accomplishments of the Revolution while providing for the civil defense. In this context, even though Havana still held geostrategic importance for the Soviets, an emphasis on homegrown militarization which had emerged in the early 1980s, along with the rejection of the Soviet economic model and a return to conciencia, meant that the city no longer met Cold War City criteria. Moreover, changes in the Soviet Union beginning in 1986 were to expedite the erosion of even this model, bringing a swift end to the process known as Rectification.

In 1990, Havana entered a challenging era known as The Special Period (of War) in Time of Peace. Subsequently, the regime could no longer focus on social development and the correction of inappropriate policies. Instead, as almost all vestiges of the Cold War were removed from Havana’s urban landscape, the total withdrawal of support by the Soviet bloc led to a struggle for the city’s very survival.

______________________________________________________________

Sources:

Delia Luisa Lopez-Garcia, “Economic Crisis, Adjustments and Democracy in Cuba,” CartaCuba: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Development and Society, Lessons from Cuba’s Special Period, ed. Jose Bell Lara and Richard A. Della Buono (Havana: FLACSO-CUBA, 1995), 29.

Elena Diaz Gonzalez, “The Quality of Life in Cuba’s Special Period: Examining the Impact of U.S. Policies,” CartaCuba: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Development and Society, Lessons from Cuba’s Special Period, ed. Jose Bell Lara and Richard A. Della Buono (Havana: FLACSO-CUBA, 1995), 15.

Kosmas Tokhas, “The Political Economy of Cuba’s Dependence on the Soviet Union,” Theory and Society 9 (1980): 321.

Lois M. Smith and Padula, Alfred. Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 119.

Filed Under: Cuba, Havana

Cold War Havana: UNESCO World Heritage

October 3, 2017 by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

As we saw in our post on Havana’s Urban Slum Areas, substandard housing and shantytowns were of great concern to the Cuban government.

Budgets for maintenance and repair of housing and community facilities increased dramatically as a result of complaints expressed in meeting help periodically between local People’s Power delegates and their constituents, challenging the argument of some that new institutions were not responsive to public demands.

Between 1977 and 1983, local agencies increased their maintenance and repair budgets fivefold. During the same period, the value of materials sold directly to consumers for maintenance, repairs, and to some extent new construction increased tenfold. This was in sharp contrast to the early 1970s when

conserving the existing housing stock help low priority which resulted in a qualitative, functional, and visual deterioration of the central parts of Havana.

The rapid decay and imminent collapse of older sections of the city led to a continued focus on urban development.

In the late 1970s there was a move to protect historic districts. Old Havana became very fashionable as a result of visits by Fidel Castro and foreign gentry. The area was declared a national landmark and greater resources were allocated to its restoration. In fact, as many as six agencies and national commissions emerged to preserve Havana’s built heritage. Thus, the indiscriminate demolition required to implement the Soviet model of urban development did not extend to areas of the city involved in historic preservation. Here, even though officials have encouraged a unique socialist model of rehabilitation, the facade of the historic city remains unchanged.

UNESCO granted Old Havana “world cultural status” in late 1982, further ensuring the protection of Old Havana’s hundreds of landmark buildings. Thousands of other structures in the historic district have subsequently fallen under this protective umbrella.

By the mid 1980s, investment required for rehabilitation Havana was estimated at between $10 and $14 billion, a staggering amount since most of Havana lacks revenue-generating mechanisms. Instead the city receives

its budget and material resources from the national budget which is usually approved, with very few changes, at the end of the year by the National Assembly. The city also receives a corresponding amount of revenue from its 15 municipalities. Revenue cannot be readjusted nor directed to other areas except when it is explicitly stated by the national government . . . . Fixed budgets designated for city and municipal governments in Cuba have always fallen well below the needs of those entities.

One exception is the restoration project of the historic center of Habana Vieja (Old Havana), under the management of the Office of the City Historian. That office has a special company, Habanaguex, that turns profits on several businesses that operate in Habana Vieja.

For a short time in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Old Havana reactivated its functional role as the historic and artistic center of the capital.

The memorable ‘Saturdays in the plaza’ entailed the authorized selling of artwork and handicrafts by talented artists in two improvised markets located in the Plaza de Armas and Plaza de la Catedral. Within a short time, however, the craft fair was abruptly shut down by the government because of ‘illicit enrichment’ on the part of the artisans and craftpersons.

Unfortunately, the curtailment of activity in the old city had further ramifications. It meant a gradual loss of the old building trades which were responsible for high levels of craftsmanship.

Not only did masons, stone cutters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and bricklayers disappear, but a whole generation of young apprentices was interrupted, creating a huge gap in the transfer of traditional building techniques.

 

Filed Under: Havana

Cold War Havana: Urban Slum Areas

August 2, 2017 by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

The attention of Havana’s planners in the  early 1970s turned to urban slum areas.

The inner city had suffered considerable decay in the 1960s and much of Havana’s housing stock was in substandard condition.

One such area was Cayo Hueso, a neighborhood bordering the downtown commercial area of Centro Havana where Cuba’s first major urban development project took place. This area was composed of old rundown buildings that lacked the historic value of those of Old Havana.

The project was ambitious. The first buildings were five story walk-ups, but later twelve to sixteen story towers were erected when high-rise construction was deemed necessary to allow decent sized  units for each family as well as provide additional open space and needed community facilities.

In all areas of the city, housing deterioration often resulted in displacement, especially in cases of emergency removal from hazardous buildings. Since families had to be relocated before demolition and rebuilding could begin, progress was slow.

As the 1970s progressed, “the number of families living in shelters for such reasons reached crisis proportions.” Fewer and fewer relocation units were available as emigration slowed markedly throughout the decade.

When the outflow picked up again in 1980, vacated dwellings were allocated (with local CDR approval) to people living in shelters.

After 1976, a sizable share of construction went to Havana where land scarcity discouraged extensive private building and the government assumed major responsibility for providing housing to promote high densities.

Subsequently the role of the microbrigades was called into question when housing analysts observed that the majority of new units were still privately built.

At about the same time, the establishment of local units of People’s Power, poder popular,  came into existence.

When these units were assigned the task of distributing construction materials allowed by the central government, public involvement in housing decisions became more widespread.

Despite concerted effort, however, by 1985, 61 shantytowns remained in Havana and a substantial number of people lived in substandard buildings threatened by collapse.

Filed Under: Havana

HAVANA BEFORE THE COLD WAR

April 25, 2013 by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe

Centro Havana

With a population of 935,650 inhabitants, 1945 Havana covered an area of 724 square kilometers.

The city was composed of six counties or municipios: La Habana, Marianao, Regla, Guanabacoa, Santa Maria del Rosario, and Santiago de las Vegas.

The six municipios had quite different characteristics. Like most cities in the developing world, post World War II Havana reflected several divisions.

  • First, the city demonstrated the vast differences in quality of life which separated the Third World from the more advanced industrialized nations.
  • Second, the city flaunted its position as the primate city of Cuba, revealing vast discrepancies between life in urban versus rural areas of the country.
  • Finally, inside its boundaries, the city exhibited a variety of internal divisions which could be observed within the various municipios.

La Habana contained the colonial core known as La Habana Vieja (Old Havana), as well as the main shopping district, Centro Havana, with its elegant 19th century promenade. It also included the working-class industrial areas of Cerro and Diez de Octubre and, in contrast, the neighborhood of Vedado which housed the 20th century hotel and entertainment district.

Marianao contained Havana’s most fashionable residential suburbs  prior to the 1959 revolution while Guanabacoa and Santa Maria del Rosario were old colonial towns.

Santiago de las Vegas was more sparsely populated, while the small municipio of Regla was home to many followers of the Afro-Cuban religion, santeria. Long before the 1959 revolution, Regla was known for its revolutionary traditions.

Havana was  home to both the privileged and the marginalized, reflecting both Las Vegas style glamor and the struggle of hardworking residents.

Social divisions were exacerbated by geographical divisions.

The older and more densely populated sectors of Havana were separated from the more affluent and suburban areas of the city by the Almendares River.

The prosperous suburbs west of the Almendares were in close proximity to Camp Columbus, the military installation designed and funded by the United States. The camp dominated and protected the city’s moneyed periphery.

Havana was greatly affected by World War II. At its outbreak, Cuba was considered almost a territory of the United States.

The island’s participation in the war on the side of the Allies served to further solidify the relationship, facilitating trade agreements as well as loan and credit programs between the two countries.

In 1941, the US and Cuba signed a lend-lease agreement whereby Cuba received arms shipments in exchange for expanded North American use of Cuban military facilities.

Wartime agreements, however, did not bring prosperity to Cuba or to its capital city Havana. Instead, many sectors of the economy suffered and shortages were widespread. This was due, in part, to restricted trade with Europe resulting from hazards associated with trans-Atlantic shipping.

Cuban exports to Great Britain and Spain declined, those with Germany and Italy ended altogether and, after the German occupation of France in 1941, Cuba lost the French market.

The cigar industry suffered the most, and many of Havana’s cigar factories were forced to close.

A lack of steel and iron disrupted the construction industry, causing widespread unemployment in the building trades.

Tourism declined markedly from 127,000 visitors in 1940 to 12,000 in 1943. Many hotels were forced to close and restaurants greatly reduced their services.

On the other hand, railroad traffic increased when the threat of German submarines forced sugar producers to haul their sugar by rail to Havana. From there, the product was shipped under convoy to the United States where it sold for below market prices.

Surprisingly, wages rose during wartime. Nevertheless, prices rose more quickly and the tax structure changed as new taxes were imposed and old ones were raised. As conditions worsened, by the mid 1940s,  public office offered the greatest opportunity for individual enrichment. According to Louis A. Perez, Jr.,  “embezzlement, graft, corruption, and malfeasance of public office “permeating every aspect of municipal government.”

By war’s end, Havana was disheartened and demoralized.

 

Filed Under: Havana

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A Cold War historian, Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Politics from New York University and a MS in Policy Analysis and Public Management from SUNY Stony Brook.

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