ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the various claims of the Sovietization of Cuba thesis. It examines the character and some of the consequences of post-1970 Cuba's economic relationship to the Soviet bloc. The chapter explores whether the notion of Sovietization adequately explains Cuba's domestic course after 1970. The Sovietization of Cuba thesis has informed the analyses of many Cuba scholars, as well as the political statements of cold war ideologues. Opponents of the Revolution raised the spector of Sovietization almost from the beginning, but such warnings subsided in the late 1960s as the Cuban Revolution began to chart a defiantly independent course. A great deal of controversy has surrounded the question of the actual size of the Soviet subsidy to the Cuban economy contained in the agreements, especially the indexing agreement. According to Mesa-Lago, since 1970 Soviet-style institutions and practices have been imposed on Cuban society, and the Cuban system has been thoroughly "Sovietized.".
