ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the intangible memories and narratives maintained by people living in the countryside or in the small communities surrounding the former Soviet nuclear missile bases. The chapter examines some of the overall themes of the memories and narratives, as well as a number of interviews with people who experienced the crisis and had firsthand contact with the Soviet soldiers. It is stressed that a more human dimension can be found in these testimonies than in the dominant narrative of the crisis, because they demonstrate that there existed humane and intense contacts between people in the Cuban countryside and the Soviet soldiers in October 1962, and in some cases also after the crisis—contacts where people from different parts of the world exchanged their fears, hopes and dreams concerning the future.