In 1990 when the Soviet Union was finally revealed as a system which was essentially rotted out, the economy of it and many of its allies was decimated. For countries that relied on the previously booming economy, there was nothing. Cuba, a country located half a world away, was hit extremely hard, and it saw staggering losses in imports and exports. Upon entering a severe economic crisis, the Cuban population and Castro’s revolution would begin to face its toughest test yet.
Its very name speaks a lot about the image Castro was trying to convey. ‘The Special Period in Time of Peace’ has a much nicer ring to it than ‘depression,’ ‘economic meltdown,’ ‘loss of world-wide financial stability’ or another, more accurate term which could have been applied. The new polices set forth were rigid, and meant to save resources by cutting Cuba back to the level of a third-world country. The most important thing this period did, however, was test the true principles of the Castro’s regime.
During the mid-1990s, Castro expressed his biggest concern was the idea of ‘Zero Option,’ or, a state in which Cuba is isolated from the rest of the world as a result of an increased embargo. Cuba needed to make it more attractive through exports. To do this, Cuba’s long-held back sectors of production, thanks to the Soviet comfort zone of trade, needed to catch up to the present times. Implementing ventures in the tourist sector, re-organizing the economy, and trying to compete in outside markets became the forefront of the revolution, for the very first time. The overarching situation is perhaps best put by Balfour: “the historical role which Castro had assigned Cubans of standing up to the United States was difficult to sustain when they were going hungry.”
Castro’s test during this period was no different than it had been in years past. The important thing the Special Period tells United States is his staunch ideal to stick by socialism. Within the confines of the current economic situation, Castro was allowed to bend the economy with special ‘war-time’ powers he had granted. He always covered his tracks. Most importantly, he continued to give speeches and stuck by his “slogan, ‘Socialism or Death’ [which] he first coined at the beginning of 1989 on the thirtieth anniversary of the Revolution.” As early as that year, Castro was bolstering the credibility of his party. Where the Soviets had installed Glasnost, Castro was lining up his people behind him and creating trust amid disaster.
The Revolution’s spark may have been lost on a generation of young Cubans and an increasingly more distant group of African and Latin American countries which Cuba had aided in the past, but in Castro it still burnt bright. Even in their situation as a backwards country that had relied on Soviet support, Cuba still faced being left out of the massive advances in trade during the 1990s, as well as facing a barrage of harmful policy, such as the Helms-Burton Act, from the United States.
As part of the bigger picture, the Special Period was an experiment by Cuba to sustain a failed economic system through a period of intense hardship. The fall of the Soviet Union marked the end of an era. No longer was there a choice between economic systems, the day of judgment had come for those who had chosen state-controlled economies. The reason for the failure of the Cuban system was only partly its own fault. With no where else to turn, staring down the barrel of a massive economic super power to the north, Castro stuck to his anti-Capitalist guns and allied with the alternative.
By the 1990s, with the Soviet Union out of the picture, the United States and other anti-socialist arenas were able to focus on elbowing out of countries, especially Cuba, from world trade. Capitalism had become the dominant force in the world and the way to prosperity for so many, yet Cuba would not embrace it. Partly due to the unflinching ideologies of Fidel Castro who faced tantalizing opposition from within his own party and from outside economic giants.
With this said the Special Period is an experiment which has not yet been repeated. Like any experiment, it must be tired time and time again to gain real results. In order for it to be proved as a good or bad thing for the Cuban people, it needs to be tried again. Other countries must be stripped of their support so rapidly, that it causes a need for action. A possible example could be the failure of capitalism due to any number of factors, such as massive layoffs, increased industrialization, or a shortage of commodities. Cuba’s tenacity and stubbornness during the Special Period could be seen as foolish, but its failures and successes cannot be measured until the future.
Does socialism actually work? Does maintaining a failed economic policy through crisis serve the common good? Can a country survive massive blows to its economic infrastructure and move forward without massive political changes? So far, Cuba has been able to prove that molding socialist economy to fit its needs, maintaining its core values, and keeping Castro in power has sustained it. Part of the answer is that the Special Period was a preservation of Cuba’s political, social, and economic ways during a time of great adverseness. More instances will arise in the future on a similar scale to Cuba and will shed more light on what exactly the Special Period was.
