But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's main trading partner, life on the island became very difficult for everyone. Relations between President Castro and the leaders of the Soviet Union had always been turbulent to say the least. The negotiations between President Nikita Khrushchev and President John Kennedy over the Cuban Missile Crisis left a dark stain on Soviet-Cuban relations. President Castro did not figure into the final equation at all, even though it was his country that was being haggled over.
President Castro had often sent letters of criticism to them about being chaperoned everywhere he went while visiting the Soviet Union. His complaints went further as well, discussing petty egos and jealousies that interfered with the official conduct between both nations. There were also many disputes over the method and operation of the Cuban government, something that President Castro insisted was Cuba's alone and the Soviet Union had no right to interfere.
But when the Soviet Union finally broke apart, the environmental malaise of a system that had been more covert than overt shocked the world. The ecological disasters that were uncovered shocked both Western and Eastern bloc countries. Perhaps the vastness of the Soviet territory helped hide these anomalies, but either way, they were little known or understood prior to 1991 [and here I must disagree with Fidel. I could see the disasters when I was living in Europe in the late 1970s. Even Western countries like Germany and Spain had disgusting looking harbors and obvious ecological damage. The few TV reports coming from the Eastern bloc countries showed things much worse. There was little new news after 1991, just greater visibility of reality].
While the Soviet Union showed its temerity and ingenuity during WWII by taking entire factories and uprooting them, then placing them elsewhere right in the snow, often with no roof over their heads, and starting back up, their general knowledge and expertise lagged behind the West by quite a bit. The Soviets didn't lack for natural resources and raw material, but they didn't know how best to utilize that which they had in abundance.
The collapse of the Soviet Union accelerated in the 1980s and was helped, either purposefully or not, by the Spanish head of state, President Felipe Gonzà ¡lez, who was also head of the Socialist Party of Spain. When President Castro received a letter from President Gorbachev concerning the advice he was following from President Gonzà ¡lez, he knew that Soviet Socialism had been set back 100 years.
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