On the brink of annihilation

The Cuban revolution began in 1956, ended in 1959 with the overthrow of the dictatorial rule of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro became the Prime Minister. In 1960 the government nationalized the economy and the country was abandoned by Castro's opponents.

A communist state appeared in the immediate vicinity of the United States. US President John F. Kennedy tried to overthrow Castro, but the CIA operation in the Gulf of Pigs in 1961 failed. A year later, the USSR deployed ballistic missiles in Cuba, which could have reached the US territory. The world was on the verge of a nuclear war. A rehearsal of nerves between Kennedy and Khrushchev ended in a backward step on the part of the communists, and the Soviet leader himself lost support in his party. In 1964 Leonid Brezhnev took over power in the USSR.