Caribbean crisis causes progress outcomes. Caribbean crisis

Caribbean crisis

On October 28, 1962, the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev announced the dismantling of Soviet missiles in Cuba - the Cuban Missile Crisis ended.

Fidel Castro takes office as prime minister

On January 1, 1959, the revolution won in Cuba. Civil War, which lasted from July 26, 1953, ended with the flight from the island of the dictator Fulgencio Batista y Saldivara

and the coming to power of the July 26 Movement, led by 32-year-old Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, who entered Havana on January 8 on a captured tank sherman just as General Leclerc entered liberated Paris in August 1944.

At first, Cuba did not have close relations with the Soviet Union. During his struggle with the Batista regime in the 1950s, Castro approached us several times for military assistance, but was consistently refused. Fidel made his first foreign visit after the victory of the revolution to the United States, but then President Eisenhower refused to meet with him. Of course, Eisenhower would have done the same with Batista - Cuba had to know its place. But, unlike Batista - the son of a soldier and a prostitute - the noble Fidel Angelevich Castro, who came from a family of wealthy latifundists who owned sugar plantations in the province of Oriente, was not the kind of person who could simply swallow this insult. In response to Eisenhower's trick, Fidel staged an undeclared war on American capital: the telephone and electric companies, oil refineries, and 36 largest sugar factories owned by US citizens were nationalized.

The answer was not long in coming: the Americans stopped supplying oil to Cuba and buying sugar from it, spitting on the long-term purchase agreement that was still in force. Such steps put Cuba in a very difficult position.

By that time, the Cuban government had already established diplomatic relations with the USSR, and it turned to Moscow for help. In response to a request, the USSR sent tankers with oil and organized the purchase of Cuban sugar.

Realizing that Cuba was getting out of control, the Americans decided to act militarily, and on the night of April 17 they landed in the Bay of Pigs the so-called brigade 2506, which consisted of Batista's supporters who had dug in in the United States.

Before that, for two days, American aircraft bombed the locations of Cuban troops. but knowing that the barracks are empty, and the tanks and planes have already been replaced with mock-ups.

At dawn, the Cuban government aircraft, which the Americans could not destroy by bombing, inflicted several blows on the landing forces and were able to sink four emigrant transports, including the Houston, on which the Rio Escondido infantry battalion was in full force, transporting most of the ammunition and heavy weapons of the 2506 brigade. By the middle of the day on April 17, the offensive of the paratroopers was stopped by the superior forces of the Cuban government, and on April 19, the 2506 brigade capitulated.

prisoners from the brigade 2506

The Cuban people rejoiced at the victory, but Castro understood that this was only the beginning - from day to day one should have expected the open entry of the US army into the war.

By the beginning of the 60s, the Americans were completely insolent - their U-2 scouts flew wherever they wanted, until one of them was shot down by a Soviet missile over the Sverdlovsk region. And in 1961 they went so far as to place their missiles in Turkey PGM-19 Jupiter with a range of 2400 km, directly threatening cities in the western part of the Soviet Union, reaching as far as Moscow and the main industrial centers. Another advantage of medium-range missiles is their short flight time - less than 10 minutes.

PGM-19 "Jupiter" at the starting position

America had every reason to be impudent: the Americans were armed with approximately 183 Atlas and Titan ICBMs. In addition, in 1962, the United States was armed with 1,595 bombers capable of delivering about 3,000 nuclear charges to the territory of the USSR.

B-52 “Stratofortress”

The Soviet leadership was extremely concerned about the presence of 15 missiles in Turkey, but could not do anything. But then one day, when Khrushchev, while on vacation, was walking with Mikoyan along the Crimean coast, he came up with the idea to put a hedgehog in America's pants.

Military experts have confirmed that it is possible to effectively achieve some nuclear parity by deploying missiles in Cuba. Soviet medium-range R-14 missiles stationed on Cuban territory, with a range of up to 4,000 km, could keep Washington and about half of the air bases of US Air Force strategic bombers at gunpoint with a flight time of less than 20 minutes.

R-14 (8K65) / R-14U (8K65U)
R-14
SS-5 (Skean)

km
starting weight, t
payload mass, kg	before 2155
Mass of fuel t
rocket length, m
rocket diameter, m
head type	Monoblock, nuclear

On May 20, 1962, Khrushchev held a meeting in the Kremlin with Foreign Minister Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko and the Minister of Defense Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky,

during which he outlined his idea to them: in response to Fidel Castro's constant requests to increase the Soviet military presence in Cuba, place nuclear weapons on the island. On May 21, at a meeting of the Defense Council, he raised this issue for discussion. Most of all Mikoyan was against such a decision, however, in the end, members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, who were members of the Defense Council, supported Khrushchev. The Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs were instructed to organize covert movement of troops and military equipment by sea to Cuba. Due to the special haste, the plan was adopted without approval - implementation began immediately after obtaining Castro's consent.

On May 28, a Soviet delegation flew from Moscow to Havana, consisting of the USSR Ambassador Alekseev, Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces Marshal Sergei Biryuzov,

Sergei Semyonovich Biryuzov

Colonel General Semyon Pavlovich Ivanov, as well as the head of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Sharaf Rashidov. On May 29, they met with Fidel Castro and his brother Raul and outlined to them the proposal of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Fidel asked for a day to negotiate with his closest associates.

Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara

It is known that on May 30 he had a conversation with Ernesto Che Guevara, but nothing is known about the essence of this conversation.

Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro Ruz

On the same day, Castro gave a positive answer to the Soviet delegates. It was decided that Raul Castro would visit Moscow in July to clarify all the details.

The plan envisaged the deployment of two types of ballistic missiles in Cuba - R-12 with a range of about 2000 km and R-14 with a range twice that. Both types of missiles were equipped with 1 Mt nuclear warheads.

Intermediate range ballistic missile
R-12 (8K63) / R-12U (8K63U) R-12 SS-4 (Sandal)

Tactical and technical characteristics
Maximum firing range, km
starting weight, t
payload mass, kg
Mass of fuel t
rocket length, m
rocket diameter, m
head type	Monoblock, nuclear

Malinovsky also specified that the armed forces will deploy 24 R-12 medium-range missiles and 16 R-14 intermediate-range missiles and leave half of the number of missiles of each type in reserve. It was supposed to remove 40 missiles from positions in Ukraine and in the European part of Russia. After the installation of these missiles in Cuba, the number of Soviet nuclear missiles capable of reaching US territory doubled.

It was supposed to send a group of Soviet troops to Cuba, which was supposed to concentrate around five divisions of nuclear missiles (three R-12s and two R-14s). In addition to missiles, the group also included a Mi-4 helicopter regiment, four motorized rifle regiments, two tank battalions, a MiG-21 squadron, 42 Il-28 light bombers, 2 units of cruise missiles with 12 Kt nuclear warheads with a range of 160 km, several batteries of anti-aircraft guns, as well as 12 S-75 installations (144 missiles). Each motorized rifle regiment consisted of 2,500 people, tank battalions were equipped with tanks T-55 .

In early August, the first ships arrived in Cuba. On the night of September 8, the first batch of medium-range ballistic missiles was unloaded in Havana, the second batch arrived on September 16.

missile ships

The headquarters of the GSVK is located in Havana. Battalions of ballistic missiles deployed in the west of the island - near the village of San Cristobal and in the center of Cuba - near the port of Casilda. The main troops were concentrated around the missiles in the western part of the island, but several cruise missiles and a motorized rifle regiment were transferred to the east of Cuba - a hundred kilometers from the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. By October 14, 1962, all 40 missiles and most of the equipment had been delivered to Cuba.

On October 14, 1962, a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft of the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, piloted by Major Richard Heizer, photographed the positions of Soviet missiles. In the evening of the same day, this information was brought to the attention of the top military leadership of the United States. On the morning of October 16 at 8:45 a.m., the photographs were shown to the president.

US President John F. Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

After receiving photographs showing Soviet missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy called a special group of advisers to a secret meeting at the White House. This 14-member group, which later became known as the "Executive Committee" of EXCOMM. The committee consisted of members of the US National Security Council and several specially invited advisers. Soon the committee proposed to the president three possible options resolve the situation: destroy missiles with pinpoint strikes, conduct a full-scale military operation in Cuba, or impose a naval blockade of the island. The military proposed an invasion, and soon the deployment of troops to Florida began, and the Air Force Strategic Command relocated B-47 Stratojet medium-range bombers to civilian airports and put the fleet of B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers on constant patrol.

On October 22, Kennedy declared a naval blockade of Cuba in the form of a 500 nautical mile (926 km) quarantine zone around the coast of the island. The blockade went into effect on October 24 at 10:00.

180 ships of the US Navy surrounded Cuba with clear orders not to open fire on Soviet ships in any case without a personal order from the president. By this time, 30 ships and vessels were going to Cuba, including Aleksandrovsk with a cargo of nuclear warheads and 4 ships carrying missiles for two IRBM divisions. In addition, 4 diesel submarines were approaching the Island of Freedom, accompanying the ships. On board the "Alexandrovsk" were 24 warheads for the IRBM and 44 for cruise missiles. Khrushchev decided that submarines and four ships with R-14 missiles - "Artemyevsk", "Nikolaev", "Dubna" and "Divnogorsk" - should continue to follow the same course. In an effort to minimize the possibility of collision Soviet ships with the American ones, the Soviet leadership decided to deploy the rest of the ships that did not have time to get to Cuba home. At the same time, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU decided to put the armed forces of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact countries on high alert. All layoffs have been cancelled. Conscripts preparing for demobilization are ordered to remain at their duty stations until further notice. Khrushchev sent an encouraging letter to Castro, assuring him of the unshakable position of the USSR under any circumstances.

On October 24, Khrushchev learned that Aleksandrovsk had reached Cuba safely. At the same time, he received a short telegram from Kennedy, in which he called on Khrushchev to "show prudence" and "observe the conditions of the blockade." The Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU gathered for a meeting to discuss the official response to the introduction of the blockade. On the same day, Khrushchev sent a letter to the US President, in which he accused him of setting "ultimatum conditions." Khrushchev called the blockade "an act of aggression pushing humanity towards the abyss of a world nuclear missile war." In a letter, the First Secretary warned Kennedy that "the captains of Soviet ships will not comply with the orders of the American Navy" and that "if the United States does not stop its piracy, the government of the USSR will take any measures to ensure the safety of the ships."

In response to Khrushchev's message, the Kremlin received a letter from Kennedy, in which he pointed out that the Soviet side had broken its promises regarding Cuba and misled him. This time, Khrushchev decided not to go for a confrontation and began to look for possible ways out of the current situation. He announced to the members of the Presidium that "it is impossible to store missiles in Cuba without going to war with the United States." At the meeting, it was decided to offer the Americans to dismantle the missiles in exchange for US guarantees to stop trying to change the state regime in Cuba. Brezhnev, Kosygin, Kozlov, Mikoyan, Ponomarev and Suslov supported Khrushchev. Gromyko and Malinovsky abstained from voting.

On the morning of October 26, Khrushchev set to work drafting a new, less bellicose message to Kennedy. In a letter, he offered the Americans the option of dismantling the installed missiles and returning them to the USSR. In exchange, he demanded guarantees that "the United States will not invade Cuba with its troops and will not support any other forces that would intend to invade Cuba." He ended the letter with the famous phrase "You and I should not now pull the ends of the rope on which you tied the knot of war." Khrushchev wrote this letter alone, without gathering the Presidium. Later, in Washington, there was a version that Khrushchev did not write the second letter, and that a coup d'état might have taken place in the USSR. Others believed that Khrushchev, on the contrary, was looking for help in the fight against hardliners in the ranks of the leadership of the Soviet Armed Forces. The letter arrived at the White House at 10 am. Another condition was conveyed in an open radio address on the morning of October 27, calling for the withdrawal of American missiles from Turkey, in addition to the requirements specified in the letter.

On Friday, October 26, at 13:00 Washington time, a message was received from ABC News reporter John Scali that he had been approached with a meeting proposal by Alexander Fomin, the KGB resident in Washington. The meeting took place at the Occidental restaurant. Fomin expressed concern about the escalating tensions and suggested that Scali approach his "high-ranking friends in the State Department" with a proposal to find a diplomatic solution. Fomin conveyed an unofficial offer from the Soviet leadership to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for refusing to invade Cuba.
The American leadership responded to this proposal by conveying to Fidel Castro through the Brazilian embassy that in the event of the withdrawal of offensive weapons from Cuba, "an invasion would be unlikely."

Meanwhile, in Havana, the political situation escalated to the limit. Castro became aware of the new position of the Soviet Union, and he immediately went to the Soviet embassy. Comandante decided to write a letter to Khrushchev to push him to take more decisive action. Even before Castro had finished the letter and sent it to the Kremlin, the head of the KGB station in Havana informed the First Secretary of the essence of Comandante's message: "According to Fidel Castro, intervention is almost inevitable and will take place in the next 24-72 hours." At the same time, Malinovsky received a report from the commander of the Soviet troops in Cuba, General I. A. Pliev, about the increased activity of American strategic aviation in the Caribbean. Both messages were delivered to Khrushchev's office in the Kremlin at 12 noon, Saturday, October 27th.

Issa Alexandrovich Pliev

It was 5 pm in Moscow when a tropical storm raged in Cuba. One of the air defense units received a message that an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was seen approaching Guantanamo Bay.

The chief of staff of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division, Captain Antonets, called Pliev's headquarters for instructions, but he was not there. Major General Leonid Garbuz, deputy commander of the GSVK for combat training, ordered the captain to wait for Pliev to appear. A few minutes later, Antonets called the headquarters again - no one picked up the phone. When U-2 was already over Cuba, Garbuz himself ran to the headquarters and, without waiting for Pliev, gave the order to destroy the plane. According to other sources, the order to destroy the reconnaissance aircraft could have been given by Pliev's deputy for air defense, Lieutenant General of Aviation Stepan Grechko, or the commander of the 27th Air Defense Division, Colonel Georgy Voronkov. The launch took place at 10:22 local time. U-2 was shot down.

wreckage of U-2

The pilot of the spy plane, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed.

Rudolf Andersen

On the night of October 27-28, on the instructions of the president, his brother Robert Kennedy met with the Soviet ambassador in the building of the Ministry of Justice. Kennedy shared with Dobrynin the president's fears that "the situation is about to get out of hand and threaten to give rise to a chain reaction."

Robert Kennedy said that his brother was ready to give guarantees of non-aggression and the speedy lifting of the blockade from Cuba. Dobrynin asked Kennedy about the missiles in Turkey. "If this is the only obstacle to reaching the settlement mentioned above, then the president sees no insurmountable difficulties in resolving the issue," Kennedy replied. According to then US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, from a military point of view, Jupiter missiles were outdated, but during private negotiations, Turkey and NATO strongly opposed the inclusion of such a clause in a formal agreement with the Soviet Union, as this would be a manifestation of US weakness and would put questioned US guarantees for the protection of Turkey and NATO countries.

The next morning, a message came to the Kremlin from Kennedy stating: “1) You agree to withdraw your weapons systems from Cuba under the appropriate supervision of UN representatives, and also to take steps, subject to appropriate security measures, to

stopping the supply of the same weapons systems to Cuba. 2) We, for our part, will agree - provided that a system of adequate measures is created with the help of the UN to ensure the fulfillment of these obligations - a) quickly lift the blockade measures introduced at the moment and b) give guarantees of non-aggression against Cuba. I am sure that other states of the Western Hemisphere will be ready to do the same.”
At noon, Khrushchev gathered the Presidium at his dacha in Novo-Ogaryovo. At the meeting, a letter from Washington was being discussed, when a man entered the hall and asked Khrushchev's assistant Oleg Troyanovsky to answer the phone: Dobrynin was calling from Washington. He conveyed to Troyanovsky the essence of his conversation with Robert Kennedy and expressed his fear that the US President was under strong pressure from Pentagon officials. Dobrynin transmitted word for word the words of the brother of the President of the United States: “We must receive an answer from the Kremlin today, on Sunday. There is very little time left to resolve the problem.” Troyanovsky returned to the hall and read out to the audience what he managed to write down in his notebook while listening to Dobrynin's report. Khrushchev immediately invited the stenographer and began to dictate consent. He also dictated two confidential letters personally to Kennedy. In one, he confirmed the fact that Robert Kennedy's message reached Moscow. In the second, that he regards this message as an agreement to the USSR's condition for the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba - to remove missiles from Turkey.
Fearing any "surprises" and disruption of negotiations, Khrushchev forbade Pliev to use anti-aircraft weapons against American aircraft. He also ordered the return to airfields of all Soviet aircraft patrolling the Caribbean. For greater certainty, it was decided to broadcast the first letter on the radio so that it would reach Washington as soon as possible. An hour before the broadcast of Nikita Khrushchev's message, Malinovsky sent Pliev an order to begin dismantling the R-12 launch pads.
The dismantling of Soviet rocket launchers, their loading onto ships and their withdrawal from Cuba took 3 weeks.

Chronicle of the operation "Anadyr"

On the deployment of strategic nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba

April 1962 Nikita Khrushchev expresses the idea of ​​deploying strategic missiles on the island of Cuba.

May 20. At an expanded meeting of the Defense Council, which is attended by the entire Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee, the secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee, and the leadership of the USSR Ministry of Defense, a decision was made to prepare for the creation of a Group of Soviet Forces on the Island of Cuba (GSVK).

May 24th. The Minister of Defense presents to the country's leadership a plan for the creation of the GSVK. The operation is called Anadyr.

May 27th. To agree with the Cuban leadership on the deployment of Soviet strategic missiles, a delegation headed by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, Sh. Rashidov, flew to Cuba. The military part of the delegation was headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Biryuzov.

June 13th. The directive of the Minister of Defense of the USSR on the preparation and redeployment of units and formations of all types and branches of the Armed Forces is issued.

June 14th. The directive of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces defines the tasks for the formation of the 51st Missile Division (RD) to participate in the Anadyr operation.

July 1. The personnel of the Directorate of the 51st RD begin to fulfill their duties in the new states.

5'th of July. The directive of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces defines specific measures to prepare the 51st RD for redeployment abroad.

July, 12. A reconnaissance group led by the commander of the 51st RD, Major General I. Statsenko, arrives in Cuba.

August 10. The loading of the first train echelon in the regiment of Colonel I. Sidorov begins for the redeployment of the division to Cuba.

9th of September. With the arrival of the ship "Omsk" in the port of Kasilda, the concentration of the division on the island begins. This flight delivers the first six missiles.

The 4th of October. The diesel-electric ship "Indigirka" delivers nuclear munitions for R-12 missiles to the port of Mariel.

October 14. American intelligence, based on aerial photography, concludes that there are Soviet missiles in Cuba.

October 23. Martial law has been declared in the Republic of Cuba. The military units of the 51st Soviet missile division were put on high alert. Combat packages with flight missions and combat orders for launching missiles were delivered to the command post. The ship "Aleksandrovsk" arrives at the port of La Isabela with warheads for R-14 missiles. In the USSR, by decision of the government, the dismissal of servicemen to the reserve was suspended and planned holidays were stopped.

October 24th. The commander of the missile division decides to prepare new positional areas in order to perform a maneuver. An order was given to disperse equipment in positional areas.

the 25th of October. The missile regiment of Colonel N. Bandilovsky and the 2nd division of the regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Yu. Solovyov were put on alert.

October 26th. In order to reduce the time for preparing the first salvo of missiles, warheads from the group warehouse were transferred to the position area of ​​the regiment of Colonel I. Sidorov. The 1st division of the regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Yu. Solovyov was put on alert and fully completed the check of the missile ammunition. US Air Force spy plane shot down over Cuba.

28 of October. The directive of the Minister of Defense of the USSR on the dismantling of starting positions and the redeployment of the division in the USSR is brought to the attention of the commander of the RD.

Nov. 1. The directive of the Minister of Defense of the USSR is issued, which determines the procedure for sending strategic missiles to the Soviet Union.

November 5. Motor ship "Divnogorsk" leaves the port of Mariel with the first four missiles on board.

November 9. Motor ship "Leninsky Komsomol" from the island of Cuba transports the last eight missiles.

October 1, 1963. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the participants in the Anadyr operation were awarded orders and medals of the USSR for skillful actions during the period of fulfilling a particularly important government task to protect the gains of the Cuban revolution.

Convinced that the Soviet Union had removed the missiles, President Kennedy on November 20 gave the order to end the blockade of Cuba. A few months later, American missiles were also withdrawn from Turkey.

The events of 1962 associated with the deployment and subsequent evacuation of Soviet ballistic missiles on the island of Cuba are commonly called the "Caribbean Crisis", since the island of Cuba is located in the Caribbean Sea.

The end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s was a time of growing hostility between the USSR and the USA. The Caribbean crisis was preceded by such events as the Korean War of 1950-53, where American and Soviet aviation met in open battle, the Berlin Crisis of 1956, and mutinies in Hungary and Poland, suppressed by Soviet troops.

These years were marked by growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the Second World War they were allies, but immediately after the war everything changed. The United States began to claim the role of "defender of the free world from the communist threat", and the so-called "cold war" was proclaimed - i.e. a unified policy of the developed capitalist states to counteract the spread of communist ideas.

In fairness, it should be noted that many of the accusations against the Soviet Union, which were put forward by Western democracy, were justified. The USSR, as a state, was essentially a dictatorship of the party bureaucracy; democratic freedoms were completely absent there; a policy of cruel repressions was pursued against those dissatisfied with the regime.

But it is also necessary to take into account the fact that in addition to the struggle against the cruel political regime that existed in our country at that time, there was a struggle for geopolitical goals, since the USSR was the largest European country in terms of raw materials reserves, territory, population. It was undoubtedly a major power in size, despite all its shortcomings. He challenged the US as a serious opponent - a heavyweight in the European ring. It was about who will be the main country in Europe, on whose opinion everything depends, and who is the main one in Europe is the main one in the world.

The United States cared little for economic rivalry with the Soviet Union. The economy of the USSR was a very modest part of the European and even more American. The technical backlog was very great. Despite the rather high pace of development, it had no chance of becoming a serious competitor to the United States and Western Europe in the world market.

After 1945, the United States became the “workshop of the world”. They also became the World Bank and the international police to maintain order in devastated Europe. The new European order after the World War meant tolerance, humanism, reconciliation and, of course, extensive state assistance and protection to all citizens, regardless of their national or class origin. That is why he met with the understanding and support of the majority of the population.

The Soviet model assumed class-based repression, restriction of cultural and economic freedoms, and the introduction of a backward economic system of the Asian type, completely unacceptable for Europe. This model could not win the sympathy of the Europeans. Of course, the victory of the USSR in the war against fascist Germany aroused great interest and sympathy for the Russian people in the world and in Europe, but these sentiments quickly ended, and especially quickly in those countries of Eastern Europe where communist regimes came to power with the support of the USSR.

Much more Western politicians of that time were worried that, thanks to the totalitarian system of government, the USSR could allocate more than half of its national income for military needs, concentrate its best engineering and scientific personnel in the production of weapons. In addition, Soviet spies knew how to masterfully steal technical and military secrets.

Therefore, although the standard of living of the population of the USSR could not be compared with any of the developed European countries, in the military field it was a serious opponent of the West.

The USSR had nuclear weapons since 1946. However, these weapons did not have real military significance for quite a long time, since there were no means of delivery.

The main rival - the United States had a powerful combat aircraft. The United States had more than a thousand bombers capable of conducting a nuclear bombardment of the USSR under the cover of several tens of thousands of jet fighters.

At that time, the USSR could not oppose anything to these forces. Financial and technical capabilities to create equal in strength to American navy and the country did not have aviation in a short time. Based on real conditions, it was decided to focus on the creation of such delivery vehicles for nuclear charges, which would cost an order of magnitude cheaper, be easier to manufacture and do not require expensive maintenance. Ballistic missiles became such a means.

The USSR began to create them under Stalin. The first Soviet R-1 rocket was an attempt to copy the German FAA rocket, which was in service with the Nazi Wehrmacht. In the future, work on the creation of ballistic missiles was continued by several design bureaus. Enormous financial, economic and intellectual resources were directed to ensure their work. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Soviet industry worked on the creation of ballistic missiles.

By the early 1960s, powerful missiles capable of reaching the United States had been designed and manufactured. The USSR achieved impressive success in the production of such missiles. This was shown both by the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957 and by the flight of the Earth's first cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin to earth orbit in 1961

Successes in the exploration of outer space dramatically changed the image of the USSR in the eyes of the Western layman. Surprise was caused by the scale of achievements, the speed of their achievement, and at the cost of what sacrifices and costs this was achieved was not known outside the Soviet Union.

Naturally, the Western countries took all measures to exclude the possibility for the USSR to dictate its terms, relying on the "nuclear club". There was only one way to achieve security - the deployment of a powerful military alliance of European countries led by the most powerful country in the world - the United States. All conditions were created for the Americans to deploy their military systems in Europe, moreover, in the face of the Soviet military threat, they were invited and lured there by all means.

The United States deployed a powerful security belt, placing missile bases, tracking stations, and airfields for reconnaissance aircraft around the borders of the USSR. At the same time, they had an advantage in geographical location - if their military bases were located near the Soviet borders, then the United States itself was separated from the territory of the USSR by the world's oceans and thus were insured against a retaliatory nuclear strike.

At the same time, they paid little attention to the concern of the USSR in this regard, declaring all this to be the needs of defense. However, as you know, the best defense is an attack, and the deployed nuclear weapons made it possible to inflict unacceptable damage on the USSR and force it to capitulate.

The creation of an American military base in Turkey and the deployment of the latest missiles equipped with nuclear warheads caused particular indignation among the Soviet leadership. These missiles could deliver a nuclear strike on the European part of Ukraine and Russia, on the largest and most populated cities, on river dams on the Volga and Dnieper, on large plants and factories. The USSR could not respond to this blow, especially if it turned out to be sudden - the United States was too far away, on another continent, on which the USSR did not have a single ally.

By the beginning of 1962, the USSR, by the will of fate, for the first time had a chance to change this geographical "injustice".

A sharp political conflict has arisen between the United States and the Republic of Cuba, a tiny island state in the Caribbean Sea, located in close proximity to the United States. After several years of guerrilla warfare, rebels led by Fidel Castro seized power on this island. The composition of his supporters was motley - from Maoists and Trotskyists to anarchists and religious sectarians. These revolutionaries equally criticized both the US and the USSR for their imperialist policies and did not have a clear reform agenda. Their main desire was to establish a just social system in Cuba without the exploitation of man by man. What it is and how to do it, none of them really knew, however, the first years of the existence of the Castro regime were spent on solving only one problem - the destruction of dissidents.

Having come to power, Castro, as they say, "bit the bit." The success of the revolution in Cuba convinced him that in exactly the same military way, by sending in guerrilla sabotage groups, it was possible to overthrow the "capitalist" governments in all countries of Latin America in a short time. On this basis, he immediately had a conflict with the United States, which, by right of the strongest, considered themselves the guarantors of political stability in the region and were not going to indifferently observe the actions of Castro's militants.

Attempts were made to kill the Cuban dictator - to treat him with a poisoned cigar, to mix poison into a cocktail that he drank almost every evening in his favorite restaurant, but everything ended in embarrassment.

The United States imposed an economic blockade of Cuba and developed a new plan for an armed invasion of the island.

Fidel turned to China for help, but failed. Mao Tse-tung considered it unreasonable at that moment to stir up a military conflict with the United States. The Cubans managed to negotiate with France and bought weapons from her, but the ship that came with these weapons was blown up by unknown people in the port of Havana.

Initially, the Soviet Union did not provide effective assistance to Cuba, since a large part of Castro's supporters were Trotskyists, and Lev Davidovich Trotsky, one of the leaders of the October Revolution and Stalin's worst enemy, was considered a traitor in the USSR. Trotsky's assassin Ramon Mercader lived in Moscow and had the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

However, soon the USSR showed a lively interest in Cuba. Among the top Soviet leaders, the idea has matured to secretly deploy nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba that could strike the United States.

F. Burlatsky's book "Leaders and Advisors" describes the moment of the beginning of the events that brought the world to the edge of the nuclear abyss:

“The idea and initiative to deploy missiles came from Khrushchev himself. In one of his letters to Fidel Castro, Khrushchev talked about how the idea of ​​missiles in Cuba entered his mind. It happened in Bulgaria, apparently in Varna. N.S. Khrushchev and Soviet Defense Minister Malinovsky were walking along the Black Sea coast. And so Malinovsky said to Khrushchev, pointing towards the sea: on the other side, in Turkey, there is an American nuclear missile base. Missiles launched from this base can destroy the largest centers of Ukraine and Russia located in the south of the country, including Kyiv, Kharkov, Chernigov, Krasnodar, not to mention Sevastopol, an important naval base of the Soviet Union, within six to seven minutes.

Khrushchev then asked Malinovsky: why does the Soviet Union have no right to do what America is doing? Why is it not possible, for example, to deploy our missiles in Cuba? America has surrounded the USSR with its bases on all sides and keeps it in pincers. Meanwhile, Soviet missiles and atomic bombs are located only on the territory of the USSR. This results in a double inequality. Inequality in quantities and delivery times.

So he conceived and discussed this operation first with Malinovsky, and then with a wider group of leaders, and finally received the consent of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

From the very beginning, the deployment of missiles in Cuba was prepared and carried out as a completely covert operation. Very few of the top military and party leadership were privy to it. The Soviet ambassador to the United States learned about everything that was happening from American newspapers.

However, the calculation that it would be possible to keep the secret until the full deployment of the missiles was deeply erroneous from the very beginning. And it was so obvious that even Anastas Mikoyan, Khrushchev's closest aide, from the very beginning declared that the operation would be quickly unraveled by American intelligence. There were the following reasons for this:

It was necessary to disguise a large military unit of several tens of thousands of people, a large number of vehicles and armored vehicles on a small island.

The area for the deployment of launchers was chosen extremely poorly - they could easily be seen and photographed from aircraft.

The missiles had to be placed in deep mines, which could not be built very quickly and secretly.

Even if the missiles were successfully deployed, due to the fact that preparing them for launch required several hours, the enemy had the opportunity to destroy most of them from the air before the launch, and immediately strike at the Soviet troops, who were practically defenseless before massive air raids.

Nevertheless, Khrushchev personally ordered the start of the operation.

From late July to mid-September, the Soviet Union sent about 100 ships to Cuba. Most of them carried weapons. These ships delivered 42 medium-range missile and ballistic launchers - MRBMs; 12 intermediate-type missile and ballistic installations, 42 IL-28 fighter bombers, 144 surface-to-air anti-aircraft installations.

In total, about 40,000 people were moved to Cuba. Soviet soldiers and officers.

At night, in civilian clothes, they boarded the ships and hid in the holds. They were not allowed to go on deck. The air temperature in the holds exceeded 35 degrees Celsius, terrible stuffiness and crush tormented people. According to the recollections of the participants of these transitions, it was a real hell. Things were no better after landing at the destination. The soldiers lived on dry rations, spent the night in the open air.

Tropical climate, mosquitoes, diseases and plus to this - the inability to properly wash, relax, complete absence hot food and medical care.

Most of the soldiers were employed in heavy earthworks - digging mines, trenches. They worked at night, during the day they hid in the thickets or portrayed peasants in the field.

The famous general Issa Pliev, an Ossetian by nationality, was appointed commander of the Soviet military unit. He was one of Stalin's favorites, a dashing cavalryman who became famous for raids behind enemy lines, a man of great personal courage, but poorly educated, arrogant and stubborn.

Such a commander was hardly suitable for carrying out a secret operation, essentially a sabotage one. Pliev could ensure the unquestioning obedience of soldiers to orders, could force people to endure all the hardships, but it was not in his power to save the operation, doomed to failure from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, for some time it was possible to maintain secrecy. Many researchers of the history of the Caribbean crisis are surprised that despite all the mistakes of the Soviet leadership, American intelligence learned about Khrushchev's plans only in mid-October, when the conveyor for the delivery of military supplies to Cuba spun up at full capacity.

It took several days to obtain additional information through all available channels, to discuss the issue. Kennedy and his closest aides met with Soviet Foreign Minister Gromyko. He already guessed what they wanted to ask him about and prepared an answer in advance - the missiles were delivered to Cuba at the request of the Cuban government, they have only tactical significance, they are designed to protect Cuba from invasion from the sea and the United States itself is not threatened in any way. But Kennedy never asked a direct question. Nevertheless, Gromyko understood everything and informed Moscow that the Americans most likely already knew about the plans to deploy nuclear weapons in Cuba.

Khrushchev immediately called a meeting of the top military and party leadership. Khrushchev was clearly frightened by a possible war and therefore ordered to send an order to Pliev not to use nuclear charges in any case, no matter what happens. Nobody knew what to do next, and therefore it remained only to wait for the development of events.

Meanwhile, the White House was deciding what to do. Most of the president's advisers favored the bombing of Soviet missile launch sites. Kennedy hesitated for a while, but finally decided not to order the bombing of Cuba.

On October 22, President Kennedy addressed the American people on radio and television. He reported that Soviet missiles had been found in Cuba and demanded that the USSR immediately remove them. Kennedy announced that the United States was imposing a "quarantine" on Cuba and would inspect all ships heading for the island in order to prevent the delivery of nuclear weapons there.

The fact that the US refrained from immediate bombing was seen by Khrushchev as a sign of weakness. They sent a letter to President Kennedy, in which he demanded that the United States lift the blockade of Cuba. The letter essentially contained an unequivocal threat to start a war. At the same time, the mass media of the USSR announced the abolition of vacations and leave for the military.

On October 24, at the request of the USSR, the UN Security Council urgently met. The Soviet Union continued to stubbornly deny the existence of nuclear missiles in Cuba. Even when photographs of missile silos in Cuba were shown to all present on the big screen, the Soviet delegation continued to stand its ground, as if nothing had happened. Having lost patience, one of the US representatives asked the Soviet representative: “So there are Soviet missiles in Cuba that can carry nuclear weapons? Yes or no?"

The diplomat with an impenetrable face said: "In due time you will receive an answer."

The situation in the Caribbean became more and more tense. Two dozen Soviet ships were moving towards Cuba. American warships were ordered to stop them, if necessary, by fire. The American army received an order for increased combat readiness, and it was specially transferred to the troops in plain text, without encoding, so that the Soviet military command would know about it faster.

This achieved its goal: on the personal orders of Khrushchev, the Soviet ships heading for Cuba turned back. Putting a good face on a bad game, Khrushchev said that there were already enough weapons in Cuba. The members of the Presidium of the Central Committee listened to this with stony faces. It was clear to them that, in essence, Khrushchev had already capitulated.

To sweeten the pill for his military, who found themselves in a humiliatingly stupid position, Khrushchev ordered to continue building missile silos and assembling IL-28 bombers. The exhausted soldiers continued to work 18 hours a day, although there was no longer the slightest sense in this. Confusion reigned. It was not clear who obeyed whom. For example, Pliev did not have the right to give orders to junior officers in charge of nuclear weapons. To launch anti-aircraft missiles, it was necessary to obtain permission from Moscow. At the same time, the anti-aircraft gunners received an order to prevent American reconnaissance aircraft by all means.

On October 27, Soviet air defense forces shot down an American U-2. The pilot died. The blood of an American officer was shed, which could serve as a pretext for the outbreak of hostilities.

On the same day in the evening, Fidel Castro sent Khrushchev a lengthy letter in which he argued that the US invasion of Cuba could no longer be avoided and called on the USSR, together with Cuba, to give the Americans an armed rebuff. Moreover, Castro proposed not to wait for the Americans to begin hostilities, but to strike first with the help of Soviet missiles available in Cuba.

The next day, the president's brother Robert Kennedy met with the Soviet ambassador to the United States, Dobrynin, and essentially issued an ultimatum. Either the USSR immediately withdraws its missiles and planes from Cuba, or the United States begins an invasion of the island within 24 hours in order to eliminate Castro by force. If the USSR agrees to the dismantling and removal of missiles, President Kennedy will give guarantees not to send his troops to Cuba and to remove American missiles from Turkey. The response time is 24 hours.

Having received this information from the ambassador, Khrushchev did not waste time on meetings. He immediately wrote a letter to Kennedy agreeing to the Americans' terms. At the same time, a radio message was prepared stating that Soviet government orders the dismantling of missiles and their return to the USSR. In a terrible hurry, couriers were sent to the Radio Committee with orders to broadcast it before 5 p.m. in order to be in time in the United States for the broadcast of President Kennedy's address to the nation on the radio, which, as Khrushchev feared, would announce the beginning of the invasion of Cuba.

Ironically, around the building of the radio committee there was a “spontaneous” demonstration organized by the state security service under the slogan “Hands off Cuba” and the courier had to literally push the demonstrators aside in order to be on time.

In his haste, Khrushchev did not reply to Castro's letter, advising him in a short note to listen to the radio. The Cuban leader took this as a personal insult. But it was no longer up to such trifles.

Zakhirov R.A. Strategic operation under the guise of exercises. Nezavisimaya Gazeta November 22, 2002

Taubman.W. N.S. Khrushchev. M. 2003, p.573

Ibid., p.605

F.M. Burlatsky. Nikita Khrushchev.M. 2003 page 216

With the last salvos of the Second World War, the world turned out to be imaginary. Yes, from that moment guns did not rumble, clouds of planes did not roar in the sky, and tank columns did not roll along the streets of cities. It seemed that after such a destructive and devastating war as the Second World War became, in all countries and on all continents they would finally understand how dangerous political games could become. However, this did not happen. The world plunged into a new confrontation, even more dangerous and large-scale, which was later given a very subtle and capacious name - the Cold War.

The confrontation between the main political centers of influence in the world has moved from battlefields to a confrontation between ideologies and economics. An unprecedented arms race began, which gave rise to a nuclear confrontation between the warring parties. The foreign political situation has again heated up to the limit, each time threatening to escalate into an armed conflict on a planetary scale. The first sign was the Korean War, which broke out five years after the end of World War II. Even then, the US and the USSR began to measure their strength behind the scenes and unofficially, participating in the conflict to varying degrees. The next peak of the confrontation between the two superpowers was the Caribbean crisis of 1962 - the aggravation of the international political situation, which threatened to plunge the planet into a nuclear apocalypse.

The events that took place during this period clearly showed mankind how shaky and fragile the world can be. The atomic monopoly of the United States ended in 1949 when the USSR tested its own atomic bomb. The military-political confrontation between the two countries has reached a qualitatively new level. Nuclear bombs, strategic aircraft and missiles leveled the chances of both sides, making them equally vulnerable to a retaliatory nuclear strike. Realizing the full danger and consequences of the use of nuclear weapons, the opposing sides switched to outright nuclear blackmail.

Now both the US and the USSR tried to use their own nuclear arsenals as an instrument of pressure, seeking to achieve big dividends for themselves in the political arena. An indirect cause of the Caribbean crisis can be considered attempts at nuclear blackmail, which was resorted to by the leadership of both the United States and the Soviet Union. The Americans, having installed their medium-range nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, sought to put pressure on the USSR. The Soviet leadership, in response to these aggressive steps, tried to transfer the game to the field of their opponent by placing their own nuclear missiles at the side of the Americans. Cuba was chosen as the place for such a dangerous experiment, which in those days was in the center of attention of the whole world, becoming the key to Pandora's box.

The true causes of the crisis

Considering superficially the history of the most acute and bright period in the confrontation between the two world powers, various conclusions can be drawn. On the one hand, the events of 1962 showed how vulnerable human civilization is in the face of the threat of nuclear war. On the other hand, the whole world was shown how peaceful coexistence depends on the ambitions of a certain group of people, one or two people who make fatal decisions. Who did the right thing, who did not in this situation, time judged. The real confirmation of this is that we are now writing materials on this topic, analyzing the chronology of events, and studying the true causes of the Caribbean crisis.

The presence or coincidence of various factors brought the world in 1962 to the brink of disaster. Here it would be appropriate to focus on the following aspects:

• the presence of objective factors;
• the action of subjective factors;
• time frame;
• planned results and goals.

Each of the proposed points reveals not only the presence of certain physical and psychological factors, but also sheds light on the very essence of the conflict. A thorough analysis of the current situation in the world in October 1962 is necessary, since for the first time humanity really felt the threat of complete annihilation. Neither before nor after, not a single armed conflict or military-political confrontation had such high stakes.

The objective reasons that explain the main essence of the crisis that has arisen are the attempts of the leadership of the Soviet Union, headed by N.S. Khrushchev to find ways out of the dense ring of encirclement in which the entire Soviet bloc found itself in the early 1960s. By this time, the United States and its NATO allies had managed to concentrate powerful strike groups along the entire perimeter of the USSR. In addition to the strategic missiles stationed at missile bases in North America, the Americans had a rather large air fleet of strategic bombers.

In addition to all this, the US deployed in Western Europe and on the southern borders of the Soviet Union, a whole armada of intermediate and shorter range missiles. And this despite the fact that the United States, Great Britain and France taken together, in terms of the number of warheads and carriers, were many times superior to the USSR. It was the deployment of Jupiter medium-range missiles in Italy and Turkey that was the last straw for the Soviet leadership, which decided to make a similar attack on the enemy.

The nuclear missile power of the USSR at that time could not be called a real counterbalance to American nuclear power. The flight range of Soviet missiles was limited, and submarines capable of carrying only three R-13 ballistic missiles did not differ in high tactical and technical data. There was only one way to make the Americans feel that they, too, were under a nuclear sight, by placing Soviet ground-based nuclear missiles at their side. Even if the Soviet missiles were not distinguished by high flight characteristics and the relative small number of warheads, such a threat could have a sobering effect on the Americans.

In other words, the essence of the Caribbean crisis lies in the natural desire of the USSR to equalize the chances of a mutual nuclear threat with its potential adversaries. How this was done is another question. We can say that the result exceeded the expectations of both one and the other side.

Prerequisites for the conflict and the goals of the parties

The subjective factor that played the main role in this conflict is post-revolutionary Cuba. After the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro's regime followed in the wake of Soviet foreign policy, which greatly annoyed its mighty northern neighbor. After the failure to overthrow the revolutionary government in Cuba by force of arms, the Americans switched to a policy of economic and military pressure on the young regime. The US trade blockade against Cuba only accelerated the development of events that played into the hands of the Soviet leadership. Khrushchev, echoed by the military, gladly accepts Fidel Castro's proposal to send a Soviet military contingent to Liberty Island. In the strictest secrecy at the highest level, on May 21, 1962, a decision was made to send Soviet troops to Cuba, including missiles with nuclear warheads.

From that moment on, events begin to unfold at a rapid pace. Time limits are in effect. After the return of the Soviet military-diplomatic mission headed by Rashidov from the island of Freedom, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU meets in the Kremlin on June 10. At this meeting, the Minister of Defense of the USSR for the first time announced and submitted for consideration a draft plan for the transfer of Soviet troops and nuclear ICBMs to Cuba. The operation was codenamed Anadyr.

Rashidov, the head of the Soviet delegation, and Rashidov, who had returned from a trip to Liberty Island, decided that the faster and more imperceptibly the entire operation to transfer Soviet missile units to Cuba was carried out, the more unexpected this step would be for the United States. On the other hand, the current situation will force both sides to look for a way out of the current situation. Beginning in June 1962, the military-political situation took a menacing turn, pushing both sides towards an inevitable military-political clash.

The last aspect to be taken into account when considering the cause of the Cuban crisis of 1962 is a realistic assessment of the goals and objectives pursued by each of the parties. The United States, under President Kennedy, was at the height of its economic and military power. The appearance of a state of socialist orientation at the side of the world hegemon caused tangible damage to America's reputation as a world leader, therefore, in this context, the desire of the Americans to destroy the first socialist state in the Western Hemisphere by force of military, economic and political pressure is quite understandable. The American President and most of the American establishment were extremely determined in achieving their goals. And this despite the fact that the risk of a direct military clash with the USSR in the White House was estimated very highly.

The Soviet Union, led by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, tried not to miss his chance by supporting the Castro regime in Cuba. The situation in which the young state found itself required the adoption of decisive measures and steps. The mosaic of world politics took shape in favor of the USSR. Using socialist Cuba, the USSR could create a threat to the territory of the United States, which, being overseas, considered themselves completely safe from Soviet missiles.

The Soviet leadership tried to squeeze the maximum out of the current situation. In addition, the Cuban government played in unison with the plans of the Soviets. You can not discount and personal factors. In the context of the intensified confrontation between the USSR and the USA over Cuba, the personal ambitions and charisma of the Soviet leader were clearly manifested. Khrushchev could go down in world history as a leader who dared to directly challenge a nuclear power. We should give credit to Khrushchev, he succeeded. Despite the fact that the world literally hung in the balance for two weeks, the parties managed to some extent achieve what they wanted.

The military component of the Caribbean crisis

The transfer of Soviet troops to Cuba, called Operation Anadyr, began at the end of June. Such an uncharacteristic name of the operation, which is associated with the delivery of secret cargo by sea to the southern latitudes, is explained by military-strategic plans. Loaded with troops, equipment and personnel, Soviet ships were to be sent to the North. The purpose of such a large-scale operation for the general public and foreign intelligence was banal and prosaic, providing economic cargo and personnel for settlements along the route of the Northern Sea Route.

Soviet ships left the ports of the Baltic, from Severomorsk and from the Black Sea, following their usual course to the north. Further, lost in high latitudes, they sharply changed course in the direction to the south, following the coast of Cuba. Such maneuvers were supposed to mislead not only the American fleet, which patrolled the entire North Atlantic, but also the American intelligence channels. It is important to note that the secrecy with which the operation was carried out gave a stunning effect. Careful camouflage of preparatory operations, transportation of missiles on ships and placement were carried out in complete secrecy from the Americans. In the same perspective, the equipment of launch positions and the deployment of missile divisions on the island took place.

Neither in the Soviet Union, nor in the United States, nor in any other country in the world, could anyone even imagine that in such a short time an entire missile army would be deployed under the noses of the Americans. The flights of American spy planes did not provide accurate information about what was really going on in Cuba. In total, until October 14, when Soviet ballistic missiles were photographed during the flight of the American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, the Soviet Union transferred and deployed 40 R-12 and R-14 medium and intermediate range missiles on the island. In addition to everything, Soviet cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were deployed near the American naval base of Guantanamo Bay.

The photographs, which clearly showed the positions of Soviet missiles in Cuba, produced the effect of a bombshell. The news that the entire territory of the United States is now within the reach of Soviet nuclear missiles, the total equivalent of which was 70 megatons of TNT, shocked not only the highest echelons of the United States government, but also the bulk of the country's civilian population.

In total, 85 Soviet cargo ships took part in the Anadyr operation, which managed to covertly deliver not only missiles and launchers, but also a lot of other military and service equipment, service personnel and combatant army units. By October 1962, 40 thousand military contingents of the USSR Armed Forces were stationed in Cuba.

A game of nerves and a swift denouement

The reaction of the Americans to the situation was instantaneous. An Executive Committee was urgently created in the White House, headed by President John F. Kennedy. A variety of retaliatory options were considered, starting with a pinpoint strike on missile positions and ending with an armed invasion of American troops on the island. The most acceptable option was chosen - a complete naval blockade of Cuba and an ultimatum presented to the Soviet leadership. It should be noted that as early as September 27, 1962, Kennedy received carte blanche from Congress to use the armed forces to correct the situation in Cuba. The US President pursued a different strategy, tending to solve the problem through military-diplomatic means.

An open intervention could result in serious casualties among the personnel, and besides, no one denied the possible use by the Soviet Union of larger countermeasures. An interesting fact is that in none of the official conversations at the highest level, the USSR did not admit that there were Soviet offensive missile weapons in Cuba. In this light, the United States had no choice but to act on its own, thinking less about world prestige and more concerned about its own national security.

You can talk and discuss all the vicissitudes of negotiations, meetings and meetings of the UN Security Council for a long time, but today it becomes clear that the political games of the leadership of the USA and the USSR in October 1962 led humanity to a dead end. No one could guarantee that each next day of global confrontation would not be the last day of peace. The results of the Caribbean crisis were acceptable to both sides. In the course of the agreements reached, the Soviet Union removed the missiles from the island of Freedom. Three weeks later, the last Soviet missile left Cuba. Literally the next day, November 20, the United States lifted the naval blockade of the island. The following year, Jupiter missile systems were phased out in Turkey.

In this context, the personalities of Khrushchev and Kennedy deserve special attention. Both leaders were under constant pressure from their own advisers and the military, who were already ready to unleash the Third World War. However, both were smart enough not to follow the hawks of world politics. Here, the speed of reaction of both leaders in making important decisions, as well as the presence of common sense, played an important role. Within two weeks, the whole world clearly saw how quickly the world's established order can be turned into chaos.

The world has repeatedly found itself on the brink of nuclear war. He was closest to it in November 1962, but then the sanity of the leaders of the great powers helped to avoid disaster. In Soviet and Russian historiography, the crisis is called Caribbean, in American - Cuban.

Who started first?

The answer to this everyday question is unequivocal - the US initiated the crisis. There they perceived "with hostility" the coming to power in Cuba of Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries, although this was an internal affair of Cuba. The American elite was categorically not satisfied with the fall of Cuba from the zone of influence, and even more so with the fact that among the top leaders of Cuba were communists (the legendary Che Guevara and the then very young Raul Castro, the current Cuban leader). When Fidel declared himself a communist in 1960, the United States turned to open confrontation.

Castro's worst enemies were received and supported there, an embargo was imposed on leading Cuban goods, attempts on the life of the Cuban leader began (Fidel Castro is the absolute champion among politicians in the number of assassination attempts, and almost all of them were related to the United States). In 1961, the United States financed and provided equipment for an attempted invasion by a military detachment of Cuban emigrants on Playa Giron.

So Fidel Castro and the USSR, with whom the Cuban leader quickly established friendly relations, had every reason to fear US military interference in Cuban affairs.

Cuban "Anadyr"

This northern name was used to refer to a covert military operation to deliver Soviet ballistic missiles to Cuba. It was held in the summer of 1962 and became the USSR's response not only to the situation in Cuba, but also to the deployment of American nuclear weapons in Turkey.

The operation was coordinated with the Cuban leadership, so that it was carried out in full compliance with international law and the international obligations of the USSR. She was provided with strict secrecy, but still US intelligence was able to get pictures of Soviet missiles on Liberty Island.

Now the Americans have reason to fear – less than 100 km separates Cuba from fashionable Miami in a straight line… The Caribbean crisis has become inevitable.

One step away from war

Soviet diplomacy categorically denied the existence of nuclear weapons in Cuba (and what was it supposed to do?), but the legislative structures and the US military were determined. As early as September 1962, calls were made to resolve the Cuban question by force of arms.

President J.F. Kennedy wisely abandoned the idea of ​​an immediate pinpoint strike on missile bases, but on November 22 he announced a maritime "quarantine" of Cuba in order to prevent new deliveries of nuclear weapons. The action was not very reasonable - firstly, according to the Americans themselves, it was already there, and secondly, the quarantine was just illegal. At that time, a caravan of more than 30 Soviet ships was heading to Cuba. personally forbade their captains to obey the requirements of quarantine and publicly declared that even one shot in the direction of Soviet ships would immediately cause decisive opposition. Approximately the same he said in response to the letter of the American leader. On November 25, the conflict was transferred to the UN rostrum. But that didn't help resolve it.

let's live in peace

November 25 proved to be the busiest day of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Since Khrushchev's letter to Kennedy on November 26, tensions have subsided. Yes, and the American president did not dare to give his ships an order to open fire on the Soviet caravan (he made such actions dependent on his personal order). Overt and covert diplomacy began to work, and the parties finally agreed on mutual concessions. The USSR undertook to take missiles out of Cuba. For this, the United States guaranteed the lifting of the blockade of the island, pledged not to invade it and to remove its nuclear weapons from Turkey.

The great thing about these decisions is that they were almost completely implemented.

Thanks to the reasonable actions of the leadership of the two countries, the world has again moved away from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis proved that even complex contentious issues can be resolved peacefully, but only if this is what all parties concerned want.

The peaceful resolution of the Caribbean crisis was a win for all the people of the planet. And this is despite the fact that the United States still continued to illegally infringe on Cuban trade, and in the world, no, no, but they are wondering: did Khrushchev leave a couple of missiles in Cuba, just in case?

The Caribbean crisis is a difficult situation on the world stage that developed in 1962 and consisted in a particularly tough confrontation between the USSR and the USA. In this situation, for the first time, the danger of war with the use of nuclear weapons hung over humanity. The Caribbean Crisis of 1962 was a grim reminder that with the advent of nuclear weapons, war could lead to the annihilation of all mankind. This event is one of the brightest events
The Caribbean crisis, the causes of which are hidden in the confrontation between the two systems (capitalist and socialist), the US imperialist policy, the national liberation struggle of the peoples of Latin America, had its own prehistory. In 1959, the revolutionary movement in Cuba won. Batista, a dictator who pursued a pro-American policy, was overthrown, and a patriotic government headed by Fidel Castro came to power. There were many communists among Castro's supporters, for example, the legendary Che Guevara. In 1960, the Castro government nationalized American enterprises. Naturally, the US government was extremely dissatisfied with the new regime in Cuba. Fidel Castro declared that he was a communist and established relations with the USSR.

Now the USSR has an ally located in close proximity to its main enemy. were held in Cuba socialist transformations. Economic and political cooperation began between the USSR and Cuba. In 1961, the US government landed troops near Playa Giron, consisting of opponents of Castro, who emigrated from Cuba after the victory of the revolution. It was assumed that American aviation would be used, but the United States did not use it, in fact, the United States abandoned these troops to their fate. As a result, the landing troops were defeated. After this incident, Cuba asked for help from Soviet Union.
N. S. Khrushchev was at the head of the USSR at that time.

When he learned that the US wanted to forcibly overthrow the Cuban government, he was ready to take the most drastic measures. Khrushchev invited Castro to deploy nuclear missiles. Castro agreed to this. In 1962, Soviet nuclear missiles were secretly placed in Cuba. American military reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba spotted the missiles. Initially, Khrushchev denied their presence in Cuba, but the Cuban Missile Crisis grew. Reconnaissance planes took pictures of the missiles, these pictures were presented. From Cuba, nuclear missiles could fly to the United States. On October 22, the US government announced a naval blockade of Cuba. In the USSR and the USA, options for the use of nuclear weapons were being worked out. The world is practically on the brink of war. Any abrupt and thoughtless actions could lead to dire consequences. In this situation, Kennedy and Khrushchev managed to reach an agreement.
The following conditions were accepted: the USSR removes nuclear missiles from Cuba, the United States removes its nuclear missiles from Turkey (an American one was located in Turkey that was capable of reaching the USSR) and leaves Cuba alone. This ended the Cuban Missile Crisis. The missiles were taken away, the US blockade was lifted. The Cuban Missile Crisis had important consequences. He showed how dangerous the escalation of a small armed conflict can be. Mankind has clearly begun to understand the impossibility of having winners in a nuclear war. In the future, the USSR and the USA will avoid direct armed confrontation, preferring economic, ideological and other levers. Countries that are dependent on the United States now realized the possibility of victory in the national liberation struggle. It has now become difficult for the United States to intervene outright in countries whose governments do not align their interests with those of the United States.