Overview

“Cuba-USSR and the post-Soviet Experience” is an inter-disciplinary symposium that, for the first time, addresses cultural, economic, and sociopolitical traces of the Soviet Era in present-day Cuba and their significance for understanding Cuba’s future. For approximately three decades, the Soviet Union intervened in the political, military, economic, and artistic spheres in Cuba.  With the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, Cuba’s social and economic climate transformed radically. One somewhat surprising reaction to this abrupt withdrawal of support was that almost immediately, many Cubans insisted upon the negligible impact of those ties. We will examine how and why these days, artists, writers, and politicians are proving otherwise. With participants hailing from  the United States, Cuba, Spain, the UK, Germany, Croatia, and Russia, we are convening to talk about the significance of these memories for creative production and the future of geopolitics.