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Article: Legacy of the Cold War remains in Cuba's last Russians About 2,000 still live on island nation after the end of the Soviet Union
- Article from:
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
- Article date:
- September 6, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1998 The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Soviet-made cars rumble over pot-holed streets. Concrete-block
apartments built with Soviet aid cast shadows over afternoon soccer
games. And from a hilltop, a 30-foot-tall marble bust of Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin stares northeast toward the Motherland.
Seven years after the Soviet Union's collapse and the withering
of its Cold War alliances, the Russian imprint on Cuba remains.
Just a decade ago, roughly 20,000 Soviet citizens lived in Cuba,
many of them sent by the Kremlin as soldiers, engineers and other
technical specialists.
When communism collapsed, Soviet aid vanished, and many people
from Russia and other former Soviet republics returned home. But
about 2,000 Russians stayed behind.
"I ...