: In the end [the Cuban revolution] was a just a transfer of elites. Only those who had been living in the mountains with Che and Castro held power after the victory.I strongly disagree with that assessment. You are suggesting that less than 20 men are 'running' Cuba at this time. There are popular elections at the regional level in Cuba. That is not to say that I endorse Cuba's state management, but your claim goes too far to the right.
: If you'd done your reading you'd know that the split between the Russian Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was due to exactly this debate. The Mensheviks wanted to sit around and wait for the popular mood to be just right for an explosion of universal revolutionary fervour. The Bolsheviks wanted to take things into their own hands whether the populace was ready or not. This they did. They were right.
The population was ready. This was proved in February! The Mensheviks were simply assisting the bourgeois in their efforts to neutralize those gains. The Bolsheviks were right to point that out---and to further the aims of the people: which was to end the war and to dispossess the capitalists.
Whatever else they did, the Bolsheviks made good on that.
