Letter to a Member of the Leadership of the Argentine Communist Party, Cde. Alcira de la Pena, from Argentine Friends in Cuba

CC CPSU

We are sending you materials received by a member of the leadership of the Argentine Communist Party, Cde. Alcira de la Pena, from Argentine friends from Cuba.

Editor-in-Chief

“Problemy mira i sotsializma [“Problems of Peace and Socialism”]

[signature]

A. Rumyantsev

2 March 1963

N 2/184

Havana, 11 February 1963

Dear Alcira!

My wife and I sent you hearty greetings which we request you pass onto Marcela.

The day before yesterday, on Saturday, 9 February, I received your letter of 29 January 1963, various materials, the “mate” herbs, and Secco’s letter, which you sent with your Panamanian comrade. Thank you very much. This is a great joy and great support not only for me but for all Argentine communists in Cuba. There are 70 of us in all, not counting our family members.

Since you’ve had a meeting with Bocha, there’s no need to comment on the local situation. As the poet says: “Everything here is as it was before.” It’s also clear that we are witness to a great event, but since this event is a fact and not words then it forces people to think about it. What I’m talking about is that it’s possible to tell you anything and speak about any topic, but the aggression has not occurred and the building of socialism in sovereign and socialist Cuba is continuing with ever greater force. It is continuing by the hands of these wonderful people who increase their ideological and political consciousness with every day and therefore from many tons of sonorous words draw their own conclusions, which stubborn facts confirm.

By the way, the Soviet-Cuban agreement for 1963 has given the impression of an exploded bomb on the street, although there were no commentaries published in the newspapers, except for a rather good editorial article in the newspaper “Noticias de hoy.” But “the street” is following this closely, commenting, and drawing conclusions and comparisons… between words and deeds. I don’t know whether you are familiar with the content of this agreement (in my view, it would be very good if our Party would publish it and comment on it). If you agree with this, then I think that you could get it with the help of Cde. Rumyantsev and send it to Buenos Aires.

Actually, I received the materials sent to me after the letter was sent to the Panamanian comrade and before Bocha’s departure from here. Their receipt coincided with the receipt of those which Secco sent me from Buenos Aires via Mexico. It’s clear that in the last package there was no “Nuestra Palabra” newspaper; therefore I was very glad to receive your package with the materials.

In this regard, I would like to add a few words: it seems to me that you ought to continue sending the materials, but not cease sending materials from Secco via Mexico. We need the latter, even though they are late, if you consider the number of comrades who should read these materials and the fact that, unfortunately, they work in the most varied places in the country.

You can continue to send materials by air mail. I don’t know anyone from the “La Cubana” airline company. It would be very good if through Sergey you could work things out so that these materials were sent through some Soviet organization or friends who are permanently in Cuba. [Translator’s note: The name is rendered in Spanish as “Sergio”; if this refers to a Russian the name has been changed to the Spanish counterpart for some reason.] These materials could be sent to Boris Orekhov addressed to me from the USSR trade office in this country…. one has to wait a long time until your materials pass through censorship, even letters, although they come from socialist countries.

For my own part, I will send to you and your leadership in Argentina various materials, the magazine “Cuba Socialista,” speeches, newspaper clippings, and everything that in my view will be of interest to the Party. Agreed? Can you send all this to Buenos Aires? I await an answer. To begin, I’ve sent the magazine “Sotsialisticheskaya Kuba” [Translator’s note: this time he renders the name in Russian] issue Nr 18 (2 copies) and two copies of a speech of Fidel Castro at the Congress of Women. These materials are going separately. I am sending you two clippings together with this letter. One of these materials is of an insulting, false, and dissident character for our Party. As you can see, your fate, dear Alcira, and the fate of other comrades is far from what she would envy. It’s clear that words of this type bring only harm to those who interpret what they say and who said them. In the second clipping, as you will see, it talks about the first anniversary of the adoption of the Second Havana Declaration. As is evident from the attached note and from many other notes and facts, it talks about the following: 1. This very document and only this document, and not others, should serve to guide the revolution on our continent; not others like, for example, the Statement of the 81^st Party. The result – based on this Declaration and the facts themselves the Cuban leaders are interfering in the affairs of fraternal Parties, our Party; in particular they should give orders about what, how (read already “shooting”) and when they should do things. I am not exaggerating, although it can seem so to you. This is based on a geopolitical conception of the orientation of revolutions in Latin America. This is simply my opinion, but I am expressing it with all my respect for you.

My relations with our distinguished countryman (note – Ernesto Guevara) are going, as they say, from bad to worse. And this is all because of a fact which had and has a direct relationship to our dear Party. I caught his friends Cuca and Egurena, a group which underwent training there. Their protector was again our distinguished friend, through whom this activity was also financed. Among the members of this “team” were a group of Trotskyites. They said: “When we put in practice everything that we’re studying here we will have no distinction between “gorillas” and Stalinist communists (we are the latter). I raised this question before our countryman with all formality before the leadership of the organization, expressing my energetic protest. I declared to them that I am returning to my own country since I do not intend to work in such a place for such people who are training provocateurs against our Party. They replied to me that they are looking into this matter and suggested that I stay. I informed Fani E. about this when she was here. That’s how things are… There were moments when I wanted to get on the first plane and return. But I had a meeting with a highly-placed friend of Sergey [Translator’s note: translated as Sergio in Spanish] and he said that we should not leave, rather, I should not leave. I replied that I am listening to his opinion very carefully but explained that only my Party is deciding this question and I would pass on his opinion to it. So I did this through Ricardo Gomes, who flew to Buenos Aires.

Several words about our work here, which I request you inform Buenos Aires about. We’ve tried to be able to print 500 copies on a mimeograph…It turns out to be harder here than in illegal activity in Argentina. These materials are intended for Argentineans and several Cuban friends who requested we send them to him. On the basis of these materials we are organizing studies for comrades as is done in our Party. We held a meeting at which many of the comrades here were present. It went well, on a high political level.

A very good balance of the work done by us was made, thanks to which we came here. And this was in spite of the fact that no political or any other kind of attention was paid to us as a result of the lack of a Party here. The representative of the ORO [United Revolutionary Organizations] who was present at the meeting recognized this. I had to open the meeting since Ricardo was absent. I had to consider our position there: it is quite delicate since we are Argentine communists and the opinion of Argentine communists is in open contradiction with the opinions in this country. However I said with all naturalness and “objectivity” that we are supporting and why we are supporting the USSR, that we are with the glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union; I also repeatedly declared our devotion to the Communist Party of Argentina, which no distance can weaken. At the meeting of our comrades held then they expressed complete agreement with my speech. Right now we intend to reproduce the text of the manifesto in connection with the 45^th anniversary of the founding of our Party which we will then read and discuss in groups or at a general meeting. We are also reprinting the speech at the SEPG [the East German Communist Party] Congress which you sent. We are far from the CPA [Communist Party of Argentina] and although there are few of us we are working with full force. In spite of the wind and rolling.

Today I received the 4 kg of “Taragui” “mate” herbs. What happiness! It’s enough for me for a long time. I can not (and I don’t want) to get rid of the habit of drinking mate twice a day. Therefore you can imagine my happiness. I drank Uruguayan mate, but I don’t like it a bit; it’s dust, not a herb…

I’m also sending you my latest article written for the newspaper “Revolucion.” It’s based on material in the magazine “Nuestra Palabra.” I am expending great effort so that it is published almost completely since there’s a discussion in it about the activity of our Party. The thing is that a false impression has been made here on the basis of speeches made by Fidel and other persons (although they are not published) that our Party is living only by scratching by. Please send this article to Buenos Aires.

About my work: it was with great difficulty, but the initial plan for the publication of Marxist-Leninist literature was accepted. Although this can be shown to be improbable, it is also a success. They gave us a place which is being repaired right now, some equipment, a small sum for monthly expenses, etc. This cost 6 months’ of daily persistence, but we have already achieved some results. All the materials published by us are materials from the USSR. They are a place of support for expanding special activity which is acquiring ever greater significance here, since here either openly or under the guise of outward prosperity, a very broad ideological struggle is going on at all levels, including the highest. Therefore the mass dissemination of these materials has enormous significance.

I will be especially occupied with the Akun affair. I’ve already sent a telegram today. Tell him that I will inform him as soon as I get any news, but I will get it, possibly, this very week.

That’s all for now.

We will see when you get this letter, since I am sending it with a trusted person or I will do it so that they send it to your address from Prague itself. The thing is that I don’t want to sent it by local mail because of its content.

A warm embrace,

(signature)

Soon I will send a letter for Secco; give it to him when Secco returns from Moscow.

Send my comradely and fraternal greetings to comrades Rumyantsev and Semenov. I always recall them with great warmth. Tell them that I am doing everything possible and impossible so that the matter of publishing the magazine is transferred to my staff, specially selected comrades and very reliable. Issues No. 11 and 12 have still not come out yet; No. 1 for this year (the Prague edition) has already been received in “the highest spheres.”

Have you received the article about “the gorillas” yet? How does it seem to you?