The leader of the Cuban revolution visited the capital of the Black Earth region in 1972. He was accompanied by the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Alexey Kosygin. Voronezh had thoroughly prepared for the meeting: people with flowers in their hands were waiting for the honourable guest in the airport. The building was full of banners both in Russian and Spanish: “A brotherly greeting to the working people of the Republic of Cuba who are building socialism!”, “Welcome, dear comrade Fidel Castro!”
The Cuban leader spent two days in Voronezh. He visited Novovoronezh nuclear power station, the assembly hall of the Voronezh aircraft factory, the instrument engineering plant “Electronika”, and had a meeting with the regional party committee. People who wanted to see and take a photograph of Fidel Castro crowded the streets. As his cavalcade travelled along the central streets of the city, the Cuban leader waved his hand and greeted the local citizens. Some people even had a chance to embrace Fidel Castro and shake hands with him. Several times he approached the people who were standing behind the fence.
What is more, his son Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart, who accompanied his father during his visit to Voronezh in 1972, became an Honorary Doctor of VSU in 2014. He is a Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Cuba, Doctor of Sciences (Physics and Mathematics), and a science advisor of the chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Cuba for science.
In the end of 1960ies, the only son of the Cuban revolutionary studied at Voronezh State University, at the Faculty of Physics, under the pseudonym of José Raúl Fernández (Fidelito), then he continued his studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University where he is also an Honorary Doctor. In 1974, he got an honours degree in Nuclear Physics at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University and continued to work in Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. He received his PhD degree (1978) and Doctor of Science degree (1999) in Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.
Daria Shipovskaya
Further details can be found on http://www.moe-online.ru/news/view/353762.html
