December 2, 1961

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro publicly declares himself a Marxist–Leninist

The correction that matters here is a tense. Castro said Cuba was already building socialism — not that it would begin.

About five hours, before dawn

From a Havana television studio in the early morning of 2 December 1961, Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro delivered an address broadcast live on radio and television. UPI reported it ran roughly five hours.

The subject was mostly organizational: the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations, which brought together his July 26 Movement, the Popular Socialist Party and the Revolutionary Directorate, and the case for a disciplined unified revolutionary party.

Its program, he said, would be adapted from Marxism–Leninism to Cuban conditions.

The declaration itself

Castro stated publicly that he was a Marxist–Leninist and would remain one for life. The declaration drew prolonged applause but occupied a small part of a much longer discussion.

He said Cuba was already in the stage of building socialism. He did not announce that socialism would begin that day — the socialist character of the Revolution had been proclaimed on 16 April 1961.

One archival chronology dates the speech to 1 December: the International Commission of Jurists lists that date, while the UCF pamphlet, UPI reporting and the surviving transcript give 2 December.

What the broadcast did not do

It created no constitution and no statute. Nationalization and central planning were already underway before it.

It also did not found the Communist Party of Cuba under that name. The ORI later became the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba, and the present name was adopted in 1965.

What changed on 2 December is narrower and still substantial: the ideology of Cuba's dominant leader was now explicit on national broadcast, and the proposed unified party had been publicly assigned a Marxist–Leninist program.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The UCF archival pamphlet, contemporary UPI reporting and the surviving transcript identify December 2. An International Commission of Jurists chronology instead lists December 1.
The transcript’s foreword says the broadcast came from a Havana studio in the early morning. The consulted sources do not completely reconcile whether the December 1 entry reflects the start of an overnight broadcast or a separate dating convention.