On October 30, a stamp dedicated to the 100th Birth Anniversary of Fidel Castro, a statesman and political figure, was put into postal circulation

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (1926–2016) was a Cuban revolutionary, a statesman, a political and Party figure who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008.

F. Castro was born on August 13, 1926, in the village of Birán in the Oriente Province. Fidel received his primary education at a Catholic boarding school in Santiago. He then studied at a Jesuit college in Havana. In 1950, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana, and then finished postgraduate studies. Having graduated from the University, he became engaged in private legal practice. In the early 1950s, he joined the Party of the Cuban People (Partido Ortodoxo). After the military coup of March 11, 1952, that resulted in General Fulgencio Batista seizing power, Fidel Castro found himself in the front ranks of the struggle against the dictatorship. He managed to unite a small group of former members of the collapsed party Partido Ortodoxo, which began preparations for the struggle to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. On July 26, 1953, the members of the group attacked the Moncada Barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The attack was brutally suppressed. Fidel Castro was committed to a military tribunal. At the trial, he delivered the speech History Will Absolve Me, in which he set out the program of the national liberation struggle and revolutionary transformations in Cuba. The court sentenced F. Castro to 15 years in prison; however, in May of 1955, he was amnestied under pressure from public opinion. In the same year, F. Castro emigrated to Mexico, where he founded the 26th of July Movement and began preparing an uprising.

In December of 1956, a group of revolutionaries led by F. Castro landed from the small yacht Granma in the Oriente Province in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The group, which over time turned into a Rebel Army, launched a guerrilla struggle against the dictatorial regime. After the victory of the revolution and the overthrow of the F. Batista’s dictatorship on January 1, 1959, F. Castro assumed command of the Cuban Army, and in February of 1959, took the position of the Cuba’s Head of the Government. After an attempt to overthrow the revolutionary government of Cuba, F. Castro announced his country's transition to the socialist path of development.

Since October of 1965, Fidel Castro was the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. In 1976, he became Chairman of the State Council of the Cuban National Assembly, combining the positions of the Head of the Government and the Head of the State. In August of 2006, he temporarily delegated his powers to his younger brother Raúl. On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro announced his resignation from the post of the Head of Cuba.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of Fidel Castro against the background of the state flag of the Republic of Cuba.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artist: V. Beltyukov.
Face value: 100 rubles.
Stamp size: 30×42 mm; sheet size: 170×151 mm.
Form of issue: a sheet of 15 (5×3) stamps.
Quantity: 82.5 thousand stamps (5.5 thousand sheets).

« back