“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,” Yeltsin wrote. “That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”

Its agriculture in shambles from decades of shifting policies, Cuba now depends on imports for 80% of its food. Fifty-eight years into its revolution Cuba is still rationing basics, and worse, rations have been cut, no longer providing minimal levels of nutrition. People can’t subsist on six pounds of rice per month, 20 ounces of beans, one cup of cooking oil, and 12 eggs. -Barry D. Wood

A 1980s Soviet Grocery Store

Stalin explained to Wells that planned economies increase output in those “branches of the industry which produce goods that the masses of the people need particularly.” -Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh

My family suffered tremendously, it was very traumatic; especially for my mom, Blanca Rojas, who was pregnant when my grandfather was murdered. Imagine seeing your dad being murdered on national television! She immediately went into labor. By then, Che’s goons had surrounded our family house, and didn’t allow my mother to go to a hospital. A midwife had to be called to assist her with the labor. My brother, Silvio Gonzalez, was born on the same bed that belonged to my granddad. What is a person supposed to do? Rejoice for the birth of her son, or weep for the murder of her father?

Prisoner Tried, Condemned & Executed in Cuba

Shot by Firing Squad Without a Trial

"Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!" -Jill Stein, Useful Idiot