The Cuban revolution began on on this day 61 years ago and was completed in January 1959 following the final victory led by Che Guevara over government troops in Santa Clara. 

This year’s anniversary offers a chance to consider where Fidel Castro drew inspiration from and the ideas which prompted his band of guerillas to mount an audacious attack on the Moncado barracks — headquarters of the Cuban military dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had seized power in an army coup in 1952.

Fidel studied Law at the University of Havana in 1945 on the advice of those who noted his passion for argument. 

A world divided ideologically between capitalism and communism stimulated a febrile political atmosphere at the university. 

Castro was aligned with two main political groupings at university — the Movimiento Socialista Revolucionario (MSR) led by Rolando Masferrer and the Union Insurreccional Revolucionaria (UIR) led by Emilio Trio. 

This was where his revolutionary apprenticeship was refined. 

The two groups jostled for prominence on campus, while outside the corrupt president Ramon Grau San Martin, installed as a US puppet in 1944, was running Cuba. 

Two of the key historical and political events that influenced the beliefs of the students at Havana University were the independence struggles of 1868-98 led by Jose Marti and the revolutionary movement of 1927-33 involving former army officers, students and government officials that had led to the overthrow of president Gerardo Machado in 1933. 

But Castro recognised that these were incomplete shifts in fundamental power — simply replacing varieties of colonial rulers and corrupt US puppet dictators. 

Castro vowed to succeed in creating a truly independent Cuba, a proper self-determining country led by those on the side of the many rather than the few.

In early 1947 Castro became increasingly politically active, openly criticising president Grau and Batista for their failed leadership and corruption. 

In 1948 the Cuban presidency passed to Carlos Prio who, with the influential army officer Batista, gave unparalleled freedom to the US mafia who accelerated Cuba’s degeneration into what became widely renowned as “America’s brothel,” where casinos, gambling and gangsterism flourished and the proceeds of organised crime were stashed away from US tax authorities. 

The pattern of Castro’s journey to later overthrowing the Batista dictatorship in 1959 was being hardened. 

At this time he was by no means an avowed Marxist. He gradually distanced himself from the UIR and had little contact with his communist friends. 

He later tells of the influence of Marxist-Leninist ideas and reading a part of Das Kapital, but implies that these were not forming part of any coherent political ideology. 

Of more significance was his identification with fellow students and historical Cuban heroes such as Jose Marti, and his desire to satiate his appetite for revolution and insurrection.

Castro immersed himself in student politics and actively supported the fight for Puerto Rican independence. He demonstrated solidarity with other student movements in Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama, which were demanding an end to US-financed puppet dictatorships. 

In 1947 Eduardo Chibas founded the Partido Popular Cubano (PPC — Cuban People’s Party), which quickly became better known as the Ortodoxo party. 

Castro joined immediately, finding in Chibas yet another hero, regarding him as a man of the future destined to pave the way to Cuba’s independence. 

The Ortodoxo party soon established itself as the first serious opposition to the government, fully adopting the principles and values of the revered nationalist martyr Jose Marti for nationalism, anti-imperialism, socialism, economic independence, political liberty and social justice. 

The attack on the Moncado barracks in 1953 failed and the captured rebels were tried in the Santiago de Cuba Palace of Justice on September 21 1953.

After the accused heard the charges against them, they were called to testify on their own behalf. 

The defendants were represented by 24 attorneys but Castro, a trained lawyer, assumed his own defence and lied under oath to avoid implicating rebels on trial. In May 1955 Fidel was released after pressure from his supporters.

Castro never lost sight of his goal and six years after Moncado in 1959, together with Che Guevara, his brother Raul Castro and others, succeeded in overthrowing Batista and liberating Cuba. 

Steven Walker is the author of Fidel Castro’s Childhood: The Untold Story (Troubador Books).