Biography of Raul Castro presented in Cuba

"Raul Castro: A Man in Revolution", the biography written by Russian author Nicolai S. Leonov, was presented on Tuesday in Havana during a special session of the Caribbean island's National Assembly of People's Power.

The publication of the book, which offered an insight into the personality of the Cuban leader, "is an encouragement so that he ( President Raul Castro) continues with a firm hand planning Cuba's immediate destiny and that his name will always appear alongside Fidel's (Castro)," said Havana historian Eusebio Leal while presenting the book before over 600 congress members.

The book, available in Spanish and Russian, begins with Castro' s birth on July 3, 1931 and ends on Dec. 17, 2014, when Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama surprised the world by simultaneously announcing that their countries would seek a thaw of relations.

Among many moments captured in the book are the first years of the Cuban Revolution after the triumph on Jan. 1, 1959; the literacy campaign; the fight against rebels; the economic crisis ( known as the "Special Period") on the island after the Soviet Union disappeared; the current measures to "update" the Cuban socialist model.

After highlighting the Cuban leader's qualities such as his " organized character, his discipline, generosity and capacity to have reached political maturity while he was in the fullness of youth," Leal also mentioned Castro's modesty.

Raul Castro has steered clear of all types of biographies previously commenting that it had never been the right time according to the Havana historian.

However as Leonov and Castro have been friends for 62 years, Raul gave his permission for the Russian author, a retired lieutenant general and doctor in Historic Sciences and a titular professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Leonov was sent to study at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Faculty of Philology and Philosophy in May 1953 and during his studies he met 22-year-old Raul Castro, a fellow- student.

The illustrated book contains some 80 photographs, some of which have never been published before, alongside "beautiful pages of a history that we should never forget" said Leal.

This was the first official presentation of Leonov's books in Cuba. Endite