Fidel Castro Ruz was born on Aug. 13, 1926, on his family's sugar plantation at Mayarí in Oriente Province. As a boy he worked in the sugar fields. He attended Jesuit schools and Belén College in Havana.

Castro entered the University of Havana in 1945. In 1947 he played a minor role in an attempt to overthrow the dictator in the Dominican Republic. He escaped capture and returned to the university to study law, receiving his degree in 1950.

As a Havana lawyer, Castro defended the poor, the oppressed, and people who were in political difficulties. In 1952 he was a candidate for the Cuban Congress, but Cuban dictator Gen. Fulgencio Batista canceled the elections. Deciding to act against the Batista regime, Castro and his brother Raúl used their own money to buy guns for about 150 cohorts. On July 26, 1953, they made an unsuccessful assault on the army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The Castros were sent to prison. Out of this revolt came the name of Castro's organization, the 26th of July Movement.

The Castros were released in 1955. As exiles in New York City and in Mexico, they reorganized their forces. In 1956, with about 80 rebels, they landed in Oriente Province. They were attacked, and most of the rebels were killed. The survivors, including the Castros, escaped into the mountains. For the next two years they waged guerrilla warfare. Batista fled from Cuba in January 1959, and Castro and his army entered Havana.

As premier, Castro declared that Cuba would never again be ruled by a dictator, but it soon became clear that his government was a Communist dictatorship. He had his enemies executed and filled the jails with those suspected of disloyalty to him. The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961. In April 1961 anti-Castro Cuban exiles backed by the United States government invaded Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the regime. Castro led the forces that defeated them at the Bay of Pigs.

In the fall of 1962 an international crisis arose over the presence of Soviet long-range missiles and bombers in Cuba. Castro was not directly consulted during the negotiations between United States President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. After Khrushchev agreed to remove the armaments, Castro refused to allow any inspection team to enter Cuba. In December Castro released 1,113 prisoners taken at the Bay of Pigs in return for American food and drugs.

Castro periodically allowed thousands of Cubans to emigrate to the United States after the mid-1960s. His policies remained grounded in Communist theory, though following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 he allowed some economic liberalization and free-market activities while retaining tight control over the country's political life. (See also Cuba.)