There are few figures in the modern world who can compete with Ernesto Che Guevara in worldwide popularity. It has become a symbol of the Revolution, a symbol of the struggle against any lie and injustice. And here is the paradox - Che Guevara, who was an example of selflessness and selflessness, now brings huge incomes to businessmen who earn on his image. Souvenirs with portraits of the Comandante, T-shirts, baseball caps, bags, restaurants named after him. Che is fashionable and stylish, and even pop music figures consider it their duty to beat his rebellious image.

Iron character

The real, living Ernesto Che Guevara would certainly have reacted to this with his usual irony. During his lifetime, he did not care about ranks, regalia and popularity - he considered his main task to be to help the destitute and powerless.

Ernesto Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in the Argentine city of Rosario, in the family of an architect with Irish roots. Ernesto Guevara Lynch and Celia de la Serna la Llosa with Spanish roots.

Little Tete had four brothers and sisters, and his parents did everything to raise them as worthy people. Ernesto himself and all his brothers and sisters received higher education.

The father of the future revolutionary sympathized with the left forces, and talked a lot with the Spaniards-Republicans living in Argentina, who left their homeland after the defeat in the civil war with the Francoists. Ernesto heard the conversations of Spanish emigrants with his father, and his future political views began to take shape even then.

Not everyone knows, but the fiery revolutionary Che Guevara suffered all his life from a serious chronic illness - bronchial asthma, because of which he was always forced to carry an inhaler with him.

But Ernesto was distinguished by his strong character from childhood - despite his illness, he played football, rugby, equestrian sports and other sports. And Che Guevara in his youth loved to read, fortunately, his parents had an extensive library. Ernesto started with adventures, then reading became more and more serious - classics of world literature, works of philosophers and politicians, including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Kropotkin, Bakunin.

Che Guevara was very fond of chess, and it was thanks to them that he became interested in Cuba - when Ernesto was 11 years old, when the Cuban ex-world champion came to Argentina Jose Raul Capablanca.

Ernesto Che Guevara fishing. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Student - traveler

In his youth, Ernesto Guevara did not think about a career as a revolutionary, although he knew for sure that he wanted to help people. In 1946 he entered the medical faculty of the National University of Buenos Aires.

Ernesto not only studied, but also traveled, seeking to learn more about the world. In 1950, as a sailor on an oil tanker, he visited Trinidad and British Guiana.

A great influence on the views of Ernesto Guevara had two trips to Latin America, made in 1952 and 1954. Poverty and complete lack of rights of the common people against the backdrop of the wealth of the elite - that's what caught the eye of the young doctor. Latin America bore the unofficial title of "the backyard of the United States", where the country's intelligence agencies helped establish military dictatorships that protected the interests of large American corporations.

During the second trip, a young doctor (he received his diploma in 1953) Ernesto Guevara in Guatemala joins the supporters President Jacobo Arbenz, who pursued a policy independent of the United States, nationalizing the lands of the American agricultural company United Fruit Company. However, Árbenz was overthrown in a coup organized by the US CIA.

Nevertheless, Guevara's activities in Guatemala were appreciated by both friends and enemies - he was included in the list of "dangerous communists of Guatemala to be eliminated."

The revolution is calling

Ernesto Guevara left for Mexico, where he worked as a doctor at the Institute of Cardiology for two years. In Mexico, he met Fidel Castro who prepared a revolutionary uprising in Cuba.

Later, Fidel admitted that the Argentine Guevara made a strong impression on him. If Castro himself did not take a clear political position by that time, then Guevara was a convinced Marxist who knew how to defend his views in the most difficult discussion.

Ernesto Guevara joined the Castro group, which was preparing for a landing in Cuba, having finally decided on his future - he preferred the dangers of revolutionary struggle to a calm career as a doctor.

Despite preparations, the landing of the revolutionaries in Cuba in December 1956 turned into a real nightmare. The yacht "Granma" turned out to be a fragile little boat, but the rebels simply did not have money for something more serious. In addition, it turned out that of the 82 members of the group, only a few people were not prone to seasickness. And finally, at the landing site, the detachment was waiting for the 35,000-strong group of troops of the Cuban dictator Batista, who had tanks, coast guard ships and aircraft.

As a result, half of the group died in the first battles, and more than twenty people were captured. To the mountains of the Sierra Maestra, which became a shelter for the revolutionaries, only a small group broke through, which included Ernesto Guevara.

Nevertheless, it was with this group that the Cuban Revolution began, ending in victory in January 1959.

In Cuba. Photo: AiF / Pavel Prokopov

Che

From June 1957, Ernesto Guevara became the commander of one of the formations of the revolutionary army, into which more and more Cubans poured - the fourth column.

The fighters noted that Commander Guevara always knew how to properly influence the soldiers in difficult times, being sometimes cruel in words, but never humiliated his subordinates.

The revolutionary soldiers were amazed - suffering from bouts of illness, Che Guevara made marches along with the rest, as a doctor treated the wounded, and shared the last meal with the hungry.

The nickname "Che" Ernesto Guevara was given in Cuba for the habit of using this word in speech. According to one version, Guevara used “che” in conversation as an analogue of the Russian “hey”. According to another, the appeal "che" in Argentinean slang meant "buddy" - this is how Commander Guevara addressed sentries during a round of posts.

One way or another, but Ernesto Guevara went down in history as Che Guevara's commandant.

Continuation of the struggle

After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara became the President of the National Bank of Cuba, and then the Minister of Industry of the Island of Liberty. The idea that Che Guevara was illiterate and played the role of a "wedding general" in these positions is deeply erroneous - the smart and educated Che showed himself as a competent professional who thoroughly delved into the intricacies of the assigned work.

The problem was rather in internal feelings - if Castro and his associates, having achieved victory in Cuba, saw the task in the state building of their homeland, then the Argentinean Che Guevara sought to continue the revolutionary struggle in other parts of the globe.

In April 1965, Che Guevara, by that time a well-known and world-famous Cuban politician, leaves all his posts, writes a farewell letter, and leaves for Africa, where he joins the revolutionary struggle in the Congo. However, due to disagreements with local revolutionaries and an unfavorable situation, he soon went to Bolivia, where in 1966, at the head of a detachment, he began a partisan struggle against the local pro-American regime.

The fearless Che did not take into account two things - unlike Cuba, the local population in Bolivia at that time did not support the revolutionaries. In addition, the Bolivian authorities, frightened by the appearance of Che Guevara in their area, asked for help from the United States.

Che began a real hunt. Almost all of the then dictatorial regimes in Latin America were drawn into Bolivia by special detachments. CIA special agents were actively searching for the place of hiding of the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (under this name the Che Guevara detachment operated).

The death of the Comandante

In August-September 1967, the partisans suffered serious losses. Che, however, even under these conditions remained himself - despite the asthma attacks, he encouraged his comrades and provided medical assistance to both them and the captured soldiers of the Bolivian army, whom he then released.

At the beginning of October, the informant Ciro Bustosa handed over to the government troops the campsite of the Che Guevara detachment. On October 8, 1967, special forces surrounded and attacked a camp in the Yuro Gorge area. In a bloody battle, Che was wounded, his rifle was smashed by a bullet, but the special forces managed to capture him only when the cartridges in the pistol ran out.

The wounded Che Guevara was taken to the building of the village school in the town of La Higuera. Approaching the building, the revolutionary drew attention to the wounded soldiers of the Bolivian army, and offered to help them as a doctor, but was refused.

On the night of October 8-9, Che Guevara was kept in the school building, and the authorities were feverishly deciding what to do with the revolutionary. It is still unclear where the execution order came from - it was officially signed head of the military government René Ortunho However, he himself claimed all his life that he had not actually made such a decision. The Bolivian authorities were negotiating with the US CIA headquarters in Langley, and it is possible that the command to shoot was given by the top leadership of the United States.

The soldiers chose the direct executor among themselves with the help of a straw, which he pulled out Sergeant Mario Teran.

When Teran entered the room where Che Guevara was, he already knew about his fate. Calmly standing in front of the executioner, Che Guevara briefly threw Terana, who, according to eyewitnesses, had trembling hands:

Shoot, coward, you'll kill the man!

A shot rang out that ended the life of a revolutionary.

Forever alive

Che Guevara's hands were amputated as material evidence of his murder. The body was put on public display by residents and the press in the village of Vallegrande.

And then something happened that the executioners clearly did not expect. The Bolivian peasants, who were so wary of Che, looking at the body of a defeated revolutionary who sacrificed his life in the struggle for a better life for them, saw in him a resemblance to the crucified Christ.

After a short period of time, the deceased Che became a saint for the locals, to whom they turn with prayers, asking for help. The leftist movement in Bolivia received a tangible boost. The National Liberation Army of Bolivia continued to fight after the death of Che until 1978, when its members switched to political activity in a legal position. The struggle begun by Che will continue, and in 2005 he will win the elections in Bolivia leader of the Movement for Socialism party Evo Morales.

The body of Che Guevara was secretly buried, and only in 1997, General Mario Vargas Salinas, a participant in the execution of the revolutionary, said that the remains were under the runway of the airfield in Vallegrande.

In October 1997, the remains of Che and his comrades were transported to Cuba and solemnly buried in a mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, where Che's detachment won one of the biggest victories of the Cuban Revolution.

Defeated in battle, Che defeated death, becoming the eternal symbol of the Revolution. The Comandante himself, in the most difficult days, did not doubt the victory of his cause: ““ My defeat will not mean that it was impossible to win. Many have failed trying to reach the summit of Everest, and in the end Everest was defeated.”

Ernesto Che Guevara has been dead for more than fifty years. His great contemporaries - John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, Charles de Gaulle and Mao Zedong - have taken their places in the textbooks of world history, and Che is still an idol. There are high-grossing feature and documentary films about him, published - and immediately become bestsellers - his biographies, the legendary revolutionary of the pre-computer era, are dedicated to dozens of Internet sites. The pragmatic rational world longed for romance. In the yard - the time of Che.

Everything about him was wrong. Instead of the aristocratic sonorous name of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, there is a short, almost faceless pseudonym Che, which doesn’t even have a special meaning. Just an interjection - well, hey. Argentines repeat it through the word. But go and see - you got accustomed, remembered, became known to the world. Instead of a dandy outfit and pomaded hair - a rumpled jacket, worn shoes, disheveled hair. A native Argentinean, but he could not distinguish tango from waltz. And yet it was he, and not one of the smartest peers, who captured the heart of Chinchina, the daughter of one of the richest landowners in Cordoba. And so he came to the parties in her house - shaggy, in shabby clothes, terrifying the snob guests. Still, he was the best for her. Until then, of course. In the end, the prose of life took its toll: Chinchina wanted a calm, secure, comfortable life - a normal life, in a word. But for a normal life, Ernesto was just not good enough. Then, in his youth, he had a dream - to save the world. At any price. That's probably the secret. That is why the pampered, sickly boy from a well-born family turned out to be a revolutionary. But in the family of his mother - the last viceroy of Peru, his father's brother - the admiral - was the Argentine ambassador to Cuba when his nephew was partisan there. His father, also Ernesto, said: "The blood of Irish rebels, Spanish conquerors and Argentine patriots flowed in my son's veins"...

Move on. Revolutionary. In the common view - a gloomy, laconic subject, alien to the joys of life. And he lived greedily, with pleasure: he read avidly, loved painting, he painted with watercolors, was fond of chess (even after making a revolution, he continued to participate in amateur chess tournaments, and jokingly warned his wife: “I went on a date”), played football and rugby , engaged in gliding, raced rafts on the Amazon, loved cycling. Even in the newspapers, the name of Guevara appeared for the first time not in connection with revolutionary events, but when he made a tour of four thousand kilometers on a moped, traveling all over South America. Then, together with a friend, Alberto Granados, Ernesto traveled on a decrepit motorcycle. When the driven motorcycle gave up its last breath, the young people continued on foot. Granados recalled adventures in Colombia: “We arrived in Leticia not only exhausted to the limit, but also without a centavo in our pocket. Our unpresentable appearance aroused natural suspicions among the police, and soon we found ourselves behind bars. We were rescued by the glory of Argentine football. When the police chief , an avid fan, found out that we were Argentines, he offered us freedom in exchange for agreeing to become coaches of the local football team, which was to participate in the regional championship.And when our team won, grateful fanatics of the leather ball bought us plane tickets, which safely delivered us to Bogota.

But in order. Painful. On May 2, 1930 (Tete - that was Ernesto's childhood name - was only two years old) he had his first asthma attack. Doctors advised to change the climate - the family, having sold their plantation, moved to Cordoba. The disease did not let Ernesto go all his life. He could not even go to school for the first two years - his mother had to study with him at home. By the way, Ernesto was lucky with his mother. Celia de la Ser na y de la Llosa was an outstanding woman: she spoke several languages, became one of the first feminists in the country and almost the first car enthusiast among Argentine women, she was incredibly well-read. The house had a huge library, the boy was addicted to reading. He adored poetry, retained this passion until his death - in a backpack found in Bolivia after Che's death, along with the Bolivian Diary, there was a notebook with his favorite poems.

A man who could not sit still all his life. Since childhood. At the age of eleven, Tete ran away from home with his younger brother. They were found only a few days later, eight hundred (!) Kilometers from Rosario. In his youth, already a medical student, Guevara enlisted on a cargo ship: the family needed money. Then - by his own choice - he trained in a leper colony. One day, fate threw Guevara and Granados in Peru, to the ruins of the ancient Indian city of Machu Picchu, where the last Inca emperor gave battle to the Spanish conquistadors. Alberto said to Che: "You know, old man, let's stay here. I will marry an Indian woman from a noble Inca family, I will proclaim myself emperor and become the ruler of Peru, and I will appoint you prime minister, and together we will carry out a social revolution." Che replied: "You're crazy, they don't make a revolution without shooting!"

After graduating from the university and having received a diploma as a surgeon, Ernesto Guevara did not even think of settling down. It would be possible to start a measured life - the profession of a doctor in Argentina has always been a profitable business - but he ... leaves his homeland. And it turns out in Guatemala at the most dramatic moment for this country. As a result of the first free elections, a moderately reformist government came to power in the republic. In June 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower organized a military intervention against Guatemala. It was then that Guevara established himself in the thought: a revolution is not made without shooting. Of all the recipes for getting rid of social inequality, Ernesto chooses Marxism, but not rationally dogmatic, but romantically idealized.

After Guatemala, Ernesto ended up in Mexico City, worked as a bookseller, street photographer, and doctor. And here his life changed dramatically - he met the Castro brothers. After the unsuccessful assault on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, the Castros emigrated to Mexico. Here they developed a plan to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. In a training camp near Mexico City, Ernesto studied military affairs. The police arrested the future rebel. The only document found in Che's possession was, unknown how, a certificate of attendance at courses... of the Russian language, which fell into his pocket.

Having got out of prison, Che almost missed the board of the Granma. Among about a hundred rebels, Ernesto was the only foreigner. After a week-long voyage, the yacht moored at the southeastern tip of Cuba, but at the time of the landing, the landing was met by an ambush. Part of the rebels was killed, someone was taken prisoner, Che was wounded. Those who remained took refuge in the forested mountains of the Sierra Maestra and began a 25-month struggle.

All this time, Ernesto's parents hardly heard from him. And suddenly - joy. Around midnight on December 31, 1958 (the next day the revolution won in Cuba), there was a knock on the door of their house in Buenos Aires. Opening the door, Father Ernesto did not see anyone, but an envelope lay on the threshold. News from my son! "Dear old people! Feeling great. Used up two, left five. However, hope that God is an Argentine. I hug you all tightly, Tete." Guevara often said that he, like a cat, had seven lives. The words "used up two, left five" meant that Ernesto was wounded twice. Who brought the letter, the Guevara family never found out. And a week later, when Havana was already in the hands of the rebels, a plane arrived from Cuba for the Che family.

A few days after the victory, Che was visited by Salvador Allende. The future president of Chile was in Havana passing through. Allende told about this meeting: “In a large room, adapted for a bedroom, where books were everywhere, a man, naked to the waist, in green-olive pants, with a piercing gaze and an inhaler in his hand, was lying on a camping cot. with a severe attack of asthma. For several minutes I watched him and saw the feverish gleam in his eyes. Before me lay, mowed down by a cruel illness, one of the great fighters of America. He told me without showmanship that throughout the insurrectionary war asthma did not give him peace."

But the rebel war is over. Weekdays have come. Che - Minister of Industry, Head of the Planning Commission, Chief Banker. His sweeping two-letter signature appears on banknotes. He studies higher mathematics, writes a work on the theory and practice of revolution, in which he sets out the theory of the "partisan hearth": a handful of revolutionaries, mainly from strata of educated youth, go to the mountains, start an armed struggle, attract peasants to their side, create an insurgent army and overthrows the anti-people regime.

The Cuban Revolution needed international recognition, and Che heads important diplomatic missions. In August 1961, he attended an inter-American economic meeting in the fashionable Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este. There, President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress program was announced. Cuba is under blockade, the rulers of Latin American countries in exchange for economic assistance break off relations with the "Island of Liberty". The Soviet embassy in Uruguay was ordered from Moscow to assist Che's mission.

After the end of his lecture in Montevideo, the audience was attacked by the police. A shot rang out, and a professor struck by a bullet fell onto the pavement. The professors were not going to kill - the bullet was intended for Che.

Che was the first of the outstanding figures of the Cuban revolution to come to Moscow. The photographs have been preserved. Packed in a hat with earflaps, Che on the podium of the Mausoleum on November 7th. He sincerely sympathized with our country and, perhaps, that was why he was concerned about Khrushchev's initiative to "throw a hedgehog in the Americans' pants" by placing Soviet missiles in Cuba.

The Minister of Industry, a banker, a diplomat... But in his heart Che always remained a revolutionary - he recklessly believed in the effect of a "partisan hearth", that the Sierra Maestra could be repeated in other countries of the "third world". For eight months he fought in the Congo to save the regime of Lumumba's successor. Using Tanzania as a rear base, Che led a detachment of black Cubans. He failed to find a common language with the Congolese: they fired from machine guns with their eyes closed.

The defeat in the Congo cured Che of his illusions about the "revolutionary potential of Africa." What remained was Latin America "pregnant with the revolution", its weakest link being destitute, cut off from the outside world, Bolivia, which had experienced about two hundred coups in its short history of independence.

Che is in a hurry: the United States is rapidly taking revenge for the victory of the Cuban revolution. In 1964, a military regime reigned in Brazil for more than twenty years. And as Nixon said, "the path that Brazil takes, the whole continent will follow." The continent was clearly drifting to the right. A year later, President Lyndon Johnson organized an intervention against the Dominican Republic. By creating a new "partisan hearth" Che Guevara hoped to divert US attention from Cuba.

In March 1965, Che Guevara returned to Cuba after a three-month absence. And since then ... more in public did not appear. Journalists were at a loss: arrested? is ill? fled? killed? In April, Ernesto's mother received a letter. The son reported that he was going to leave the government and settle somewhere in the wilderness.

Shortly after Che's disappearance, Fidel announces his letter in a narrow circle: "I officially renounce my post in the leadership of the party, from my post as minister, from the title of Comandante, from my Cuban citizenship. Officially, nothing more connects me with Cuba, except for the ties of another kind that cannot be renounced in the same way that I renounce my posts."

Here are fragments of a letter he left to "dear old people", his parents:

"... I again feel the ribs of Rocinante with my heels, again, dressed in armor, I set off.

Many will call me an adventurer, and this is true. But I'm the only adventurer of a special kind, the kind who risk their own skin to prove their case.

Maybe this is the last time I'm trying to do this. I do not seek such an end, but it is possible... And if it happens, accept my last embrace.

I loved you deeply, but I did not know how to express my love. I am too direct in my actions and I think that sometimes I was not understood. Besides, it was not easy to understand me, but this time - trust me. So, the determination, which I have cultivated with the enthusiasm of the artist, will make frail legs and tired lungs work. I'll get mine.

Remember sometimes this modest condottiere of the 20th century...

Your prodigal and incorrigible son hugs you tightly

And here is the letter to the children:

"Dear Ildita, Aleidita, Camilo, Celia and Ernesto! If you ever read this letter, then I will not be among you.

You won't remember much about me, and the kids won't remember anything.

Your father was a man who acted according to his views and undoubtedly lived according to his convictions.

Raise good revolutionaries. Learn a lot to master the technique that allows you to dominate nature. Remember that the most important thing is the revolution and each of us individually does not mean anything.

Above all, always be able to feel in the deepest way any injustice committed anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful trait of a revolutionary.

Goodbye kids, I hope to see you again.

Dad sends you a big kiss and hugs you tight."

Hope did not come true. He didn't see them again. These letters were the latest news.

A year and a half after the disappearance, Che would be in Bolivia at the head of a detachment of forty people from different tribes: approximately the same "team" began the guerrilla in Cuba. But the second Sierra Maestra was not destined to take place. Indian peasants treated all whites - and even more so foreigners - as strangers. Contrary to expectations, the local Communist Party did not provide assistance, which invariably carried out the ideological order of Moscow. And Moscow did not need another revolution, committed in violation of the Kremlin calendar (without the participation of the hegemon-proletariat).

Throughout the eleven months of Che's stay in Bolivia, his demoralized detachment was haunted by setbacks. Winding, the rebels tried in vain to get away from the rangers trained by the Americans. President Johnson gave the go-ahead for Operation Cynthia, the liquidation of Che and his detachment. A day before the denouement, The New York Times published a piece of correspondence under the heading "Che's Last Fight." On October 8, 1967, Che was trapped in the El Yuro Gorge in southeastern Bolivia. Exhausted, he could barely move, there was no cure for asthma for a long time, he was shaking with malaria, he was tormented by stomach pains. Che found himself alone, his carbine was broken, he himself was wounded. The legendary partisan was captured.

In a nearby village, he was locked up in a hut called a school. Che did not react in any way to the appearance of high military officials. His last conversation is with a young teacher, Julia Cortez. On the blackboard was written in chalk in Spanish: "I can already read." Che said, smiling: "The word 'read' is spelled with an accent. It's a mistake!" On October 9, at about 13.30, non-commissioned officer Mario Teran shot Che with an M-2 automatic rifle. As proof that the hated Che died, his body was put on public display. Che reminded the Indians of Christ, and they, like amulets, cut off strands of his hair. At the direction of the Bolivian military leadership and the CIA station, the wax mask was removed from Che's face and his hands were cut off to identify fingerprints. Later, the well-wisher will transport Che's alcoholized hands to Cuba and they will become an object of worship.

It wasn't until almost three decades later that Che's killers revealed the truth about his burial place. On October 11, the bodies of Che and six of his associates were buried in a mass grave, razed to the ground and covered with asphalt on the runway of the airfield near the village of Valle Grande. Later, when the remains of the fallen guerrillas are brought to Havana, the skeleton with the tag "E-2" is identified as the remains of Che.

The solemn funeral of Che took place on the eve of the opening of the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. A week of mourning was declared. Obelisks, memorial plaques, posters with Che's motto: "Always to victory!" Hundreds of thousands of Cubans walked in silence past seven containers of polished wood.

The partisans were buried three hundred kilometers east of Havana, in the center of the province of Las Villas, the city of Santa Clara, where Che won his most brilliant victory.

And on October 17, 1997, Che's remains were transferred to the mausoleum, arranged at the base of the monument erected on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Among the many participants in the funeral ceremony are the widow of French President Francois Mitterrand, Che's fellow countryman, the famous forward Diego Maradona. The highest military honors were given, and an eternal flame was lit at the burial place of Fidel Castro. It seems that an end has been put in the fate of the legendary man.

Ernesto Che Guevara has been dead for over thirty years. His great contemporaries - John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, Charles de Gaulle and Mao Zedong - have taken their places in the textbooks of world history, and Che is still an idol. Che's time continues.

Ernesto Che Guevara - full name Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario (Argentina). At the age of two, Ernesto suffered a severe form of bronchial asthma (and this disease haunted him all his life), and the family moved to Cordoba to restore his health.

In 1950, Guevara was hired as a sailor on an oil cargo ship from Argentina, visited the island of Trinidad and British Guiana.

In 1952, Ernesto went on a motorcycle tour of South America with his brother Granado. They visited Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela.

In 1953 he graduated from the Medical Faculty of the National University of Buenos Aires, received a medical degree.

From 1953 to 1954, Guevara made his second long journey through Latin America. He visited Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador. In Guatemala, he took part in the defense of the government of President Árbenz, after whose defeat he settled in Mexico, where he worked as a doctor. During this period of his life, Ernesto Guevara received his nickname "Che" for the Che interjection characteristic of the Argentinean Spanish, which he abused in oral speech.

In November 1966, he arrived in Bolivia to organize a partisan movement.
The partisan detachment he created on October 8, 1967 was surrounded and defeated by government troops. Ernesto Che Guevara was .

On October 11, 1967, his body and the bodies of six other of his associates were secretly buried near the airport in Vallegrande. In July 1995, the location of Guevara's grave was discovered. And in July 1997, the remains of the Comandante were returned to Cuba, in October 1997, the remains of Che Guevara were reburied in the mausoleum of the city of Santa Clara in Cuba.

In 2000, Time magazine included Che Guevara in the lists of "20 Heroes and Icons" and "One Hundred Most Important Persons of the 20th Century."

The image of the Comandante is on all banknotes in denominations of three Cuban pesos.
The world-famous two-tone portrait of Che Guevara from the front has become a symbol of the romantic revolutionary movement. The portrait was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick from a 1960 photograph taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. Che's beret shows the asterisk José Marti, the hallmark of the Comandante, received from Fidel Castro in July 1957 along with this title.

October 8 in Cuba in memory of Ernest Che Guevara celebrate Heroic Guerrilla Day.

Che Guevara has been married twice and has five children. In 1955, he married the Peruvian revolutionary Ilda Gadea, who gave birth to Guevara's daughter. In 1959, his marriage to Ilda broke up, and the revolutionary married Aleida March, whom he met in a partisan detachment. With Aleida, they had four children.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Ernesto Guevara was born in the city of Rosario (Argentina). This event in the family of a Basque and an Irish woman took place on June 14, 1928. Ernesto was the first of five children. His parents always supported the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Veterans of the resistance army have repeatedly visited their house. This could not but affect the young Ernesto. His father repeated more than once that the son was of the flesh and blood of the Irish rebels.

It is interesting to note that all family members loved to read. About 3,000 books were stored on the shelves. Among them are books by Franz Kafka, Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jules Verne, William Faulkner and many others.

Youth

In 1948, the future national hero of Argentina successfully passed the exams for the medical department at the national university in Buenos Aires. Literally two years later, he took a leave of absence for a grand tour of Latin America with his friend Alberto Granado. On a motorcycle, two comrades traveled around half of the mainland and saw the main sights with their own eyes, got acquainted with the amazing nature and various peoples of the large continent. He wrote down his thoughts and impressions in a diary. Later, these records appeared on the front pages of the New York Times under the loud headline "The Motorcycle Diaries."

Back in Argentina, 22-year-old Ernesto once again sat down at his desk - this time to complete his studies, and finally receive a well-deserved doctorate. He reached his goal in 1953. But with all his thoughts and feelings, he was directed to another world - a world of justice and freedom, directly opposite to flourishing poverty and lawlessness.

revolutionary activity

At the end of 1953, Ernesto Guevara moved to Guatemala, where he actively participated in the political and public life of the country. From there, under threat of arrest, he was forced to flee to Mexico. There he met his future wife, Ilde Gadea, who introduced him to the circle of revolutionary-minded emigrants from the Island of Freedom.

In the summer of 1955, a fateful meeting awaited him with Raul Castro, who soon introduced him to his own brother, Fidel Castro. The latter invited Guevara to join the Cuban revolutionary group to fight the dictatorial regime of Batista. The Argentine agreed without any doubt, because the success of the Cuban uprising is the first step towards victory in the continental revolution. And this was his main dream and goal of life.

Victory

The road to victory was hard. Some died during the fighting, others were arrested and shot. However, Fidel Castro was supported by most of the country's population. As a result, in the summer of 1958 Batista's army was finally defeated.

Guevara was awarded the highest military rank - commandant. He became an honorary citizen of Cuba and second only to Fidel Castro. But honors didn't change him. He led a modest lifestyle, opposed all sorts of excesses and luxury. But most importantly, he continued to lead his just struggle for equal rights, the eradication of poverty and a new social society throughout the South American continent.

Other biography options

• In a brief biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, one cannot fail to mention the appearance of the word "Che" in his name. The fact is that the “comandante” often used the interjection “che”, which literally translated as “friend”.
• In 1962, the world was on the brink of nuclear war, largely due to the efforts of Guevara. It was he who participated in bringing nuclear missiles to Cuba.
• In 1967, Che Guevara was captured and subsequently shot in La Ichera.

Che Guevara - Latin American revolutionary, commander of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Full name Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Linch or in Spanish Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Linch.

To understand the unusual popularity of Che Guevara, one must delve into the biography of this Latin American revolutionary, popular for so many years. I tried to collect the most interesting and unusual facts from the life of Che Guevara.

Che's mother's distant ancestor was General José de la Serna e Hinojosa, Viceroy of Peru.

Ernesto Che Guevara's childhood name was Tete, which means "pig" * is a diminutive of Ernesto.

He later received the nickname Borov:

And, of course, Ernesto continued to play rugby with the Granado brothers. His friend Barral spoke of Guevara as the most gambler on the team, although he still always carried an inhaler with him to games.

It was then that he earned a rude nickname, which, however, he was very proud of:

“- They called me Borov.

Because you were fat?

No, because I was dirty."

Fear of cold water, which sometimes caused asthma attacks, gave Ernesto a dislike for personal hygiene." (Paco Ignacio Taibo)

For the first two years of school, Che Guevara could not attend school and studied at home, as he suffered from daily asthma attacks. The first attack of bronchial asthma happened to Ernesto Che Guevara at the age of two, and this disease haunted him until the end of his life.

Ernesto entered the Dean Funes State College only at 30 and all because of the aforementioned asthma at 14 years old.

Che Guevara was born in Argentina, and became interested in Cuba at the age of 11, when the Cuban chess player Capablanca arrived in Buenos Aires. Ernesto was very passionate about chess.

Starting from the age of 4, Guevara became passionately interested in reading, since there was a library of several thousand books in the house of Che's parents.

Ernesto Che Guevara was very fond of poetry and even composed poetry himself.

Che was strong in the exact sciences, especially in mathematics, but chose the profession of a doctor.

Che Guevara in his youth was fond of football (however, like most boys in Argentina), rugby, horseback riding, golf, gliding and loved to travel by bike.

The name of Che Guevara appeared in the newspapers for the first time not in connection with the revolutionary events, but when he made a tour of four thousand kilometers on a moped, traveling all over South America.

Che Guevara wanted to dedicate his life to the treatment of lepers in South America, like Albert Schweitzer, whose authority he bowed to.

In the 40s, Ernesto even worked as a librarian.

On my first second trip to South America Che Guevara and Doctor of Biochemistry Alberto Granados (do you remember that Che wanted to devote his life to treating lepers?) earned money for food by doing odd jobs: they washed dishes in restaurants, treated peasants or acted as veterinarians, repaired radios, worked as loaders, porters or sailors.

When Che and Alberto got to Brazil Colombia they were arrested for looking suspicious and tired. But the police chief, being a football fan familiar with Argentina's football success, released them after learning where they were from in exchange for a promise to coach the local football team. The team won the regional championship, and the fans bought them plane tickets to the Colombian capital, Bogotá.

In Colombia, Guevara and Granandos again went to jail, but they were released with a promise to leave Colombia immediately.

Ernesto Che Guevara, not wanting to serve in the army, caused an asthma attack with an ice bath and was declared unfit for military service. As you can see, they do not want to serve in the army, not only in our country.

Che was very interested in ancient cultures, read a lot about them and often visited the ruins of the Indians of ancient civilizations.

Coming from a bourgeois family, he, having a medical degree in his hands, sought to work in the most backward areas, even for free, in order to treat ordinary people.

Ernesto once came to the conclusion that in order to be a successful and wealthy doctor, it is not necessary to be a privileged specialist, but to serve the ruling classes and invent useless medicines for imaginary patients. But Che believed that he was obliged to devote himself to improving the living conditions of the broad masses.

On June 17, 1954, the armed groups of Armas from Honduras invaded the territory of Guatemala, the executions of supporters of the Arbenz government and the bombing of the capital and other cities of Guatemala began. Ernesto Che Guevara asked to be sent to the fighting area and called for the creation of a militia.
“Compared to me, he was a more advanced revolutionary,” recalls Fidel Castro.

Che Guevara learned to smoke cigars in Cuba to ward off annoying mosquitoes.

Che did not shout at anyone, and did not allow mockery, but often used strong words in conversation, and was very sharp, "when necessary."

On June 5, 1957, Fidel Castro singled out a convoy led by Che Guevara, consisting of 75 fighters. Che was awarded the rank of commandant (major). It should be noted that during the revolution in Cuba in 1956-1959, the commandant was the highest rank among the rebels, who deliberately did not assign each other a higher military rank. The most famous commandantes are Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos.

As a Marxist, Ernesto Che Guevara reproached the "fraternal" socialist countries (USSR and China) for imposing on the poorest countries conditions of trade similar to those dictated by imperialism in the world market.

Che Guevara in the early 1950s jokingly signs his letters "Stalin II".

During his life, Che, leading partisan detachments, was wounded in battle 2 times. Che wrote to his parents after the second wound: “he used up two, five remained,” meaning that he, like a cat, had seven lives.

Ernesto Che Guevara was shot by Bolivian army sergeant Mario Teran, who pulled out a short straw in a dispute between soldiers for the honor of killing Che. The sergeant was ordered to fire carefully in order to simulate death in battle. This was done to avoid the accusation that Che was executed without trial or investigation.

Many inhabitants of Latin America after the death of Che began to consider him a saint and addressed him as "San Ernesto de La Higuera".

Che traditionally, with all monetary reforms, is depicted on the front side of a banknote in denominations of three Cuban pesos.

The world-famous two-tone portrait of Che Guevara, full face, has become a symbol of the romantic revolutionary movement. The portrait was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick from a 1960 photograph taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda. Che's beret shows the asterisk José Marti, the hallmark of the Comandante, received from Fidel Castro in July 1957 along with this title.

The famous song "Hasta Siempre Comandante" ("Comandante forever"), contrary to popular belief, was written by Carlos Puebla before the death of Che Guevara, and not after.

According to legend, Fidel Castro, having gathered his comrades-in-arms, asked them a simple question: “Is there at least one economist among you?” Hearing “communist” instead of “economist”, Che was the first to raise his hand. And then it was too late to retreat.