On a more practical level, the 50,000 Soviet military and civilian personnel that were sent to Cuba, when preparing for the deployment, where issued with fur-hats, balaclavas, and skies, etc, together with arctic equipment – to fool the US Intelligence community. Instead of traversing to the cold north-east – the Soviet Red Army was in fact deploying to the tropical south-east. Following the 1956 betrayal of Joseph Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev (playing to the Western and Trotskyite hatred of genuine Marxist-Leninism) – the authentic Socialist processes and institutions of the USSR were robust and possessed strength in-depth. The destruction of the 1917 October Revolution in the USSR would take just 36-years to achieve (1956-1991). In the 1960s it was the USSR that aided Cuba and not Socialist China (Mao Zedong had condemned Khrushchev and upheld the good reputation of Joseph Stalin) – a stance which led to the Sino-Soviet Split (1956-1991). Cuba could have requested help from China – but chose not to at the time. A position condemned by numerous Maoist groups – such as the Workers’ Institute in the UK.