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Cuban revolution in pictures: Early years of Fidel Castro

The funeral ceremony of the late Cuban revolutionary leader has ended in Santiago de Cuba on Sunday as Castro’s ashes were buried at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery

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On December 2, 1956 Fidel Castro and 81 other future revolutionaries landed in Cuba on the yacht Granma. It was the start of the guerilla war against dictator Fulgencio Batista. Photo: Fidel Castro in Cuba, 1957

In November 1958, Fidel Castro personally led his forces into battle near Guisa, not far from the island’s second most important city of Santiago de Cuba. It was the start of the rebel army’s final offensive. Photo: Cuban rebel leader Fidel Castro and nurses who worked for the rebel army "Movement 26th July" in the Sierra Maestra, Cuba, 1958

Another group of rebels, led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, marched toward the capital, Havana. On December 31, 1958, the city of Santa Clara not far from the capital fell to the revolutionary forces. Photo: Raul Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara, 1958

© AP Photo/Andrew St. George

Only about a dozen of rebels survived the revolution, including Castro himself, his brother Raul and Che Guevara. Photo: Fidel Castro at his rebel base in Cuba's Sierra Maestra mountains, 1957

© AP Photo/Andrew St. George

The Cuban revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959 after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country and Fidel Castro and his allies took the power in the state. Photo: Fidel Castro with a group of his soldiers in front of a mural showing ex-dictator Batista, 1959

Fidel Castro and his soldiers in Matanzas, 90 kilometres east of Havana, January 1959

The younger brother of Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, 1959

© AP Photo/File

Castro made appearances at many towns as he and his caravan made their way toward Havana. Photo: Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro making a speech in Colon, Cuba, January 7, 1959

© AP Photo/Harold Valentine

Rebels in the car on Havana's street ahead of inaugurating a revolutionary government, January 2, 1959

Supporters of Fidel Castro in Grand Central Park in Havana, 1959

Years later, on April 16, 1961 Fidel Castro officially declared the socialist nature of Cuban Revolution. Photo: Cuban athletes carrying portraits of Karl Marx, Raul Castro, and Ernest "Che" Guevara, during May Day parade in Havana, May 1, 1961

The early years of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro - in this gallery by TASS.

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