Havana  - Evidence abounds on Cuba of the Communist island's once close ties with the Soviet Union and the Eastern European bloc.

Some 100,000 Russian-made Lada cars continue to drive on Cuba's roads, while a major portion of its industrial machinery and its army's weapons hail from the Soviet Union, or USSR.

But the relationship was defined by more than just shipments of equipment and help with infrastructure. The sudden collapse of the bloc led by the Soviet Union - until then Havana's main political, economic and trade partner - dealt Cuba a critical blow and was a turning point for the only Communist state in the western hemisphere.

Almost from one day to the next, Cuba lost 85 per cent of its economic and financial ties to the rest of the world, forcing it into an unprecedented economic crisis.

The best description of events was probably the term used by the Cuban government for the budding historic moment. It referred to the era as the "Special Period in Peacetime," an age of extreme scarcity like that which marks a war economy, only with no war.

Cubans tell many anecdotes of the hardships of that "Special Period." Those were the days of drinking water with sugar, of eating bananas from backyard trees, and using homemade soap.

People walked through streets devoid of cars due to a lack of fuel. Bicycles became the main means of transportation, despite the heat and the sun.

People spoke of "alumbrones" - power switch-ons - rather than the more usual blackouts.

"When I look at photographs of that time, I wonder how we could survive. We were so badly dressed and starved," says Dianelys Rodriguez, a 40-year-old teacher at a school in Havana.

"I had a very small piece of soap with which I used to wash everything, from stains on my uniform to my teeth," recalls Lazaro Godoy, 32, a dancer who left for the United States with his family at the lowest point of that period.

Many could not stand the situation and decided to leave Cuba. In September 1994 alone, 30,000 Cubans opted to take to the sea in makeshift vessels in the hope of reaching the US coastline. It was what was called the "balseros crisis."

However, the "Special Period" also brought solutions to Cuba, as the island put in place an unprecedented "emergency policy" to promote economic recovery. Building up economic ties with foreign countries was one of its pillars, as Cuba looked for new partners, mainly through international tourism.

"Everyone thought that Cuba would not be able to resist the collapse of the Socialist camp and of the USSR," said former Cuban president Fidel Castro in 2000 in a rare interview.

"In the economic field, the damage for Cuba was terrible. Our sugar did not command the adequate price in the rubbish dump of the world market. Supplies of fuels, food, the most varied commodities and machine and factory parts stopped almost abruptly," Castro recalled.

In the period 1989-93 alone, the total volume of the island's exports fell by 47 per cent, as its capacity to import goods dropped by over 70 per cent and its GDP shrank by close to 35 per cent.

This was not just a question of falling economic indicators. Combined with the ongoing US embargo on the island nation, the conditions became an ordeal for some everyday Cubans.

"The daily calorie intake fell from 3,000 to 1,900 and the protein intake from 80 to 50 grammes. There were some who lost heart, but the immense majority met the difficulties with impressive courage, honour and determination," Castro noted.

The island gradually opened up to foreign investment and started to look for alternative sources of income to reduce its dependence on the export of commodities such as nickel and sugar. Years later, the export of services - such as the deployment of doctors in Venezuela - is one of Cuba's main sources of income.

Castro said in the interview that he is proud of the way the island got through the crisis.

"We did not close one single health centre, one single school or children's centre, one single university, one single sports centre. Nobody was sent out onto the street with no job or social protection, even if we lacked fuel and commodities," Castro stressed. (dpa)