On the Personality Cult and its Consequences (Russian: О культе личности и его последствиях), commonly known as the Secret Speech was a report to the 20th Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, in which he denounced the actions of Joseph Stalin. (Redirected from 20th Party Congress) The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during February 14—February 26, 1956. ... February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital (largest city) Moscow None; Russian de facto Government Federation of Soviet Republics  - Last President Mikhail Gorbachev  - Last Premier Ivan Silayev Establishment October Revolution   - Declared 30... Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: ; IPA: ); surname more accurately romanized as Khrushchyov; April 17, 1894 [O.S. April 5]–September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ... Denunciation refers to the announcement of a treatys termination. ... Stalin redirects here. ...

It was the first major break by Soviet leadership from the long domination of Stalinism. It was presented as an attempt to draw the Communist Party of the Soviet Union closer to Leninism. Stalin was condemned for violating Leninist principles and Communist Party norms. Joseph Stalin. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is therefore a branch of Marxism. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ...

It was known as the Secret Speech because it was delivered at a closed session, and its actual text was printed only in 1989 (in the magazine "Известия ЦК КПСС" ("Izvestiya TseKa KPSS" - Reports of the Central Committee of the CPSU), no 3, March 1989), although many Party members had already been informed of the speech one month after Khrushchev delivered it. 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 16th Central Committee meeting of the Communist Party of China Central Committee most commonly refers to the central executive unit of a communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = &#1050... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

History

The issue of mass repressions was recognized before the speech. In fact, the speech was prepared based on the results of a special party commission (Pospelov, Komarov, Aristov, Shvernik (chairman)), known as the Shvernik Commission, arranged at the session of the Presidium of the Party central committee on January 31, 1955. A direct goal of the commission was to investigate the repressions of the delegates of the XVII Party Congress. This commission presented evidence that during 1937–1938 (the peak of the period known as the Great Purge) over one and a half million Party members were convicted for "anti-Soviet activities", of whom over 680,000 were executed. These numbers were compiled from the execution lists signed by Stalin. The actual death toll of the Great Purge was much larger, when accounting for the repressions of peasants and other citizens. The XVII congress was selected for investigations because it was known as "the Congress of Victors" in the country of "victorious socialism", and therefore the enormous number of "enemies" among the participants demanded explanation. Shvernik Commission (Shverniks Commission, Russian: ) was an informal name of the commission of the CPSU Central Committee Presidium headed by Nikolay Shvernik for the investigation of political repressions in Soviet Union during the period of Stalinism. ... January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... Socialism is a class of ideologies favouring a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ...

Despite the denouncing of political repressions,Noor Al-Shaarani the wrold famous historian argues that the process of rehabilitation of Old Bolsheviks was slow, although the release of political prisoners from labor camps started soon after Stalin's death. Still, the victims of the Moscow Trials were cleared of all charges only in 1988. An Old Bolshevik (Russian: ) is an unofficial designation of a member of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917. ... The Moscow Trials were a series of trials of political opponents of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Reports of the speech

Shortly after the speech was made, reports of it were conveyed to the West by Reuters journalist John Rettie, who had been told about the speech by Kostya Orlova a few hours before Rettie was due to leave for Stockholm; it was therefore reported in the Western media in early March. Rettie believes the information came from Khruschev himself via an intermediary.[1] Reuters Group plc (LSE: RTR and NASDAQ: RTRSY); pron. ...

On March 5, 1956, the Party Presidium ordered the reading of Khrushchev's Report at the meetings of all Communist and Komsomol organizations, with the invitation of non-members as well. Thus the contents of the report had become widely known in the country already in 1956, and the name "Secret Speech" is a misnomer. But as noted above, the full text was not officially released to the public until 1989. March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Komsomol (Комсомол) is a syllabic abbreviation word, from the Russian Kommunisticheski Soyuz Molodiozhi (Коммунистический союз молодёжи), or Communist... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

However, the text of the speech was only slowly disclosed in the Eastern European countries. It was never disclosed to Western communist party members by their leaders, and most Western communists became aware of the details of the text after an American newspaper published a copy in mid-1956.

The content of the speech reached the west through a circuitous route. As noted above, a few copies of the speech were sent by order of the Soviet Politburo to leaders of the Eastern Bloc countries. Shortly after the speech had been disseminated, a Polish journalist, Viktor Grayevsky, visited his girl friend, Lucia Baranowski, who worked as a junior secretary in the office of the first secretary of the Polish Communist Party, Edward Ochab. On her desk was a thick booklet with a red binding, with the words: "The 20th Party Congress, the speech of Comrade Khrushchev." Grayevsky had heard rumors of the speech and, as a journalist, was interested in reading it. Baranowski allowed him to take the document home to read. Edward Ochab (1906-1989) was a Polish Communist politician who was First Secretary of the Communist party between March and October 1956 and served as head of state in the years 1964-1968. ...

As it happened, Grayevsky, who was Jewish, and had made a recent trip to Israel to visit his sick father, decided to immigrate there. After he read the speech, he decided to take it to the Israeli Embassy and gave it to Yaakov Barmor who had helped Grayevsky make his trip to visit Grayevsky's sick father. Unbeknownst to Grayevsky, Barmor was a Shin Bet representative. Barmor photographed the document and sent the photographs to Israel. Shabak emblem Defender who shall not be seen The Shabak (in Hebrew, שבכ   Shabak?} an acronym of Sherut ha-Bitachon ha-Klali שירות ביטחון כללי) known abroad as the Shin Bet or the GSS (General Security Service), is the Internal General Security Service of Israel. ...

By the afternoon of April 13, 1956, the Shin Bet in Israel had received the photographs. Israeli intelligence and United States intelligence had previously secretly agreed to cooperate on security matters. James Jesus Angleton was the CIA's head of counterintelligence and in charge of the clandestine liaison with Israeli intelligence. The photographs were delivered to him. On April 17, 1956, the photographs had reached the CIA chief Allen Dulles, who quickly informed President Dwight Eisenhower. After determining that the speech was authentic, the CIA leaked the speech to The New York Times in early June. [2] James Jesus Angleton James Jesus Moreno Angleton (December 9, 1917–May 12, 1987), known to friends and colleagues as Jim and nicknamed the Kingfisher, was the long-serving director of the CIAs counterintelligence staff. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Allen W. Dulles Allen Welsh Dulles (April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director (1953-1961) of the Central Intelligence Agency and a member of the Warren Commission. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Summary

The basic structure of the speech was as follows:

• Repudiation of Stalin's personality cult
  • Quotations from the classics of Marxism-Leninism, which denounced the "cult of an individual" (i.e. the cult of personality, see above)
  • Lenin's Testament and remarks by Nadezhda Krupskaya about Stalin's character
  • Before Stalin, the fight with the Trotskyists was purely ideological; Stalin introduced the notion of the "enemy of the people" to be used as "heavy artillery"
  • Stalin violated Party norms of collective leadership
    • Repression of the majority of Old Bolsheviks and delegates of the XVII Party Congress, most of which were workers and had joined the Communist Party before 1920. Of the 1,966 delegates, 1,108 were declared "counter-revolutionaries", 848 were executed, and 98 of 139 members and candidates to the Central Committee were declared "enemies of the people".
    • After this repression, Stalin ceased to even consider the opinion of the collective.
  • Examples of repressions of some notable Bolsheviks are presented in detail
  • Stalin ordered that the persecution be enhanced: "NKVD is four years behind the schedule"
    • Practice of falsifications followed, to cope with "plans" for numbers of enemies to be uncovered.
  • Exaggerations of the role of Stalin in the Great Patriotic War (World War II)
  • Deportations of whole nationalities
  • Doctors' plot
  • Manifestations of personality cult: songs, city names, etc.

Adolf Hitler built a strong cult of personality, based on the Führerprinzip. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Lenins Testament is the name given to a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923. ... Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda K. Krupskaya ( February 26, 1869 - February 27, 1939) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... The term enemy of the people (Russian language: враг народа, vrag naroda) was a fluid designation under the Bolsheviks rule in regards to their real or suspected political or class opponents, sometimes including former allies. ... An Old Bolshevik (Russian: ) is an unofficial designation of a member of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917. ... For the play by Henrik Ibsen, see An Enemy of the People. ... Leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International, a painting by Malcolm McAllister on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. ... The NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del )(Russian: НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) or Peoples Commisariat for Internal Affairs was a government department which handled a number of the Soviet Unions affairs of state. ... The Eastern Front of World War II was the theatre of war covering the conflict in central and eastern Europe from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. ... Not by Their Own Will. ... The Doctors plot (Russian language: дело врачей (doctors affair), врачи-вредители (doctors-saboteurs) or врачи-убийцы (doctors-killers)) was an alleged conspiracy to eliminate the leadership of the Soviet Union by means of Jewish doctors poisoning top leadership. ...

Excerpts

• "After Stalin's death, the Central Committee began to implement a policy of explaining concisely and consistently that it is impermissible and foreign to the spirit of Marxism-Leninism to elevate one person, to transform him into a superman possessing supernatural characteristics, akin to those of a god. Such a man supposedly knows everything, sees everything, thinks for everyone, can do anything, is infallible in his behavior."
• "We have to consider seriously and analyze correctly this matter in order that we may preclude any possibility of a repetition in any form whatever of what took place during the life of Stalin, ... who practiced brutal violence, not only toward everything which opposed him, but also toward that which seemed, to his capricious and despotic character, contrary to his concepts. Stalin acted not through persuasion, explanation and patient cooperation with people, but by imposing his concepts and demanding absolute submission to his opinion. Whoever opposed these concepts or tried to prove his [own] viewpoint and the correctness of his [own] position was doomed to removal from the leadership collective and to subsequent moral and physical annihilation."
• "Stalin originated the concept 'enemy of the people.' This term automatically made it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proven. It made possible the use of the cruelest repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent… On the whole, the only proof of guilt actually used, against all norms of current legal science, was the 'confession' of the accused himself. As subsequent probing has proven, 'confessions' were acquired through physical pressures against the accused. This led to glaring violations of revolutionary legality and to the fact that many entirely innocent individuals… became victims."
• "Vladimir Ilyich demanded uncompromising dealings with the enemies of the Revolution and of the working class and when necessary resorted ruthlessly to such methods… Lenin used such methods, however, only against actual class enemies [and] only in the most necessary cases, when the exploiting classes were still in existence and were vigorously opposing the Revolution… Stalin, on the other hand, used extreme methods and mass repressions at a time when the Revolution was already victorious, when the Soviet state was strengthened, …when our Party was politically consolidated and had strengthened itself both numerically and ideologically."
• "Many thousands of honest and innocent Communists have died as a result of this monstrous falsification of such 'cases' …as a result of the practice of forcing accusations against oneself and others. In the same manner were fabricated the 'cases' against eminent Party and state workers -- Kosior, Chubar, Postyshev, Kosarev, and others… The vicious practice was condoned of having the NKVD prepare lists of persons… whose sentences were prepared in advance… Mass repressions had a negative influence on the moral-political condition of the Party, created a situation of uncertainty, contributed to the spreading of unhealthy suspicion, and sowed distrust among Communists."
• "In the same vein, let us take for instance our historical and military films and some [of our] literary creations. They make us feel sick. Their true objective is propagating the theme of praising Stalin as a military genius. Let us recall the film, The Fall of Berlin. Here only Stalin acts. He issues orders in a hall in which there are many empty Chairs. Only one man approaches him to report something to him -- it is Poskrebyshev, his loyal shield-bearer. [laughter] And where is the military command? Where is the Politburo? Where is the Government? What are they doing, and with what are they engaged? There is nothing about them in the film. Stalin acts for everybody, he does not reckon with anyone. He asks no one for advice. Everything is shown to the people in this false light. Why? To surround Stalin with glory-- contrary to the facts and contrary to historical truth."
• "All the more monstrous are those acts whose initiator was Stalin and which were rude violations of the basic Leninist principles [behind our] Soviet state's nationalities policies. We refer to the mass deportations of entire nations from their places of origin, together with all Communists and Komsomols without any exception… Thus, at the end of 1943, when there already had been a permanent change of fortune at the front in favor of the Soviet Union, a decision concerning the deportation of all the Karachays from the lands on which they lived was taken and executed. In the same period, at the end of December 1943, the same lot befell the Kalmyks of the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic. In March 1944, all the Chechens and Ingushi were deported and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic was liquidated… Ukrainians avoided meeting this fate only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them. Otherwise, [Stalin] would have deported them also." [laughter]
• "I recall the first days when the conflict between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia began to be blown up artificially. Once, when I came from Kiev to Moscow, I was invited to visit Stalin, who, pointing to the copy of a letter recently sent to Tito, asked me, 'Have you read this?' Not waiting for my reply, he answered, 'I will shake my little finger -- and there will be no more Tito. He will fall.' We have paid dearly for this 'shaking of the little finger.' This statement reflected Stalin's mania for greatness, but he acted just that way: 'I will shake my little finger -- and there will be no Kosior'; 'I will shake my little finger once more and Postyshev and Chubar will be no more'; 'I will shake my little finger again -- and Voznesensky, Kuznetsov and many others will disappear.' But this did not happen to Tito. No matter how much or how little Stalin shook, not only his little finger but everything else that he could shake, Tito did not fall. Why? The reason was that, in this instance of disagreement with [our] Yugoslav comrades, Tito had behind him a state and a people who had had a serious education in fighting for liberty and independence, a people who gave support to its leaders. You see what Stalin's mania for greatness led to. He completely lost consciousness of reality. He demonstrated his suspicion and haughtiness not only in relation to individuals in the USSR, but in relation to whole parties and nations."
• "We must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all; we must… return to and actually practice in all our ideological work the most important theses of Marxist-Leninist science about the people as the creator of history and as the creator of all material and spiritual good of humanity... [We must] continue systematically and consistently the work done by the Party's Central Committee during the last years, a work characterized by minute observation in all Party organizations, from the bottom to the top, of the Leninist principles of Party leadership... characterized by the wide practice of criticism and self-criticism. [We must] to restore completely the Leninist principles of Soviet socialist democracy, expressed in the Constitution of the Soviet Union, to fight willfulness of individuals abusing their power. The evil caused by acts violating revolutionary socialist legality which have accumulated during a long time as a result of the negative influence of the cult of the individual has to be completely corrected."

The Central Committee, abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, Tseka, was the highest body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietszche The — German: superhuman person, English: overman or superman — is the philosophical concept expounded by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, whose eponymous protagonist contends that a man can become an Ãœbermensch (homo superior; equivalent English: super-human; see below) through the following steps: By... The term enemy of the people (Russian language: враг народа, vrag naroda) was a fluid designation under the Bolsheviks rule in regards to their real or suspected political or class opponents, sometimes including former allies. ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the system of autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal Provisional Government (Duma), resulting in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that societys political policy. ... Trofim Lysenko speaking at the Kremlin in 1935. ... Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar (February 22, 1891, Fedorivka, near Ekaterinoslav - February 26, 1939) was a Ukrainian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. ... Postyshev, Pavel (Russian: ), (September 18, 1887 Ivanovo-Voznesensk - February 26, 1939, Kuibyshev). ... The NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del )(Russian: НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) or Peoples Commisariat for Internal Affairs was a government department which handled a number of the Soviet Unions affairs of state. ... Soviet Cinema should not be used as a synonym for Russian Cinema. Although Russian language films predominated, several of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union contributed films reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, although sometimes censored by the Central Government. ... Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union. ... The Politburo (in Russian: Политбюро), known as the Presidium from 1952 to 1966, functioned as the central policymaking and governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is therefore a branch of Marxism. ... In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), often called simply Soviet republics. ... Not by Their Own Will. ... Komsomol (Комсомол) is a syllabic abbreviation word, from the Russian Kommunisticheski Soyuz Molodiozhi (Коммунистический союз молодёжи), or Communist... Karachays are Turkic people of Karachay-Cherkessia. ... The Republic of Kalmykia (Russian: Респу́блика Калмы́кия; Kalmyk: Хальм Тангч) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... The Republic of Kalmykia (Kalmyk: Хальмг Таңһч; Russian: ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... This article covers the Chechen people as an ethnic group, not Chechen meaning citizens of Chechnya. ... The Ingush are a people of the northern Caucasus, mostly inhabiting the Russian republic of Ingushetia. ... Chechen-Ingush Aautonomous Soviet Socialist Rrepublic, or Chechen-Ingush ASSR (Russian: ) was an autonomous republic within Russian SFSR. Its capital was Grozny. ... It has been suggested that Democratic Federal Yugoslavia be merged into this article or section. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted. ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2005)    - Density 10,415,400   8537. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Trofim Lysenko speaking at the Kremlin in 1935. ... Postyshev, Pavel (Russian: ), (September 18, 1887 Ivanovo-Voznesensk - February 26, 1939, Kuibyshev). ... Vlas Yakovlevich Chubar (February 22, 1891, Fedorivka, near Ekaterinoslav - February 26, 1939) was a Ukrainian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alexei Kuznetsov was Deputy Leningrad Party Leader during the seige of Leningrad. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Stalin redirects here. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... The Central Committee, abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, Tseka, was the highest body of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Soviet democracy is a form of democracy in which workers elect representatives in the organs of power called soviets (councils). ... The 1936 Soviet constitution, adopted on December 5, 1936, and also known as the Stalin constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union. ... Stalin redirects here. ...

See also

• Personality cult

Adolf Hitler built a strong cult of personality, based on the Führerprinzip. ...

External links

• Annotated Text of the Secret Speech
• A "Stalinist" rebuttal of Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" from the CPUSA, 1956
• The day Khrushchev denounced Stalin: former Reuters correspondent John Rettie recounts how he reported Khrushchev's speech to the world
• Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917