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"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (Russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», romanized: “O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh”) was a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 February 1956. Though popularly known as the Secret Speech (Russian: секретный доклад Хрущёва, romanized: sekretnïy doklad Khrushcheva), "secret" is something of a misnomer, as copies of the speech were read out at thousands of meetings of Communist Party (CPSU) and Komsomol organizations across the USSR. Khrushchev's speech sharply criticized the rule of the former General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin (died March 1953), particularly with respect to the purges which had especially marked the later years of the 1930s. Khrushchev charged Stalin with having fostered a leadership cult of personality despite ostensibly maintaining support for the ideals of communism. The speech is central to the period of liberalization known as the "Khrushchev Thaw" in the Soviet bloc and to the process of de-Stalinization.

The speech produced shocking effects in its day. Reports state that some listeners suffered heart attacks and that the speech even inspired suicides, due to the shock of all of Khrushchev's criticisms and condemnations of the government and of the previously revered figure of Stalin. The most direct impact of the speech occurred in Tbilisi, Georgia, between 4-10 of March 1956. The 1956 Georgian Demonstrations took place during the 3rd anniversary of Stalin's death in reaction to the Secret Speech by Pro-Stalin protestors and rioters. On 9 March 1956, the Soviet Union deployed its army on the protestors; the number of persons killed and wounded is highly debated with low numbers in the dozens and high numbers in the hundreds. The Georgian Demonstrations are accounted as the lone violent incident defending Stalin, while other instances in cities and gulags did take place in protest of Stalin.