WikipediaExtracts:On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences

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Coat of arms of the Soviet Union (1956–1991).svg

"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 speech given by Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, on 25 February 1956. It was formally a report by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (a position held by Khrushchev) to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

It is popularly known as the Secret Speech (Russian: секретный доклад Хрущёва, romanized: sekretnyi doklad Khrushchyova) because the session was not open to journalists or non-party members, and the Central Committee classified it as "not for publication". Copies of the speech were read out at thousands of local meetings of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Komsomol organizations across the USSR, so its general content was widely known. The full text circulated informally and was published in the West within weeks, but was not published in the Soviet Union until 1989.

Khrushchev's speech sharply criticized the rule of Joseph Stalin, the previous Soviet leader who had died March 1953. Khrushchev condemned Stalin's purges, particularly the Great Purge of the late 1930s. He also charged Stalin with having fostered a cult of personality in himself as national leader, while ostensibly supporting communist ideals. The speech initiated the period of liberalization known as the "Khrushchev Thaw" in the Soviet bloc and the process of de-Stalinization.

The speech shocked party members. Contemporary reports state that some listeners suffered heart attacks and inspired suicides, due to the shock Khrushchev's criticisms and condemnations of the Communist government under Stalin, a previously revered figure. In Tbilisi, Georgia (Stalin's native country) widespread demonstrations by pro-Stalin protestors took place from 4-10 March 1956. They began on the 3rd anniversary of Stalin's death in reaction to the Secret Speech. On 9 March 1956, the Soviet army fired on the protestors; casualty numbers are disputed in the range of dozens to hundreds. Other (less violent) popular demonstrations against Stalin's legacy took place in cities and gulags across the Soviet Union.