Khrushchev: On the Cult of Personality - Revision history

imported>Azadsingh: /* Effect on communists */ Link

2025-10-10T07:05:28Z

Effect on communists: Link

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:05, 10 October 2025
Line 27:		Line 27:
	Polish communist leader Boleslaw Bierut mysteriously dropped dead in Moscow after the speech. It is speculated that Khrushchev killed him.<ref>Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. p. 38. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1991/10/doctors-case-death-stalin.pdf</ref>		Polish communist leader Boleslaw Bierut mysteriously dropped dead in Moscow after the speech. It is speculated that Khrushchev killed him.<ref>Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. p. 38. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1991/10/doctors-case-death-stalin.pdf</ref>

	The Speech led to the bourgeois-backed liberal Poznan Protests in Poland.		The Speech led to the bourgeois-backed liberal [[Poznan Protests]] in Poland.

	===Hungary===		===Hungary===

imported>Azadsingh: /* Poland */ Condense

2025-10-05T23:00:35Z

Poland: Condense

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:00, 5 October 2025
Line 27:		Line 27:
	Polish communist leader Boleslaw Bierut mysteriously dropped dead in Moscow after the speech. It is speculated that Khrushchev killed him.<ref>Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. p. 38. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1991/10/doctors-case-death-stalin.pdf</ref>		Polish communist leader Boleslaw Bierut mysteriously dropped dead in Moscow after the speech. It is speculated that Khrushchev killed him.<ref>Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. p. 38. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1991/10/doctors-case-death-stalin.pdf</ref>

	The Speech led to bourgeois-backed liberal ~~protests~~ in Poland~~, known as the Poznan protests~~.		The Speech led to the bourgeois-backed liberal Poznan Protests in Poland.

	===Hungary===		===Hungary===

imported>Azadsingh: /* Use by revisionists */ Add link

2025-10-05T22:59:47Z

Use by revisionists: Add link

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:59, 5 October 2025
Line 11:		Line 11:
	After the 20th Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. ... Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.		After the 20th Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. ... Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.

	- Alexander Yakovlev, senior advisor to Gorbachev<ref>Introduction to the [[Black Book of Communism]]. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135633/http://agitclub.ru/gorby/ussr/blackbook1.htm</ref>		- Alexander Yakovlev, senior advisor to [[Gorbachev]]<ref>Introduction to the [[Black Book of Communism]]. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135633/http://agitclub.ru/gorby/ussr/blackbook1.htm</ref>

	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

imported>Azadsingh: Create page

2025-10-05T22:56:15Z

Create page

New page

In 1956, at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev gave a speech '''On the Cult of the Individual''' defaming Stalin. It began by accusing Stalin of creating a personality cult, then accused him of [[List of myths about Stalin|various evil deeds]] in a [[historical nihilism|historical nihilist]] attempt to 'blackwash' Stalin's era. <ref>Nikita Khrushchev. On the Cult of the Individual. https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm</ref>

The speech was strategically placed on the last day so that it could not be debated or voted on by the Congress. Copies were then distributed to national and local Party meetings, treating it as accepted fact. It was then leaked by an [[Israeli]] spy to the Western press, which (under [[Operation Mockingbird|CIA direction]]) labeled it as the '''Secret Speech''' to make it appear more sensationalist and as an admission of guilt by communists, rather than a partisan denigration by Khrushchev against Stalin.

==Use by revisionists==

The speech was used to advance [[historical nihilism]].

<blockquote>

After the 20th Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. ... Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.

- Alexander Yakovlev, senior advisor to Gorbachev<ref>Introduction to the [[Black Book of Communism]]. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104135633/http://agitclub.ru/gorby/ussr/blackbook1.htm</ref>

</blockquote>

==Effect on communists==

Although it has been debunked today, at the time most communists believed it, because Khrushchev appeared to be an honest communist. This led to massive self-criticism by communist parties around the world, where they were pressured by Moscow to "admit" their "Stalinist" mistakes, essentially saying Trotsky was correct. This was huge material for anticommunists, and immediately caused mass exodus of members from communist parties in the West.

===Soviet Union===

Communists in the Soviet Union, especially in Georgia and Russia, protested against the defamatory speech, claiming that the Soviet leadership had betrayed the people. Soviet troops violently broke up the protests, killing some in Georgia.<ref>https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1956-2/khrushchevs-secret-speech/khrushchevs-secret-speech-texts/the-incidents-in-georgia-march-1956/</ref>

===Poland===

Polish communist leader Boleslaw Bierut mysteriously dropped dead in Moscow after the speech. It is speculated that Khrushchev killed him.<ref>Bill Bland. The Doctors' Case and the Death of Stalin. p. 38. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bland/1991/10/doctors-case-death-stalin.pdf</ref>

The Speech led to bourgeois-backed liberal protests in Poland, known as the Poznan protests.

===Hungary===

With the communists weakened by the speech, in 1956 Stalinist leader [[Matyas Rakosi]] was forced to fully resign by [[Khrushchev]]. (3 years earlier, [[Beria]] had forced him to partly resign.) In his place, Moscow promoted Imre Nagy.

Imre Nagy, a liberal "socialist", would later allow CIA thugs to cross into Hungary and start the [[1956 Hungarian Uprising]], where they lynched communists and Jews, and the USSR was forced to invade. <ref>Herbert Aptheker. The Truth about Hungary. https://espressostalinist.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/the-truth-about-hungary.pdf</ref>

==See also==

* [[Historical nihilism]]
* [[Nikita Khrushchev]]

==Full text==
* Marxists.org https://www.marxists.org/archive/khrushchev/1956/02/24.htm

==References==