Description

"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" 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, "secret" is something of a misnomer, as copies of the speech were read out at thousands of meetings of Communist Party and Komsomol organisations across the USSR. Khrushchev's speech sharply criticised the rule of the deceased General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin, 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.