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No questions or debate followed Khrushchev's presentation and delegates left the hall in a state of acute disorientation. [10] The same evening, the delegates of foreign communist parties were called to the Kremlin and given the opportunity to read the prepared text of the Khrushchev speech, which was treated as a top secret state document. [10]
It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. [1] [2] Delegates at this Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were given no warning of what to expect.
On 25 February 1956, at a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered a "secret speech" in which he criticized actions taken by the Stalin regime, particularly the purges of the military and the upper Party echelons, and the development of Stalin's cult of personality, while maintaining support for other ideals ...
However, prior to Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress, no direct association between Stalin as a person and "the cult of personality" was openly made by Khrushchev or others within the party, although archival documents show that strong criticism of Stalin and his ideology featured in private discussions by Khruschchev at ...
Khrushchev's "secret speech" attack on Stalin in 1956 was a signal for abandoning Stalinist precepts and looking at new options, including more involvement in the Middle East. Khrushchev in power did not moderate his personality—he remained unpredictable and was emboldened by the spectacular successes in space.
The speech prompted the envoys from twelve NATO nations and Israel to leave the room. [4] [5] [6] During Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959, the Los Angeles mayor Norris Poulson in his address to Khrushchev stated We do not agree with your widely quoted phrase 'We shall bury you.' You shall not bury us and we shall not bury you.
The members of the group regarded Khrushchev's attacks on Stalin, most famously in the Secret Speech delivered at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956 as wrong and hypocritical, given Khrushchev's complicity in the Great Purge and similar events as one of Stalin's favorites.
In addition Khrushchev claimed that Stalin expanded the list of his accomplishments enumerated in the book. [41] Despite this, scholars have cited evidence that cast doubt to Khrushchev's claims. Few scholars today would cite Khrushchev's speech as a reliable source and it now seems clear that Stalin distrusted the cult of personality around him.