The Shocking Secret Speech: Khrushchev's Denunciation of Stalin and its Global Impact
2025-06-21
In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a secret report, "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences," at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, launching a scathing critique of Stalin's totalitarian rule and purges. The speech, leaked to the West, revealed the extent of Stalin's brutality, triggering upheaval within the Soviet Union and profoundly impacting the communist world. It sparked de-Stalinization, contributed to the Sino-Soviet split, and, through a dramatic chain of events involving Polish journalists and Israeli intelligence, ushered in a period of brief liberalization known as the Khrushchev Thaw.