Which Soviet leader delivered the 'Secret Speech' denouncing Stalin's cult of personality and initiated political liberalization?

Which Soviet leader delivered the 'Secret Speech' denouncing Stalin's cult of personality and initiated political liberalization?

• A. Leonid Brezhnev
• B. Nikita Khrushchev
• C. Mikhail Gorbachev
• D. Joseph Stalin

Answer: (B)

Nikita Khrushchev delivered the Secret Speech at the 1956 Soviet Party Congress, denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality and the purges that accompanied it. This launch of de-Stalinization marked the start of political liberalization within the Soviet system—allowing more open discussion, rehabilitating many victims, and easing some cultural restrictions while keeping one-party rule intact. Stalin is the leader targeted in the speech, not the other options. Later reforms under Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika, but those came decades after and were not the source of the Secret Speech’s changes. Brezhnev’s era after Khrushchev tended toward conservatism rather than liberalization.

Nikita Khrushchev delivered the Secret Speech at the 1956 Soviet Party Congress, denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality and the purges that accompanied it. This launch of de-Stalinization marked the start of political liberalization within the Soviet system—allowing more open discussion, rehabilitating many victims, and easing some cultural restrictions while keeping one-party rule intact. Stalin is the leader targeted in the speech, not the other options. Later reforms under Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika, but those came decades after and were not the source of the Secret Speech’s changes. Brezhnev’s era after Khrushchev tended toward conservatism rather than liberalization.