The cult of personality and its consequences: the figure of Stalin is being actively rehabilitated in Russia
8 July 2025
On 5 July, the Communist Party Congress adopted a resolution according to which the party “assesses as erroneous and politically biased” Nikita Khrushchev’s report “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences”, delivered on 25 February 1956 at a closed meeting of delegates to the 20th Congress of the CPSU.This decision is another step in the process of rehabilitating the figure of Joseph Stalin in Russian society. One of the previous manifestations of this course was the unveiling of numerous monuments to the Soviet dictator in Russia.
It is worth emphasising that in modern Russia, the policy of honouring Stalin is usually presented as a ‘grassroots’ initiative, as demonstrated by the example of the CPRF Congress.
At the same time, it is no secret that the Communist Party itself is a so-called “pocket opposition,” a political tool of the Kremlin to create the illusion of political pluralism. Its leader, Gennady Zyuganov, was one of the four candidates in the March 2024 ‘presidential elections’.
At the same time, it is no secret that the Communist Party itself is a so-called “pocket opposition,” a political tool of the Kremlin to create the illusion of political pluralism. Its leader, Gennady Zyuganov, was one of the four candidates in the March 2024 ‘presidential elections’.
Generally, the CPRF and Vladimir Putin maintain open “friendly” relations. For instance, during the CPRF congress, Putin’s greeting was read out, which, in particular, reads: “Supporters of the Communist Party are actively involved in projects that serve to strengthen Russia’s sovereignty in all spheres and educate young people in a patriotic manner”. This reflects the Russian dictator’s desire not to lose contact and closeness with one of the key audiences of the Communist Party – Russians nostalgic for the “greatness of the USSR”. Zyuganov fully supports Putin’s policies. In particular, he advocated the so-called “denazification” of Ukraine.
Stalin’s death in 1953 prompted a review of the dictator’s policies, and Khrushchev’s report in 1956 provided a new impetus to this process. In the mid-1950s, many victims of Stalin’s terror of 1937-1938 were rehabilitated, including the organisers of the Holodomor: Pavlo Postyshev, Vlas Chubar, and Stanislav Kosior.According to repression researcher Oleh Bazhan, between 1956 and 1959, nearly 250,000 people were rehabilitated in the Ukrainian SSR (mostly posthumously), and tens of thousands more returned from the Gulag camps. The majority of the rehabilitated were non-party peasants and workers convicted under Article 54 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR (‘counter-revolutionary crimes’).
The decision taken in July 2025 is not only an internal party declaration, but also part of the Kremlin’s broader political strategy. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation does not hold monopoly power, like the former CPSU in the USSR. However, today it plays the role of a puppet that helps the Putin regime imitate democracy. It is through such decisions that the Kremlin shapes the image of Stalin as a ‘great leader’ in society and stimulates hysteria that appeals to Stalin’s methods that contributed to the ‘greatness of the fatherland’.
Putin maintains the role of the “supreme arbiter” when it comes to interpreting history; he has the final say in deciding who qualifies as a hero and who is deemed a criminal. This stance can shift based on what he refers to as the “voice of the working people.”