Modern History Sourcebook: Secret Speech, 1956 Secret Speech to
the Closed Session of the Twentieth Party Congress, February 25,
1956 We have to consider seriously and analyze correctly [the
crimes of the Stalin era] in order that we may preclude any
possibility of a repetition in any form whatever of what took
place during the life of Stalin, who absolutely did not tolerate
collegiality in leadership and in work, and who practiced brutal
violence, not only toward everything which opposed him, but also
toward that which seemed to his capricious and despotic
character, contrary to his concepts. Stalin acted not through
persuasion, explanation, and patient cooperation with people,
but by imposing his concepts and demanding absolute submission
to his opinion. Whoever opposed this concept or tried to prove
hi viewpoint, and the correctness of his position, was doomed to
removal from the leading collective and to subsequent moral and
physical annihilation. This was especially true during the
period following the X