Secret Speech denouncing Stalin.- Khrushchev (Nikita Sergeyevich) O Kulcie Jednostki I Jego …

Secret Speech denouncing Stalin.- Khrushchev (Nikita Sergeyevich) O Kulcie Jednostki I Jego Nastepstwach, first edition, first issue, title with tiny puncture mark (not affecting text), first f. with short tear into text without loss, occasional underlining in pencil or faint red pencil, original paper wrappers, ink-stamp '1794' to upper cover, spine with a few neat repairs, small loss to spine foot, 8vo, Warsaw, March 1956. ⁂ Rare and important copy of the first issue of Khrushchev's speech, given to a closed session of Communist Party delegates on 25 Feburary 1956, in which he openly denounced the deceased dictator Joseph Stalin (who died in March 1953). "Khrushchev recalled Lenin's Testament, a long-suppressed document in which Vladimir Lenin had warned that Stalin was likely to abuse his power, and then he cited numerous instances of such excesses" (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online). This Polish translation of the speech was the only version that circulated during the Cold War, the official Russian text being unknown until its publication in 1989. The work appeared in two issues published in the same month, the first including the various interjections and ovations (eg pp. 30 and 31 "(poruszenie na sali)" [movement in the hall]).