O Kulcie Jednostki I Jego Nastepstwach: Referat I Sekretarza KC KPZR tow. N. S. Chruszczowa na XX Zjezdzie Komunistycznej Partii Zwiazku Radzieckiego (The Personality Cult and its Consequences)
Warsaw, Poland: Wydane przez Komitet Centralny Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej, 1956.
First edition, first issue of Khuruschev's famous "Secret Speech" denouncing the cult of personality around Joseph Stalin and thereby launching a period of de-Stalinization in the Soviet Bloc. 71, [1] pp. Bound in publisher's wraps. Text in Polish. Very Good, rubbing to gutters of front wrap and wear to spine, slight spine roll, age-toning, rubbing to stamped number on front cover, bumping to bottom corners of text. Vintage Polish train ticket laid in. Uncommon. Copies of this text (translated from the original Russian) circulated amongst Communist Party members in Poland (then under the thumb of the USSR), but it would not be published in Russia until 1989, so scandalous was its content. It contains recorded interjections that would be cut from subsequent editions. Far from staying a secret, within two weeks of its publication it was being heralded in the West and translated into multiple languages. It would inspire abortive revolutions in Poland and Hungary that year-- the Soviet crackdown on the latter revolution creating deep divisions within communist and socialist groups worldwide for decades-- and eventually American band Living Colour to write their hit song "Cult of Personality" in 1988.
Price: $7,000