The cult of personality - about overcoming the personality cult and its consequences

Personality, attributed to the supernatural qualities, were at all times. In ancient times, people worshiped deities, and later on this role people were chosen-when by birth's right, and when by the alleged merit. What is the cult of personality - we will understand in this article.

What is the cult of personality?

It is about exaltation of an individual person, who is a prominent statesman. Those who are interested in what the cult of personality means, it is worthwhile to give examples of such familiar names as Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, etc. In absolute monarchies, kings and emperors played the role of Gods. They were revered, they worshiped and praised not for specific qualities, but simply for the very fact of their being on the throne.

Under dictatorships and authoritarian regimes, it was already not enough to stand at the helm of power. It was necessary to have outstanding qualities that make the ruler worthy of the office. Having powerful tools of propaganda, it's easy to pass oneself out as someone whom people want to see as their leader and ruler. About such people wrote poems and made up epics, lifetime biographies. Their labors were studied in educational institutions and everywhere they were installed monuments.

The reasons for the formation of the personality cult

Such a phenomenon is formed only under certain conditions:

  1. Finding out what are the reasons for establishing the personality cult, it is worthwhile to answer that this is possible in a society with socially immature members who do not want to take responsibility for their actions.
  2. With a low level of education, a certain fixed-ritualized style of behavior is formed.
  3. The inability to think critically opens wide opportunities for the dictator to manipulate and control public consciousness.

The people endow him with the best qualities - wisdom, determination, steadfastness, kindness and others, without even allowing himself to doubt the correctness of his actions. The reasons for establishing the personality cult are connected with the crisis in the country:

Why does totalitarianism often breed a personality cult?

With this form of government, all power is concentrated in the hands of the leader. He acts as the main political force, eradicating dissent in all ways. All aspects of human life are controlled by the state. The people are intimidated and forced to obey the government, to respect it, although it has no idea how effective such a political force is. On such a soil, the cult of personality is formed, which plays the role of locomotive, and members of society - screws in a huge machine.

What are the consequences of the personality cult?

They can be considered on the example of criticism of the personality cult of Stalin. After Khrushchev's report on February 25, 1956, on which he debunked the myth of the leader's merits, riots broke out in the country, a wave of public indignation swept over him. Answering the question, what is wrong with the personality cult, it is worth replying that often those who come back to power use it to strengthen their positions. So it was with Nikita Sergeyevich.

Having written off all the mistakes of the past years on the leader of all nations, he kept silent about his role in this process. The society seemed to have come out of stupor and it was not just waiting for reforms, but demanding them. A special psychological atmosphere of impatience was formed, stimulating the authorities to take decisive action and increasing the danger of a course toward propagandistic populism. Later it happened.

Fight against the cult of personality

Debunking the myth of the infallibility of one leader, those who came to the leadership do not win, but lose. The final result of such a process is:

  1. Undermining the people's faith in the perfection of supreme power as such.
  2. Criticism of the personality cult in Soviet society led to the destruction of the system of total fear.
  3. Critical and painful rethinking of world socialist practice by society.
  4. The splitting of the world communist movement and its entry into a period of crisis, from which it is no longer being chosen. It is not so much Stalin's crimes as the whole Soviet social system that is being condemned.

The process of overcoming the cult of personality

The Soviet state-political system began to be transformed immediately after Stalin's death in 1953. Widely proceeded to:

  1. Elimination of the consequences of Stalin's repression, amnestied many prisoners of the then camps throughout the country.
  2. Restoration of law and order.
  3. From the tribunes of power, they talked a lot about overcoming the personality cult and its consequences, calling for a correct Bolshevik policy, which is legitimate and consistent with the principles of Lenin's ideology.

The cult of personality and its consequences gave rise to Khrushchev's "thaw", which underwent three stages of its development. And the waves of "de-Stalinization" include the restructuring of Gorbachev, as well as many events of modern Russia. Rapid rates of industrialization and agriculture are developing, scientific research institutes are being created, and technological progress is breaking through to its heights.

Modern problems of the personality cult

To date, the problem of the personality cult is a theoretical direction for the work of the largest scientists. They study the process of assimilation of moral values ​​as an integral element of culture. The basis of humanistic innovations in education is the totality of the values ​​of each individual - traits of character , moral character, feelings. This is a person-centered approach to education. The personality cult and its consequences are spoken of in the context of the study of the problem of personal culture as an inseparable part of the process of mastering culture by man.

Books about the cult of personality

Millions of people were repressed, shot and imprisoned in the camps while they were at the helm of Stalin's rule. The country still experiences the consequences of those events. Many prominent writers at different times lifted the veil of secrecy, describing the features of the personality cult and the consequences to which this exaltation of an individual led. The most famous works include:

  1. "The Gulag Archipelago" by A. Solzhenitsyn . This novel-confession was included in the "100 books of the century".
  2. The "rejected" Anchi Ming . This historical novel highlights the cult of personality of Mao Zedong and the tragic consequences of his rule.
  3. "Secret adviser to the leader" V. Uspensky . Two books describe the activities of Stalin on behalf of his associate. The narrative does not embellish, but does not blacken the leader of all nations, but honestly tells about the events of those years.