While de-Stalinization was quietly underway ever since Stalin's death, the watershed event was Khrushchev's speech entitled "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", concerning Stalin.
However, others have suggested that the speech was made in order to deflect blame from the Communist Party or the principles of Marxism-Leninism and place the blame squarely on Stalin's shoulders, thus preventing a more radical debate [REF].