Cult of Personality

개인숭배

A political phenomenon in which a single leader is elevated through propaganda and state power into a god-like figure, serving as a legitimating device for totalitarian regimes. Although Marx and Engels opposed any cult of the individual as early as the 19th century, 20th-century dictators such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao Zedong exploited radio, cinema, and press control to expand it to unprecedented levels. In the USSR, Khrushchev officially denounced Stalin's cult of personality in his 1956 report 'On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences' at the 20th Party Congress: a framework that performed the political function of confining the problem to one individual's deviation while leaving the system, the party, and the rest of the leadership unexamined.