Novocherkassk massacre kept secret more than 20 years

“In the 1950's industrial wages in the USSR were arbitrarily lowered almost every year. These decreases allowed officials to publish statistics indicating increases in labor efficiency, automation and mechanization, decreases in the cost of production without corresponding new capital investment, and improvements in organization and in technology. In capitalist countries, if a corporation tried to improve its financial showings by lowering wages, the workers would respond with protests and strikes. In the USSR, however, the working class was unable for decades to struggle in defence of its own interests. The democratization of the late 1950's was really a way for the authorities to fool the working masses into hoping for a genuine dialogue with state and party officials. The Novocherkassk tragedy exposed the fraud and hypocrisy of the criminal totalitarian regime.” – Piotr Suda, participant in worker demonstration in Novocherkassk

http://libcom.org/library/1962-novocherkassk-tragedy

The Soviet government lowered wages 30-35 percent and then increased meat and diary prices 35 percent. Workers said, “No more of this.” Twenty-six workers were shot dead and many more sentenced to Gulag prisons.

A reader gets the idea Soviet bosses were scared spitless of strikes and worker demonstrations.