While the Bolshevik’s institutionalized the practice of denunciations, as a way to periodically cleanse the party, there had been a strong tradition of denunciations stretching back into Russian history. They encouraged the population to monitor officials, in their workplaces and the bureaucracy, which was conceived of as a form of popular participation and lead to the creation of "self-criticism" sessions in many workplaces where workers were forced to air grievances and denounce the actions of managers (Fitzpatrick 1996, 832-833). Criticism and self-criticism were important elements in much of the communist discourse of the time. Seen as a necessary safeguard against counterrevolutionary elements within society, communist leaders promoted the idea that it was good to be critical of any mistaken ideas within the party, and corruption of party members. Mao has this to say about the role that criticism can play, “Inner-Party criticism is a weapon for strengthening the Party organization and increasing its fighting capacity,” but he also goes on to warn that, “… criticism is not always of this character, and sometimes turns into personal attack … it damages the Party organization as well as individuals. This is a manifestation of petty-bourgeois individualism” (Mao 1928, On the Disregard of Organizational …show more content…
Instead of acting openly against the elite interests among subordinated people, as hidden transcript theory might suggest, people were required to be much more secretive about their action, which in lead to a decline in the effectiveness of informants. Similarly, we can expect that in social setting, people would become more hesitant to open up at parties about their ideological deviations after seeing stories of