The Leader Cult, the Cult of the Founding Fathers, the Cult of the Revolution, the Cult of the Proletariat, the Cult of the Party, the Cult of the State

The leader cult was only one aspect of cultic thought and practice that infused the life of the Communist Party. There was the cult of the founding fathers (Marx, Engels and Lenin), the cult of the Revolution, the cult of the proletariat and the cult of the party, the cult of the state itself – the USSR – each of which fostered its own myths. The cult of the party was especially powerful, requiring total obedience and obliging its members to reconstruct and re-educate themselves, to make themselves worthy members.

--E.A. Rees, "Leader Cults: Varieties, Preconditions and Functions,"  in The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships: Stalin and the Eastern Bloc, ed. Balázs Apor et al. (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 11.