The March 1956 demonstrations (also known as the 1956 Tbilisi riots or 9 March massacre) in the Georgian SSR were a series of protests to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy, which shocked Georgian] supporters of Marxist–Leninist–Stalinist ideology. The center of the protests was the republic's capital,The March 1956 demonstrations (also known as the 1956 Tbilisi riots or 9 March massacre) in the Georgian SSR were a series of protests to Nikita Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy, which shocked Georgian supporters of Marxist–Leninist–Stalinist ideology. The center of the protests was the republic's capital, Tbilisi, where spontaneous rallies to mark the third anniversary of Stalin's death and to protest Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin quickly evolved into an uncontrollable mas