[1][2] A few weeks prior to the massacre, workers at the Electro Locomotive Novocherkassk plant (NEVZ) had organized a peaceful labor strike.

These events also coincided with a sharp nationwide increase in the prices of dairy and meat products (up to 35% according to one account), raising them above the budget of many workers.

[3][a][5] Protesters gathered near the city's central administrative building did not disperse when ordered by the surrounding Soviet troops, who then opened fire,[6] killing 26 and wounding 87, including children.

[8] News of the events never appeared in the state-controlled press and the Soviet government continued to conceal it until April 27, 1991; however, it was described in a few underground samizdat publications.

[9][10]: 390 [11] The 26 dead were secretly buried by KGB operatives in graves which were not disclosed to relatives and friends until June 2, 1994, when almost all bodies were discovered and reburied at the official memorial.

The major suspects among the highest-ranking Soviet officials such as Nikita Khrushchev, Anastas Mikoyan, Frol Kozlov and several others who were deemed responsible for the massacre had died by the time of the investigation.

On the same day, as required by a separate economic plan, the minimum production quotas for each worker at the factory were increased,[14] thereby effectively reducing pay rates;[15] some protestors called Khrushchev a "False Leninist" and compared his policies unfavorably with the annual price-reduction regime of Joseph Stalin.

[21]: 363  The defendants, identified using photos taken by KGB agents, were charged with banditry, mass disorder, and attempt to overthrow the Soviet State.

In an interview in the early 90s, he reported that the 1980s Soviet militia (civil police) used semi-legal groups of ex-convicts (similar to titushky) to harass dissenters such as himself.

Piotr died under suspicious circumstances, which his spouse Emma called a political murder and attributed to his reporting on Novocherkassk.

[11] A group of activists, journalists, and a few local volunteers established a Novocherkassk Massacre Foundation to find, help, and compensate the victims, and conduct further investigation into the crime.

[11] On May 18, 1992, the newly created Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR officially condemned the massacre and instructed the General Prosecutor's office to review all fabricated criminal cases against the victims.