The Novocherkassk massacre (Russian: Новочеркасский расстрел, romanized: Novocherkasskiy rasstrel) took place on 2 June 1962 in Novocherkassk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, when Soviet Army soldiers and MVD Internal Troops, supported by KGB units, fired on unarmed demonstrators protesting economic conditions. The massacre took place during a strike that began the previous day at the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Works (NEVZ) after the government under Nikita Khrushchev announced nationwide price increases for meat and butter, which coincided with pay cuts at the factory.

The strike spread rapidly after initial attempts by authorities to suppress it failed and police arrested several workers. On 2 June, thousands of protesters marched from the factory district to the Communist Party headquarters (gorkom) in the city center, overwhelming military barricades. After the demonstrators occupied the gorkom and demanded to speak with officials, troops opened fire on the crowd. Concurrent clashes at the police station resulted in more deaths. Official records later confirmed 24 demonstrators killed and 69 severely wounded.

Soviet authorities immediately began an extensive cover-up, secretly burying the victims in unmarked graves outside the city and compelling witnesses and participants to sign non-disclosure pledges. Over 100 people were later convicted in show trials for "mass disorders" and "banditry", with seven sentenced to death and executed. Information about the event was suppressed until the late 1980s, during glasnost. Following investigations initiated amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of those convicted were rehabilitated in the 1990s. The massacre is remembered as a key event exposing the limitations of the Khrushchev Thaw, and significantly impacted subsequent Soviet economic and internal security policies.

In the spring of 1962, the Soviet Union faced economic difficulties. Responding to agricultural shortfalls and the need to fund infrastructure investment, the government under Nikita Khrushchev announced nationwide price increases for essential goods. On 31 May 1962, the state declared that the retail prices for meat and meat products would rise by 30 percent and butter by 25 percent, effective 1 June. This decision was presented as temporary, necessary to boost agricultural production, and made with the confidence that the Soviet people would understand.

However, this measure followed several years of Khrushchev's often erratic and ultimately unsuccessful agricultural policies. Initiatives like the Virgin Lands campaign and the push for maize cultivation had yielded mixed results, while restrictions on private plots and livestock ownership had negatively impacted food supplies, particularly meat and dairy. By 1962, the USSR lagged significantly behind its agricultural production targets and Khrushchev's earlier promises to surpass the United States in per capita output of meat, milk, and butter. The price hikes were seen by many workers as a direct consequence of government mismanagement and a betrayal of the implicit social contract of the post-Stalin era, where the regime guaranteed basic necessities and slowly improving living standards in exchange for political acquiescence.

Novocherkassk, historically the capital of the Don Cossacks, had become a significant industrial city in the Soviet era, with a population of 130,000 in 1962. Its largest enterprise was the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Works (NEVZ), employing around 13,000 workers. The city also hosted several other factories and was a major educational center, with over 30,000 students in higher education and technical schools.

Working and living conditions for NEVZ employees were poor. Safety conditions were inadequate, highlighted by a recent incident where 200 workers in one department suffered poisoning. Dining facilities were insufficient, serving meager food, and many workers could not get hot meals, especially those on night shifts. Housing was in short supply, with many workers living in temporary barracks or tents. Wages were inconsistently applied and not always related to skill or difficulty of work. Compounding these issues, the NEVZ management, under the recently appointed director Boris Kurochkin, had begun implementing upward revisions of work norms throughout 1962 as part of a nationwide wage reform. This effectively amounted to a pay cut of up to 30 percent for many workers. The simultaneous implementation of these pay cuts and the announcement of nationwide food price increases created what one commentator later called a "fateful coincidence" that directly triggered the strike.

The strike began spontaneously on the morning of 1 June 1962, at the steel foundry division of the NEVZ plant. Workers gathered to discuss the food price increases announced the previous day, which they viewed as an intolerable burden on their already strained finances. When party officials attempted to justify the new policy, they were met with hostility. The foundry head, Chernyshkov, ordered the workers back to their posts, but they instead moved to the square outside the factory administration building.