I keep telling people that communism isn’t dead and that it’s right here in the USA, but few of them believe me. This confession/apology stuff is very similar to what was found in communist China: under Chairman Mao’s leadership, Chinese citizens were forced to publicly admit/confess to and apologize for various political “crimes” [1][2].
[1] About the so-called “struggle sessions” in communist China: “In general, the victim of a struggle session was forced to admit to various crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until he or she confessed…Lately, the term “struggle session” has come to be applied to any scene where victims are publicly badgered to confess imaginary crimes under the pretext of self-criticism and rehabilitation.” — Wikipedia
[2] China’s communism is, or was, Marxist/Leninist, although it was different from Soviet communism since it was peasant/farmer/agriculture based