After Joseph Stalin died and Stalinism was repudiated by Nikita Khrushchev and the communist party, would a member of the political class or an ordinary Soviet citizen find themselves in hot water for praising Stalin or Stalinism too much?

A party apparatchik certainly, as the 20th Congress represented an ideological transition as well as a repudiation of a leader and his excesses; a citizen less so until the 22nd Congress (1961) which extended the undoing of the Stalin "cult" into the public sphere.

If you're a party activist openly celebrating Stalin in 1958, you're definitely out of sorts with the leadership. If you're a patriotic citizen wanting to commemorate your wartime leader in 1960 you'll likely be overruled by local leaders but you shouldn't face too hard a time personally: in 1962 you're going to be on someone's naughty list - though that's not likely to land you in any seriously hot water, you won't be top of anyone's preferred candidates for a politically-sensitive office, let's put it that way. By 1965 things have changed again, and your old-timerism may be viewed more beningnly though you're still not going to get your town named for the leader.

Stalin remained regarded for having brought the USSR through the Great Patriotic War. The associated -ism (in Soviet usage) remained another matter, never rehabilitated after Khrushchev's indictment. So the two need differentiating. Stalinism was a dirty word by 1957, the name of Stalin less so.