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Heh... that’s what got Robespierre — after he used the votes of lesser lights to eliminate his rivals one by one, and he stood alone, first among equals, there was a celebration in one of those expropriated palaces. He retired to bed, but as he mounted the stairs, he muttered something including the phrase, “just one more weeding”. His associates suddenly wondered WTH he meant by that. They arrested him, he attempted suicide by concealed pistol, but only managed to blow off his mandible. He was barely recognizable when the guillotine severed his head.

By contrast, Stalin managed to condemn and remove all rivals, with the help of other rivals, until finally everyone except his last rival had either been executed, imprisoned, exiled, or just (ahem) vanished. That left only the ciphers who’d risen to what little power they had because of their support of Stalin. Trotsky complained about this to his own spotty worldwide following, with a sort of set of class cameos of Leniin’s old cabinet, and the caption, “Stalin the executioner alone remains”. And of coure, he was in exile by then, and one of Stalin’s fanatical followers eventually murdered him in Mexico.

When Sakharov was working on the Soviet nuclear weapons, he reported to Beria, whose office was at the end of a long hallway. On either side doors opened into identical, drab offices with various functionaries and officials, generally dressed the same, apparently hard at work. Over a period of a few years, those offices emptied out, one by one, leaving only the furniture in a darkened room, as the people who worked there were eliminated (execution, disappearance, gulag) and their duties reassigned. I’ve had some bad jobs, but wow.

When Stalin died, there was a period of time during which Beria and Khruschev struggled for power. It ended with Beria’s arrest and drumhead trial, and a few months later, his execution for the false charge, believe it or not, of wanting to restore capitalism.