Ah yes, the return of the good old Soviet methods.
The positive side of this is that it's a strong indicator of the ruling dictator slipping into distrust fueled paranoia. One of the first steps towards the downfall.
"As soon as Lenin died, it turned out that the second person in the Party, comrade Trotsky, was a traitor. Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and Stalin overthrew Trotsky and banished him from the USSR.
After a couple of years it turned out that Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bukharin were also enemies and traitors. Valorous comrade Heinrich Yagoda shot them.
A little later Yezhov shot Yagoda as an enemy agent. But after a couple of years it turned out that Yezhov was not a comrade, but simply a traitor and enemy agent. And Yezhov shot Beria.
After Stalin's death, everyone realized that Beria was also a traitor. So Zhukov overthrew and shot Beria.
Soon, Khrushchev learned that Zhukov was an enemy and a conspirator. And exiled Zhukov to the Urals.
A little later, it was revealed that Stalin was an enemy, a saboteur and a traitor. And with him, and most of the Politburo. Then Stalin was taken out of the Mausoleum, and the Politburo with Shepilov, who joined them, were disbanded by honest party members led by Khrushchev.
Several years passed and it turned out that Khrushchev was a voluntarist, a rogue, an venturer and a traitor. Brezhnev made Khrushchev retire.
Soon Brezhnev died, and it turned out that he was a senile, a saboteur and caused the Stagnation.
Then there were two more seniles which no one remembered because they died like flies.
Young, energetic Gorbachev came to power. And it turned out that the whole Party was a party of saboteurs and enemies, but he would fix everything now.
This is where the USSR collapsed. And Gorbachev turned out to be an enemy and a traitor."