Explanation:
Stalin feared most of all the old generation of revolutionaries who had been part of Lenin's revolution and particularly Trotsky. He purged the party by deporting, incarcerating and killing old Bolsheviks, businessmen, writers and intellectuals. He did it publicly, justifying his purges with forced confessions. In a few years he purged millions and established the precedent. With the purge Stalin ensured that old Bolsheviks and critical intellectuals were not a threat, and he could build his own ideology, pretty much as far from Marx's and Lenin's ideas as he could.
