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Notes -
Is this factual?
Yes, it's factual. It's maddening that people don't know this sort of thing, given our society's purported obsession with searching for any visible sign, marker or dogwhistle of genocidal totalitarianism, provided it's not visible signs, markers or dogwhistles of the genocidal totalitarianism that's considered super-cool and popular with large portions of the tribe most obsessed with the search.
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I thought that literally happened in the 1930s with the NKVD iteratively denouncing and torturing their own members and leadership.
A cursory look at Google confirms this. Not every last torturer was himself later tortured. But there were waves of denouncements. Multiple cycles of this. I know it sounds like absurd parody, but it appears to have happened.
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Wikipedia indicates (1 2 3) as follows:
1936: Kamenev and Zinoviev are interrogated by Yagoda's NKVD and executed
1938: Yagoda is interrogated by Yezhov's NKVD and executed
1940: Yezhov is interrogated by Beria's NKVD and executed
1953: Beria is executed
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