With power came the question of how to maintain it. In order to cement their leadership in their countries, both Hitler and Stalin employed the same method: eliminate political rivals and those they distrusted to strengthen their influence and further their interests. The Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror, occurred in the 1930s in Russia and had been a time of oppression and persecution. It began in 1935 when Sergey Kirov, a Communist leader and political rival of Stalin's, was assassinated. Then, anyone associated with Stalin's opposition would be charged with treason, espionage, and more by the NKVD, the Russian secret police, and sentenced to death. Around one million victims perished by execution or in Gulag, Russian labor camps. …show more content…
Instead of purging enemies in the Nazi party, Hitler ordered the assassination of his friend and chief of staff of Germany's paramilitary formation, the SA, Ernst Rohm. The SA held conflicting ideas with the Nazi Party, and leaders of the SA threatened to seize control of Germany; thus, Hitler saw the SA as a threat to his goals. With the elimination of Ernst Rohm and the dissolution of the SA, it enabled Hitler to proclaim himself as Fuhrer of Germany and allowed him to claim absolute power. All in all, Stalin and Hitler claimed totalitarian rule over their countries by eliminating their political enemies and potential