"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean no one is out to get you." - Some guy on The Wire.
In school, I've learned that Josef Stalin had a lot of officers and other people arrested and sent to the Gulags, if not just executed. He did this because he was paranoid, was the explenation I got.
I've later learned Lenin allegedly claimed he was unfit for leadership, and that none other than Trotski himself founded the Red Army, which must have meant that a lot officers likely had a personal loyalty to him. Put together, this must have meant that there were a lot of high ranking people with no love for Stalin, and I wonder; if he hadn't had them killed or imprisoned first, would they have removed him from power?
Sorry, but your submission has been removed because we don't allow hypothetical questions. If possible, please feel free to rephrase the question so that it does not call for such speculation, and resubmit. Otherwise, this sort of thing is better suited for /r/HistoryWhatIf. You can find a more in-depth discussion of this rule here.
History is more about what has happened and what we know about the things that have happened. It's so complex that we can't really tell what would have happened 100%ly sure, since every decision has at least some influence. That might explain your post's removal