Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn recognized that the Ministry of State Security–the Organs–in the Soviet Union purged members regularly and explained why they did this:
The waves were generated by the Organs’ hidden law of self-renewal–a small periodic ritual sacrifice so that the rest could take on the appearance of being purified. The Organs had to change personnel faster than the normal rate of human growth and aging would ensure. Driven by that same implacable urgency that forces the sturgeon to swim upriver and perish in the shallows, to be replaced by schools of small fry, a certain number of “schools” of gaybisty had to sacrifice themselves. This law was easily apparent to a higher intelligence, but the bluecaps [enforcers] themselves did not want to accept the fact of its existence and make provision for it. Yet, at the hour appointed in their stars, the kings of the Organs, the aces of the Organs, and even the ministers themselves laid their heads down beneath their own guillotine.
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1, p 156
“Gaybíst,” which is pronounced “gay-beest,” with the accent on the last syllable, is derived from the letters “g” and “b” standing for State Security.
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1, p 618
Cancel culture among American leftists today echoes this “periodic ritual sacrifice” so that the non-cancelled leftists can take on a purified appearance.
In today’s language, the Soviet Union’s Ministry of State Security had its own cancel culture.