10. Josef Stalin slowly gained power in the communist party, the government, and then became a totalitarian leader. His rivals were all removed violently or politically. And then came . . . STALIN!
For example - criminals (including murderers) usually received less than 10 years, politicals usually got at least 10 years - if not 20 or 30. Once in the gulag system, the politicals (regular people) were terrorized by the criminals (bad people).