In his monumental book the Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes an infamous moment at a Soviet party conference that really captures the level of fear Joseph Stalin had over his people.
During the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone leaped to their feet in rapturous applause.. For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the frenzied applause continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were aching. It was becoming insufferably silly. However, who would dare be the first to stop?
Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. Everyone else followed. They had been saved!
That same night the factory director was arrested and given 10 years on the pretext of something entirely different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him: "Don't ever be the first to stop applauding!"
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