Stalin

He was skilled in the art of eviction. Members of his group were to be dropped off one by one, according to different timetables. This incremental approach was the product of Stalin’s caution, but at the same time it had a tinge of sadism:  the defeated hung twisting in the wind for a long time, begging for clemency and reinstatement…until they ended up as total outcasts if not gibbering wrecks.