“Then, as a clever follow-up on Stalin’s part, he had the guards turn their guns on the audience and slaughter dozens.”
I wonder why, in all the history of despots, not one guard has ever turned on such an occasion and gunned down the dictator.
Usually because the guards know that the dictator’s lieutenants will make sure that the offending guard died a very painful & prolonged death.
To send the message to future guards, “Don’t even think about assassinating ME when I’m the new dictator!”
IIRC, Indira Gandhi’s Sikh guards assassinated her for her giving the order to storm their Golden Temple.