One action taken by both Lenin and Stalin was

One action taken by both Lenin and Stalin was

• A. Limiting state control and encouraging economic competition
• B. Promoting free speech and opposition inclusion
• C. Expanding civil liberties
• D. Jailing or murdering potential opponents

Answer: (D)

Both Lenin and Stalin relied on repression to secure and maintain power. Lenin set up the secret police (the Cheka) and launched the Red Terror to arrest, exile, or execute those seen as counter-revolutionaries or rivals, effectively silencing opposition and dissolving competing voices within the Soviet state. Stalin carried this approach to an even larger scale with the Great Purge, show trials, mass arrests, executions, and the Gulag system, all aimed at eliminating perceived threats and forcing loyalty across the party and society. This pattern—using coercion to jail or kill opponents to consolidate authority—explains why that option is the best fit. The other possibilities describe policies that ran counter to what happened: both leaders expanded state control and centralized power rather than promoting free speech, civil liberties, or a lack of repression, and they did not encourage economic competition in the sense of liberal markets.

Both Lenin and Stalin relied on repression to secure and maintain power. Lenin set up the secret police (the Cheka) and launched the Red Terror to arrest, exile, or execute those seen as counter-revolutionaries or rivals, effectively silencing opposition and dissolving competing voices within the Soviet state. Stalin carried this approach to an even larger scale with the Great Purge, show trials, mass arrests, executions, and the Gulag system, all aimed at eliminating perceived threats and forcing loyalty across the party and society. This pattern—using coercion to jail or kill opponents to consolidate authority—explains why that option is the best fit. The other possibilities describe policies that ran counter to what happened: both leaders expanded state control and centralized power rather than promoting free speech, civil liberties, or a lack of repression, and they did not encourage economic competition in the sense of liberal markets.