I see
When I was looking for a picture of a nice suit I happened to get a picture of Mr Khrushchev [LEFT] several pictures actually, many with a smart tie and stylish hat.
Not knowing much about ancient history I looked him up and apparently he exemplifies what you've described. Punching up (?) to knock down Stalin's reputation, attempting to remove Stalinist ideas from Russia (which essentially means only murdering thousands rather than millions) but then, when he was due for criticism himself, needed to be reassigned somehow. Enter Brezhnev to dislodge him with misery all 'round except for suitably advanced officials who took over the palaces and got the fast cars. Otherwise it was the secret police and a trip to Siberia for anyone suggesting maybe communism was out of date or there were other ways of knowing..
Would this gif approximate to what you described?