Consolidation...

Defined as: The act or process of consolidating, making firm, or uniting; the state of being consolidated; solidification; combination. [1913 Webster]

People who consolidate usually go out of their way to cement their position and make it the status quo. It is generally done when the position held is not unassailable. Let's look at some examples.

Hitler during his reign consolidated his power early on by raiding the offices of the Communist Party, a strong rival. After the Enabling Act that gave Hitler the status of "Fuhrer" or leader there was an invitation that all views were welcome. The Communists came in droves to exercise their rights. The ones that showed were all arrested and the membership of the Communist party never recovered during the Third Reich and they were eliminated as an opposing force.

Joseph Stalin used a variety of ways to overcome his rival and Lenin's number two, Leon Trotsky, in order to consolidate his position. The first was lying to Trotsky about the date of Lenin's funeral... Stalin became the chief mourner at the funeral.

Second he eventually expelled Trotsky (who was opposing him at the time) from the Politburo and then banished him to the practically barren wasteland that is known as Siberia. But Stalin was paranoid... understandably so since he was the man with all the power in the USSR. Many would do well to oust him. So he set about purging the army... after all Trotsky had once been 'Commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War' meaning he had many loyalists in the Soviet Armed Forces.

Sadly for the USSR, the purging of the army went too far and all experienced personnel were demoted, arrested or executed leaving younger men who were loyal to Stalin in charge. This led to the Soviet Army being embarrassingly defeated by Finland during a Soviet invasion attempt of the small nation. It also demonstrated a sign to the Germans that perhaps the Soviet Army wasn't all that it was cracked to be... a reason for Operation Barbarossa but that's going off on a tangent.

But the final paranoia of Stalin led to the untimely fate of Trotsky. Some twenty years later when Trotsky was living out his days in Mexico, an NKVD agent (Soviet form of Gestapo) buried an ice pick in to the back of the man's skull thereby eliminating him for good.