How accurate is it to say that Stalin’s use of terror in the 1930s was fundamentally similar to Lenin’s use of terror in the years 1918–24?

Whilst many historians would argue that Lenin and Stalin's use of terror was markedly different in their respective presidencies, Lenin established the apparatus which enabled Stalin to enforce his political purges of the 1930s. Both political leaders utilised their high ranking positions to remove their opponents through systematic terror organisations. The secret police under Lenin called the Chistka, headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, had originally begun to control those involved in the October Revolution. However, after the establishment of the Bolsheviks and later Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the terror continued, suggesting Lenin and his cohort were insecure about the extent of their power. Indeed, like Stalin's own reign of terror, Lenin's became increasing personal, demonstrated in his persecution of Bim-Bom the clown who humorously mocked Lenin and was later killed. Similarly, Stalin's own political purges were instigated by a fear of wavering rule. He enacted a quota system, which demanded a purging of a certain amount of people in the party branch. Moreover, Stalin was willing to ruthlessly purge institutions that were created for the supposed protection of the state; for example, in 1936 Yagoda, the head of the secret police was replaced by Yezhov, known by contemporaries as the 'bloody dwarf'. However, once criticism began circulating that the political purges were out of control, Yezhov was dismissed, imprisoned and scapegoated in 1939 by Stalin. Furthermore, the purges in the Red Army in 1937 and 1938, resulting in 35,000 officers either shot or imprisoned was intended to streamline loyalty to Stalin. Thus, it is accurate to say that Stalin's use of terror in the 1930s was fundamentally similar to that of Lenin's, due to the fact he utilised the apparatus Lenin had established previously.