The Origins of Totalitarianism
One of the first scholars to publish a comparative study of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union was Hannah Arendt. In her 1951 work "The Origins of Totalitarianism", Arendt puts forward the idea of totalitarianism as a distinct type of political movement and form of government, which "differs essentially from other forms of political oppression known to us such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship." Furthermore, Arendt distinguishes between a totalitarian movement (such as a political party with totalitarian aims) and a totalitarian government. Not all totalitarian movements succeed in creating totalitarian governments once they gain power. In Arendt's view, although many totalitarian movements existed in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, only the governments of Stalin and Hitler succeeded in fully implementing their totalitarian aims.