The dark crystal

In: Politička misao, Band 33, Heft 5, S. 86-96

Abstract

Hannah Arendt presented her understanding of totalitarianism in the book "The Origins of totalitarianism", but she realized that the word origin does not really fit into her narrative and started talking about the elements of totalitarianism; the elements which crystallized into totalitarian regimes. Unfortunately that does not solve the problem because Nazism and Stalinism do not share a set of elements. The author presents and discusses the logic of Arendt's narrative which wants to connect two disparate processes - the birth of Nazism and the birth of Stalinism. He shows how Arendt tried to solve the problem by using two methodologically different and irreconcilable understandings of totalitarianism. (SOI : PM: S. 86)