The regime had for us three essential characteristics. First, it claimed it operated according to a Communist ideology. Second, it used terror to control its population. Lastly, life under this regime was governed by personal interest and the will to power. These characteristics are, I believe, necessarily separate, distinct, and irreducible. As a result, I prefer not to use the term "Communism," which corresponds only to the first of these traits. Instead, the term "totalitarianism" equals the sum of all three parts and, equally important, allows for the possible appearance of a different ideology from that of Communism (as was the case of Nazism).
Voices From the Gulag/Life and Death in Communist Bulgaria
Tzvetan Todorov, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999
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