"In the first full comparative history of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, Overy clearly conveys the workings of these two bloody regimes. His portraits of Hitler and Stalin take in their private and public selves, their ascents to power, and their consolidation of absolute rule. He shows us the use of terror in each system; the ways in which the party dominated politics, culture, and the economy in each; and how each waged total war. He details the creation of the Nazi extermination camps and the vast Soviet Gulag - the two dictatorships in their most inhuman forms. "--Jacket.