Both Hitler and Stalin died leaving totalitarian projects unfinished.

Evidence

Stalin, like Hitler, died in the midst of a horrifying unfinished business. And when this happened, the story this book has to tell, and the events it tries to understand and to come to terms with, came to an at least provisional end. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Frames totalitarianism as unfinished business — a productive tension against readings that treat it as a closed historical episode, relevant to whether the category extends to post-Soviet and contemporary politics.