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Totalitarian cult leaderships have often been categorized as an anomaly to the ´modern´ world. This being said, it is this very categorization makes it a fascinating subject for academic discourse. The ability of certain individuals to create and, more importantly, sustain such a ´brand´ of leadership thus warrants a critical study of its inner workings. Attempting to do so, this comparative study critically analyzes the leadership of Kim Il Sung in North Korea and Saparmurat Niyazov in Turkmenistan to conjure a comprehensive understanding of totalitarian cult leaderships. While the leaderships hail from different time periods this study attempts to draw parallels between them in order to understand why some charismatic totalitarian leaders are able to sustain their leader ship over an extended period of time.

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Somdeep Sen is currently enrolled as a Master´s student in the German-Turkish Master´s Program in Social Science. He has a Master´s degree in International Relations and European Studies from Central European University and a Bachelor´s degree in Government from St. Lawrence University.

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