note: that date was intentionally chosen to
commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall
A little bit of hyperbole, maybe?
To me, the most amazing thing about Conquest is this: after the fall of the USSR and the opening of the archives, he was rare among historians in revising his work. And he was even rarer in finding that he didn't need much revision at all: Even under the restricted-information climate of the seventies and eighties, he wrote deadly accurate work. (See, "The Great Terror: A Reassessment" -- which, when the publishers quibbled on the title, he suggested could be called "I told you so, you [expletive deleted] fools.")
This, in an era where most "historians" were content to fluff the Soviet dictator du jour.
Sure, it's a digression on this thread, but it's nice to see that being the only Conquest admirer for miles around doesn't mean I'm the only Conquest admirer! I'd say I'm in damned good company.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F