Robert Conquest, in 1968, blew the whistle on Stalin and his purges. In his book, The Great Terror, he reported the fact that Stalin killed at least 20 million people, and maybe 30 million.
He was not taken seriously by the liberals in academia. But I took him seriously.
Conquest began as a Communist. He made the journey out of the swamps. He outraged the Left when he presented the numbers. “Impossible,” the Left shouted.
When the Soviet archives were opened in the 1990’s, he was proven correct.
He died a few days ago. Allan Brownfeld wrote a fine obituary for him. Brownfeld is a survivor of the Right-Left battles of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
To read his obituary, click the link.
