Robert Conquest and the need for the courage to illuminate the truth

At least 40 years ago, back when the Soviet Union still existed and the Berlin Wall still stood, the KGB searched the apartment of a Russian friend of mine. Inevitably, the agents found what they were looking for: his large collection of samizdat, illegally printed magazines and books. They pounced on them, rifled through them — and then one held up my friend’s contraband copy of Robert Conquest’s most famous book, “The Great Terror.” “Excellent, we’ve been wanting to read this for a long tim...