I watched on YouTube a superb lecture given at Hillsdale College by the military historian Anthony Beevor entitled “The Soviet Role in World War II.” Towards the end of his lecture Beevor reported that in the contemporary Russia of Vladimir Putin research into the embarrassing truths of the “Great Patriotic War” is now regarded as treasonable. I was, of course, reminded of Putin’s great admirer, the President of the United States, who routinely shouts “treason,” “enemies of the people,” and other big-lie denunciations of his critics who seek to discover and publish the truth.