Europe | They told you so

The European Union must face up to the real Russia

Appeasement isn’t working

WHEN ROBERT CONQUEST, a historian, was working on a new edition of “The Great Terror”, his seminal text on Stalin’s crimes, he was told to come up with a new title. The book had described the horrors of the Soviet Union at a time when apologism for it was still rife. By the time of the new version, freshly opened archives had vindicated Conquest’s account. His friend Kingsley Amis, a novelist, suggested a pithy new title: “I told you so, you fucking fools”.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “They told you so”

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