The Triumph of Robert Conquest
罗伯特·康奎斯特的功绩
He chronicled the Soviet terror that so many in the West refused to see.
他记述了许多西方人拒绝正视的苏联大恐怖。
President George W. Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to historian Robert Conquest, left, in Washington on Nov. 9, 2005. PHOTO: EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS 小布什总统在华盛顿为历史学家罗伯特·康奎斯特（左）颁发总统自由勋章。2005年11月9日。供图：EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS。
Robert Conquest was born in 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution, so it seems fitting that he outlived the Soviet Union by more than 25 years. The indefatigable historian, and enemy, of Soviet totalitarianism died Tuesday at age 98.
罗伯特·康奎斯特生于1917年——俄国十月革命的那一年，所以他比苏联多活了25年是很恰当的。这位苏联极权主义的不倦史家和不懈之敌，于本周二【译注：2015年8月3日】逝世，享年89岁。
Conquest’s major themes were reality and delusion. “The Great Terror” (1968) was the first and still definitive treatment of Stalin’s purges, gulags, show trials and secret police, meticulously documenting the enormity of the death toll. “Harvest of Sorrow”(1986) chronicled what he called the “terror famines” that followed agricultural collectivization.
康奎斯特的研究主题是真实与幻想。《大恐怖》（1968）是关于斯大林政权的大清洗、古拉格集中营、审判秀和秘密警察的第一部论述，翔实记录了庞大的死亡人数，时至今日仍属权威。《苦难的丰收》（1986）则记录了农业集体化之后被他称为“恐怖饥荒”的事件。
When sources inside Russia were few and most Kremlinologists were oblivious, these classics contributed immensely to understanding the nature of the Communist project. They also helped shape the response that won the Cold War; Reagan and Thatcher were among his readers.
当时苏联内部的信息来源少之又少，而苏联问题专家们又袖手旁观，这些经典著作对理解共产主义事业的本质助益极大。它们也有助于制定针对苏联的对策，使我们赢得冷战。里根和撒切尔都读过他的书。
Still, until Moscow opened the archives post-1989, leftist intellectuals and especially academics denied the realities Conquest exposed, claiming he exaggerated Stalin’s evil. That debate is now closed beyond challenge.
尽管如此，直到莫斯科1989年以后公开档案之前，左翼知识分子尤其是学术界一直否定康奎斯特所揭露的事实，说他夸大了斯大林的邪恶。现在，这种论调已经毫无争议地停歇了。
Conquest dedicated his later years at Stanford’s Hoover Institution to plumbing delusion, which he defined as “massive reality denial,” or why Russia had so many apologists and sympathizers. He blamed the persistence of destructive beliefs and the bottomless human capacity for self-deception.
康奎斯特晚年在斯坦福的胡佛研究所致力于研究幻想。他把“幻想”定义为“大规模否认事实”，或者（更具体而言），为什么有这么多人维护俄国，同情俄国。他谴责破坏性信念的顽固和人类无穷无尽的自我欺骗能力。
“The mere existence of the U.S.S.R., and its ideas, distorted the way in which many people over the whole world thought about society, the economy, human history,” Conquest wrote in these pages in 1992. “Many were seduced by the comfortable word ‘socialism,’ even to the extent of rejecting the Western ideas of free discussion, political compromise, plural society, piecemeal practicality, change without chaos.”
“仅仅是苏联及其理念的存在，就扭曲了全世界很多人思考社会、经济、人类历史的方式，”1992年康奎斯特写道，“许多人都被‘社会主义’这个让人舒心的词汇引诱了，甚至到了抛弃西方的自由讨论、政治妥协、多元社会、零敲碎打式改良的务实精神、有序演变等理念的程度。”
Conquest added that the lessons of the bloody 20th century “have not yet been learned, or not adequately so.” Many today across the world still offer solace to dictators and mass murderers, whatever their reasons, so Conquest’s insights into human deception remain and will always be relevant.
康奎斯特补充说，血腥的20世纪的教训“还没有被我们吸取，或者没有被完全吸取”。不管出于何种原因，现在世界上仍有许多人同情独裁者和屠杀者，所以，康奎斯特关于人类自我欺骗的论述会且一直会与我们息息相关。
翻译：Horace Rae（@sheldon_rae）
校对：沈沉（@你在何地-sxy）
编辑：辉格@whigzhou