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by the name of Igor Berman defected to this country, he couldn't get a
hearing. He was the man who'd written the Soviet budget and the Soviet
budget on both sides of the ledger was an identical numeral of many dig–
its. He said any document like that can't be truthful. He was laughed out
of court by some professional economists. Now why did so many people,
including professional historians, turn against their colleagues with such
savagery and why don't they now come forward and say they were wrong,
that something has happened to show that they were wrong, that the
beginning of wisdom is to return to the facts and to think through their
positions again?
The first two speakers might have brought out more what I think is
the difference between good work and great work, which is the strength
of moral judgment, and the fact that the moral judgment would be ques–
tioned down the centuries doesn't make that moral judgment any the less.
A great work of history is comparable to a great work of art. Nobody is
worried by the fact that Shakespeare is a Tudor spin doctor or that Dante
is very much caught up in the Guelph and Ghibelline conflict.
In the end, moral judgment, and the profoundness of the moral struc–
ture in the author, is really the only worthwhile thing.
Igor
Webb: Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you again
tomorrow morning.
