I just can't resist adding one final, possibly very perverse, thought to the item posted just below. With apologies to the millions whose lives were destroyed by its most horrible works, perhaps in some measure we should be extraordinarily grateful that the Soviet Union lasted almost half a century after World War II. I'm beginning to realize that its presence and the rival power it represented was, at least in some respects, a very good thing, keeping us and the world safe from our very worst impulses and excesses until the end of the century.