Death of a Tyrant

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Vladimir Illych Lenin, founder of the USSR, perhaps the greatest mass murder machine of the murderous 20th century. Lenin died on this day in 1924;

And Conviction of a Tyrant's Spy

Meanwhile, on this date in 1950, Alger Hiss was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. The reference to this event in my morning paper's "Daily Almanac" was interesting, noting merely, "Hiss, who always maintained his innocence, served less than four years in prison." While I was growing up, the Hiss case was always a cause celebre for certain leftists, who took it as proof of the how evil and hysterical anti-communism could be. Of course, once the Soviet Union fell apart and we gained access to Soviety archives, it was confirmed once and for all that Hiss had been, in fact, a Soviet spy. That's not the impression you'd get from the Almanac, though, is it?

Some legends - like the legend that Hiss was framed - die hard.