How does a great lie become believed? How can a small, passionate minority dictate reality for a whole nation? When does history become subordinate to fiction?

This month, we will hear Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum address these questions through the lens of the Soviet crushing of Eastern Europe from 1944 to 1956.

While her lecture was originally delivered in 2012, its story of an impassioned minority, a totalitarian ideology, and the thrall of "alternative facts" remains trenchant in these opening weeks of 2021.