Shortly after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, I noted in this column and elsewhere that the entire episode — including the fouling of the public space by the aggressor’s genocidal threats and endless disinformation – suggested something of what the 1930s must have been like. A brazen dictator with a talent for rabble-rousing bewitches his own people and paralyzes the political will of those who might be able to deter him. Well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) souls make excuses for the aggressor…