Vinogradov shrugs off these "shallow" arguments. "The point of historical research is not to dispossess the present, but to disillusion it: to strip away self-serving myth and fatal ignorance, in order to see more clearly how we got here, and what it really cost, and how these costs shape - and distort - our responses to reality. Otherwise, we are blind - easy prey for the abusers of power and their murderous deceptions." .