Currently in the midst of pulling sources revolving around Soviet response to US nuclear testing/advancements (from early thermodynamic tests and ADMs or Davy Crocketts to IRBMs and such).

While there exists quite a bit of sources from the US side, there's understandably a paucity of first hand Soviet information, or at least less transparency in finding it.

I was wondering if anyone had access too, was aware of, or knows of a practical alternative to something akin to a Soviet Military open source database, or perhaps a curated source of military leader public statement's on the US.

Thanks for any help! This is surely an opaque area of research and I don't expect to find something so easy, but any insight is appreciated.

I know that sometimes, at least, a person on piano would accompany silent films in the theater for the benefit of the audience. I was just wondering how the music for this was chosen, and if sheet music for silent films was a thing. Thanks!

After reading several wikipedia articles and watching videos on youtube about that topic Id really like to learn more about that phenomenon and time period. Dos anyone know any book that could help me?

What country began the eastern European slavic nations Such as Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Etc. Etc.

I am teaching the history of the spice trade, but having a hard time finding readings that link specifically to the Arabian peninsula? (Most of the readings are about India and Europe.)

(I'm sorry if this is the wrong type of question. I searched the FAQ and couldn't find anything specifically related to the Arabian spice trade.)

I know there were a LOT of factors that went into the Soviet's eventual victory, but how important was the material support from the US? Did US support essentially win the war for them? Or was it just a minimal factor? Also, what did they send them that was so important?

I have recently read up on Jozef Pilsudski, but it seems that many people have mixed opinions about him. From what you know how do you rank him as a general and dictator?

It actually started during the second World War, with Klaus Fuchs in the Manhattan Projekt. Other examples are the russian space shuttle buran that doesn't seem to differ much from the american one and the russian akula class submarines, which are sometimes even called walker class, named after John Anthony walker, another soviet spy whose spying influenced their development to a large degree.

But are there any cases where the soviets had technology that was vastly superior to the Western one? And on top of that, did the West ever successfully steal some?

I'm specificly interested in why most of the (german) regions being splitted in a upper and lower part (e.g. Oberbayern, Niederbayern -> Upper and Lower Bavaria) are named opposite to their directions on the map. Sanity tells me the northern part should be called upper (...) and the southern part lower (...). So where does this naming tradition come from?

Edit: When I say "no biological purpose", that's a bit of a misnomer. I mean that it does not directly lead to the perpetuation of the species. I know it does serve some biological purposes technically, so I misspoke when I said that. I was just wondering if kissing was a cultural phenomenon as opposed to a biological drive, and if so, if anyone knew what culture it originated in.

Rivia is both a country and a city(Capital). There are multiple cities in Rivia.

Was there any precedence of having a city/country as "part of your name" in medieval times for individuals that did not directly rule over the said city/region? If so, how would one go about getting this title?

I've never heard anything about black people during the holocaust. I also don't think I've ever seen a picture or movie depicting blacks in concentration camps. Anyone know?

Specifically, when did Western Europe stop thinking of Byzantium as "Roman" and instead as "Greek" or "Byzantine" or "not really the same thing as the Roman Empire"?

Considering the fact that Vietnam was able to, more or less, defeat both France and the United States in the twentieth century and that the region has a strong tradition of defending against foreign invasions, how was the French originally able to conquer Vietnam during the age of imperialism? Why was France able to beat the Vietnamese in the nineteenth century, but not the twentieth?

The Austrian Habsburg monarchy was/is famous for its rampant inter-marrying of close family members. Hence suffering from incest-connected disabilities such as the notorious "Habsburg jaw" (I hope that's the right translation).

My questions are: did they know that these disabilities were caused by incest or was this a discovery of more recent science? If so, why didn't they stop? Or was the blood line more important than healthy heirs (the latter being one of the main reasons to "keep the bloodline pure")?

Bonus question: basically the same but in regards to the Egyptian pharaos or other royal dynasties etc.

Thanks!

I suppose most of the islands are pretty barren, but wouldn't Turkey understand the tourism potential? It also seems odd to have the territory of a testy neighbor positioned so strangely. One particular example I'd like to know about is a tiny island called Kastellorizo, which is 125km from the nearest other Greek island but only 4km offshore from Turkey.

Broadly, I’m interested in how it seems so many oligarchs came about from this transition