and moreover, is it ethical if those experimentations were done on prisoners?

As I understand Fawkes was a fairly minor part in the whole thing, so when/why did the 5th November become known as Guy Fawkes Night, rather than, say, Robert Catesby Night?

I have heard it said that the Venona program confirms certain individuals to be spies.

I have heard names such as Alger Hiss, Harry Dester White, Harry Hopkins, Robert Oppenheimer, and I.F. Stone.

What is know today that wasn't known at the time? Is there still a dispute about certain individuals? Why?

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How would they deal with the language problem when they met new cultures / people?

Did the Greeks and/or Romans have anything approaching a professional role for translators?

If yes, were any of them famous?

Any legendary stories or multi-lingual people the way you sometimes read now and then about some prodigal 14 year old who's fluent in 14 languages?

Any controversies where translators' translations were thought to be deliberately dishonest for ulterior motives?

Thank you for your answers.

Why didn't the knights in armor in Europe use Samurai swords, or the Japanese use the Three Musketeers type swords seen today in Olympic fencing?

Why wasn't one type of sword found to be superior, and thus used by everyone?

Hi,

I'm a quasi-Marxist socialist who reads and listens to a lot of Marxist material, and I have recently engaged with Marxist-Leninist in dialogue and discussion, and something that has come up with a few of them is outright defenses of Josef Stalin and how his rule was very beneficial and democratic. I know that this is a rather broad question, but I was never given any real objective sources on Stalin from these people, go figure, but at the same time I distrust a lot of the popular material out there because it comes off as exaggerated and political itself, although if I'm wrong to be as skeptical, do tell me. So I'm wondering:

How democratic were elections in the Soviet Union under Stalin?

How was life for independent trade unions, were they even allowed to exist in any fashion?

How often were political prisoners sent off to Gulags? Were they just prisons for the harshest criminals, like some told me?

What were his policies on the peasantry, and what was his track record with hunger and starvation?

Sorry if again this is too big of a question, but I'm no expert on Soviet history and would like some help ascertaining the truth of all this. Thanks.

Just to clarify I am in no way trying to justify or condone what happened during the holocaust (everyone involved deserves to burn in their own special hell) but there were some interesting points made, specifically regarding our understanding of pain and development of vaccinations. I'm not a historian myself and am only wondering if there is any validity to his theory.

I'm currently looking into Journal Officiel for official publication of laws and decrees during the Vichy era. I've already looked through the National Library of France and was wondering if I could find more from 1940 and 41.

My AP US teacher says that the US had broke the Japanese Purple codes and knew that Japan was planning an attack just not many specifics. He also stated we took actions to attempt to draw out a Japanese attack so that we could get into WW2. Such as FDR finding a lower ranking naval admiral to "ask" him for allowance to move the pacific fleet to pearl harbor thus appearing hostile/aggressive to the Japanese. He also showed us a confidential list that had all the ways to draw out a Japanese attack and get into war. I think their was 14 of them. So far he has been a great teacher and I believe he has been very moderate and had a level head so far. Thanks!

In the anthem, it states "And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air". During the battle the song was based off, was it accurate for the British and/or Americans to use bombs and rockets?

Even among non-vegetarian, non-Muslims, Indians seem to eat goat, chicken, fish but much less commonly pork among them.

Does this date to the period when India was ruled by Islamic dynasties or were pigs never a major source of domesticated animal for meat in the Indian subcontinent from the start?

I wish that I had more general knowledge of the time to help create a clearer idea of the question. I know that the house of Saud arose in the wake of the Ottomans and that T.E. Laurence was instrumental in helping support Arab independence. Yet, I have never heard of any connection between the two. Was T.E. Laurence aware of the Wahhabist ideology of the Saudi dynasty? Was the support of the Sauds something that the British did behind the back of Laurence? I'd really appreciate any information I can get on this. Also, as an aside, I'm really impressed with the work that many of the responders do on this sub. You guys are great.