Just have a few questions about the changing of leadership and the fall of the Soviet Union after Stalin died. Would appreciate if details were given.

What was the impact of Stalin's death on the Soviet system?

What caused the Sino-Soviet split?

And what I really want to know is what perestroika and glasnost were. I know they were policies of reform put in by Gorbachev, but just wanted more details about how they both functioned and why they failed or succeeded.

Thanks!

I recently finished watching the movie Umberto D. about an old civil servant who tries to get by on a government pension in Italy of the 1950's. This however, turns out to be a very tough task. It got me wondering though, what is the history of these government pensions? When were they first instigated and how did they work? Would most people struggle to get by or did this man just have a stroke of bad luck?

When reading about men like Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne I often come across terms like infantry general cavalry general or artillery general. But I have never seen an explanation on what this means exactly. Considering the combination of all forces in many battles it would seem unlikely to me that a general can be only concerned with one subtype of the army. Does this mean then that the general rose trough the ranks as for example an artillery officer? I'm hoping someone has an explanation to this.

We all know not even a 100 years ago countries were trying to expand their empire, and have done throughout history, but now former empires such as the British are seem to be freeing them, what changed the mindset?

Can anyone give me a background of British intelligence failings in the Boer War (1899-1902)?

Especially the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Is there any commonly accepted reasoning for the disappearance of those civilizations?

What I've read so far about American policies in the Cold War seems to indicate that a lot of the policies (Marshall Plan, Truman Doctrine) were relatively successful in containing the spread of communism. Were there any policies put forth by the U.S. government that weren't very successful? Thanks!

From my history readings, early North American explorers would adventure through the NA interior, and spend the winter in NA. Come spring, they'd rebuild a boat (one of my texts mentions forging their armor into nails), and then voyage home. I can see how they'd be able to craft a new caravel with hand tools and a shipwright, but how did they fabricate the sails they'd need? Did they always bring an extra set, or was there a simple sail-weaving process they'd use with native raw materials?

As a native Georgian, I've always wondered about this. We have the second largest number of counties (159) after Texas (254). Even then, our population/county ratio is significantly lower than theirs.

Specifically I mean would they have said the whole, "You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court, anything you do say may be given in evidence."

Or would there have been something else said?

To clarify, I'm referring to Continental Europe from the French Revolution down to the time of, say, 1848, which saw both the March Revolution in Berlin and the publication of The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engeld.

We are having a discussion in school about this topic, since a member of our community was recently KIA. Thank you for your help!

In terms of the brutality and rigity of the society? And the social interactions?