1 Adam Smith The extremely moral author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He probably never dreamed the phrase invisible hand that he used once in The Wealth of Nations would get the words of God tagged on… He’s also known as the father of modern economics.

2 lend-lease Literally a leasing service for lending! Could be weapons and ammo, battleships, tanks, or fighter planes! Don’t confuse this with weapons sales—it’s merely a service to lend out extra materials. Or at least that was the logic that was used to explain away furnishing countries at war with weapons.

3 Potemkin Well, it definitely looked good. Window dressing is an awful way to put it. He just did what he could for his own benefit.

This is a classic example of glossing over the truth with unrealistic results. But you know, if you can’t trick the inspectors, you never get promoted. What choice did he have?

4 Rossbach A battle that broke out during the Seven Years’ War.

Frederick the Great led the outnumbered Prussian Army with some weirdo operational finagling and managed to win. The loss ratio was about 1:20. Frederick the Great was a weirdo, but he was strong.

5 Hoyerswerda The Prussian Army (led by Frederick the Great’s younger brother) and the Austrian Army fought with about equal numbers. After the battle, the Prussian Army estimated their losses at no more than a hundred. Meanwhile, 600 Austrian troops died and 1,800 were taken prisoner.

6 The Peter Principle A paradox where if ability is the criterion for promotion in a meritocracy, the end result is extreme incompetence.

For example, say there’s a capable company employee. He’s capable, so once he is promoted to section chief, if he has abilities beyond that position, he’ll probably be promoted to head of the department. But if he hits his ability ceiling, he’ll stay an ordinary, useless section chief forever. That’s the principle governing all organizations! Doesn’t that mean they’re actually full of people who can’t do their jobs?!…is the horrific discovery that was made.

7 tank desant The utterly natural result of people riding tanks. It’s a special tactic where putting soldiers on tanks allows them to keep up better with the mechanized rate of advance. It also allows the tanks and infantry to support each other more closely, which is perfect.

And you put them on the outside, not inside. It’s a harsh job, getting rained on by enemy attacks targeting the tanks. Whether this is true or not is unclear, but some say the average survival of tank-desant troops is two weeks.

8 Dyrrhachium A balding, womanizing king heavily laden with debts managed to encircle a great and just senator’s army that was much larger. Then the king lost. Of course he did. The king with debts was Julius Caesar, and it was one of his few defeats.

9 nomenklatura Privileged individuals who exist in an equal society that has done away with classes. They’re just on a list of those who work for the people and are not unlike anyone else in any other way. Of course, anyone who doesn’t make that list will never get anywhere in life…

10 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The peace treaty between Germany and Russia (the Soviet Union) in World War I. Of course, Germany’s victory in the east is often ignored, since they failed to win in the west…