I am an avid reader of military history – WWII, Ancient Rome, Medieval are my favourites – and am reading one of Osprey Publishing excellent easy to read and understand books called “Soviet Rifleman 1941-1945″. The Osprey books are really good and well worth buying if you are into military history. Anyway, although I have not finished the book yet the first fact to make me think is the one that states that the average conscript into the Red-Army had a vocabulary of 500-2000 words!!!! And this was enough for day-to-day life in 1930’s Russia!!!!

What I would want to know is “what are those 500 words”, would be interesting to find out what the 2000 words are as well. The ability to get by on only 500 words (be they spoken or gestured) is mind boggling.

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