Could Napoleon have won if he attacked Moscow instead of retreating?

Napoleon actually reached Moscow and indeed occupied it. However it was a Pyrrhic victory. The Russians had burnt much of the city to the ground denying the Corsican the spoils of war. However this was only part of the problem. As the cliche goes an Army marches on its stomach and the Russian scorched Earth policy had seen to it that the Grand Army’s supply lines were not sustainable. Faced with hunger, General Winter and effective Cossack hit and run strategies he had no option but to retreat. What defeated Napoleon wasn’t Russian military prowess but Mother Nature’s icy hand holding down the scale on the necessities for life.

How did the Soviet Union manage to feed itself?

 (My answer on Quora)

When it was not encumbered by collectivist mismanagement, poor planning, bad harvests and deliberate forced famines it is important to remember the Soviet Union was one of the biggest wheat producers on the planet. Shortfalls in 1971 and 1972 forced the Soviets to import grains from elsewhere .

The US in fact supplied them with subsidized wheat and corn in 1973. At the time the Americans were under the impression that the purchases would go toward the Soviet livestock feed (in reality the Soviet Union was facing a huge wheat shortfall) that they tried to keep secret for propaganda reasons (well done Central planning…).

Later on it was discovered that Global wheat stocks were low and by subsidizing the Soviet purchases the price of domestic food in the US skyrocketed. The entire debacle was described by Scoop Jackson as the Great Grain Robbery.

How did Germany become so technologically advanced after WWI?

 (My Answer on Quora)

They had a strong industrial base to begin with that goes back well into the 19th century. Both the Diesel and the regular Internal Combustion engines were either developed or improved on by pre-war German engineers. Their academies and engineering schools were some of the best in the world and their production ingenuity had been supercharged by the necessity of war and the need for innovation (especially when skirting around the Allied Sea blockades).

Why did the United States beat the Soviets to the moon?

Asked on Quora

(my answer)

The Soviets actually had the first moon landing, however it was a non-manned hard landing in 1959 by Luna 2. The Americans replicated this feat in 1962 with Ranger 4. The Soviets also had the first soft moon landing in 1966 with Luna 9.

The manned moon landing project was more of a PR coup than anything else. JFK needed a project that would energize the public and throw the bulk of public sentiment behind the space initiative. It worked.

The Soviet space program under Sergey Korolev, had a manned moon landing component to it. However after the premature death of Korolev in 1966 (at age 59) and the Soyuz failure in 1967 it fell by the wayside. Instead the Soviets chose to focus their endeavors on the development of space stations instead.

It is worth noting that at one point both the US and the USSR were eager to follow through on a joint Apollo-Soyuz moon project but this collapsed after the assassination of Kennedy