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Rachmaninoff, Sergei Vasilyevich

(Encyclopedia)Rachmaninoff, Sergei Vasilyevich syĭrgāˈ vəsēˈlyĭvĭch räkhmäˈnēnôf [key], 1873–1943, Russian pianist, composer, and conductor. He became known as one of the greatest pianists of his gen...

Samsonov, Aleksandr Vasilyevich

(Encyclopedia)Samsonov, Aleksandr Vasilyevich əlyĭksänˈdər vəsēˈlyəvĭch səmsôˈnəf [key], 1859–1914, Russian general. Early in World War I, when his army advanced into East Prussia (see Masuria) in o...

Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Gavrilovich

(Encyclopedia)Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Gavrilovich nyĭkəlīˈ gəvrēˈləvĭch chĕrnĭshĕfˈskē [key], 1828–89, Russian socialist reformer. He was the leading disciple of Vissarion Belinsky inside Russia; fro...

Gumilev, Nikolai Stepanovich

(Encyclopedia)Gumilev, Nikolai Stepanovich nyĭkəlīˈ styĭpäˈnəvĭch go͞omēlyôfˈ [key], 1886–1921, Russian poet. With his wife, the poet Anna Akhmatova, and Gorodetsky Gumilev, he founded the Acmeist sc...

Giers, Nikolai Karlovich

(Encyclopedia)Giers, Nikolai Karlovich nyĭkəlīˈ kärˈləvĭch gēyĕrsˈ [key], 1820–95, Russian statesman. Appointed deputy foreign minister in 1875, he increasingly took over the duties of the elderly fore...

Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich

(Encyclopedia)Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich nyĭkəlīˈ yäˈkəvlyĭvĭch myəskôfˈskē [key], 1881–1950, Russian composer, b. near Warsaw, grad. St. Petersburg Conservatory, 1911. Professor of composition ...

Lobachevsky, Nikolai Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Lobachevsky, Nikolai Ivanovich nyĭkəlīˈ ēväˈnəvĭch ləbəchĕfˈskē [key], 1793–1856, Russian mathematician. A pioneer in non-Euclidean geometry, he challenged Euclid's fifth postulate tha...

Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich nyĭkəlīˈ ēväˈnəvĭch nôˈvēkəf [key], 1744–1818, Russian journalist and publisher. In 1769, with the Drone, he started the vogue of the satirical magazine model...

Nekrasov, Nikolai Alekseyevich

(Encyclopedia)Nekrasov, Nikolai Alekseyevich nyĭkəlīˈ əlyĭksyāˈyəvĭch nyĭkräˈsəf [key], 1821–78, Russian poet, editor, and publisher. Nekrasov began writing poetry when he was seven. Disowned by his...

Leskov, Nikolai Semyonovich

(Encyclopedia)Leskov, Nikolai Semyonovich nyĭkəlīˈ sĭmyôˈnəvĭch lyĭskôfˈ [key], 1831–95, Russian short-story writer and novelist. Leskov was first a civil servant, then an agent for his uncle's busine...

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