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Honecker, Erich

(Encyclopedia)Honecker, Erich āˈrĭkh hônˈĕkər [key], 1912–94, East German political leader. From a Communist family, Honecker was imprisoned by the Nazis for 10 years for party activities. After the war he...

Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich əndrāˈ əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch zhdäˈnôf [key], 1896–1948, Soviet Communist leader. A loyal supporter of Stalin, he was made (1934) secretary of the Leningrad Comm...

Wei, river, China

(Encyclopedia)Wei wā [key], river, c.450 mi (720 km) long, rising in SE Gansu prov. and flowing E through Gansu and Shaanxi provs. to the Huang He. Its wide, alluvial valley was the site of some of the earliest ce...

warlord

(Encyclopedia)warlord, in modern Chinese history, autonomous regional military commander. In the political chaos following the death (1916) of republican China's first president and commander in chief, Yüan Shih-k...

Togliatti, Palmiro

(Encyclopedia)Togliatti, Palmiro pälmēˈrō tōlyätˈtē [key], 1893–1964, Italian Communist leader. A lawyer, he helped found the Italian Communist party in 1921. He lived in Moscow for many years after the F...

Blücher, Vasily Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Blücher, Vasily Konstantinovich blüˈkhər [key], 1889–1937?, Russian general. An enlisted man in the czarist army, Blücher joined the Bolshevik party in 1916. He rose to high command in the civ...

Le Duan

(Encyclopedia)Le Duan lā dwän [key], 1908–86, Vietnamese Communist party leader. Imprisoned by the French colonial regime, he organized Communist forces in the South after the French withdrawal from Vietnam in ...

Hu Yaobang

(Encyclopedia)Hu Yaobang ho͞oˈ youˈbängˈ [key], 1915–89, Chinese Communist political leader, b. Hunan prov. A protegé of Deng Xiaoping, Hu became general secretary of the Communist party in 1980 and party c...

long march

(Encyclopedia)long march, Chin., Changzheng, the journey of c.6,000 mi (9,660 km) undertaken by the Red Army of China in 1934–35. When their Jiangxi prov. Soviet base was encircled by the Nationalist army of Chia...

Novotný, Antonín

(Encyclopedia)Novotný, Antonín änˈtônyēn nôˈvôtnē [key], 1904–75, Czechoslovakian Communist leader. A founding member (1921) of the Communist party, he participated (1948) in the Communist seizure of po...