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Hermitage, museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Hermitage ĕrˌmētäzhˈ [key], museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, one of the world's foremost houses of art, consisting of six buildings along the embankment of the Neva River. Its central building, ...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

Bethany, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Bethany bĕthˈənē [key]. 1 Village, at the southeastern foot of the Mount of Olives, the modern El Aziriye, 2 mi (3.2 km) E of Jerusalem. In the Gospels, it is the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary...

Armenia, country, Asia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Armenia ärmēˈnēə [key], Armenian Hayastan, officially Republic of Armenia, republic (2020 est. pop. 2,963,000), 11,500 sq mi (29,785 sq km), in the S Caucasus....

Aquila, in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Aquila ăkˈwĭlə, əkwĭlˈə [key], in the New Testament, Christian of Jewish origin from Pontus who lived at Rome. He and his wife, Prisca or Priscilla, were friendly to Paul. ...

Gottwald, Klement

(Encyclopedia)Gottwald, Klement klāməntˈ gôtˈvält [key], 1896–1953, Czechoslovak Communist leader, b. Moravia. After World War I he helped found the Czechoslovak Communist party and served on the party's ce...

Ryazanov, Eldar Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Ryazanov, Eldar Aleksandrovich, 1927–2015, Russian film director and screenwriter, b. Samara, grad. State Institute of Cinematography (1950). Probably Russia's most popular filmmaker, he renowned fo...

Slavophiles and Westernizers

(Encyclopedia)Slavophiles and Westernizers, designation for two groups of intellectuals in mid-19th-century Russia that represented opposing schools of thought concerning the nature of Russian civilization. The dif...

Wałęsa, Lech

(Encyclopedia)Wałęsa, Lech lĕkh väwĕnˈzə [key], 1943–, Polish labor and political leader. He worked as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk but was dismissed in 1976 for his antigovernment prote...

church and state

(Encyclopedia)church and state, the relationship between the religion or religions of a nation and the civil government of that nation, especially the relationship between the Christian church and various civil gov...