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Don Cossacks

(Encyclopedia)Don Cossacks, Cossack settlers (see Cossacks) who in the 16th cent. founded the virtually independent republic of the Don Cossacks on the fertile steppes along the lower course of the Don River. Novoc...

Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich vəsēˈlyē əndrāˈəvĭch zho͞okôfˈskē [key], 1783–1852, Russian poet and translator. Zhukovsky wrote fine lyrics and odes, including the patriotic poem “The ...

Decembrists

(Encyclopedia)Decembrists dĭsĕmˈbrĭsts [key], in Russian history, members of secret revolutionary societies whose activities led to the uprising of Dec., 1825, against Czar Nicholas I. Formed after the Napoleon...

Sophia Alekseyevna

(Encyclopedia)Sophia Alekseyevna sôˈfyə əlyĭksyāˈyəvnə [key], 1657–1704, regent of Russia (1682–89); daughter of Czar Alexis by his first wife and sister of Czar Feodor III. Supported by the streltsi (...

duma

(Encyclopedia)duma do͞oˈmä [key], Russian name for a representative body, particularly applied to the Imperial Duma established as a result of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The parliamentary organization of 19...

Poltava

(Encyclopedia)Poltava pəltäˈvə [key], city (1989 pop. 315,000), capital of Poltava region, E Ukraine, on the Kiev-Kharkiv highway and on the Vorskla River, a tributary of the Dnieper. It is an industrial center...

Oka, river, Siberian Russia

(Encyclopedia)Oka, river, c.600 mi (970 km) long, rising in the Sayan Mts., Buryat Republic, S central Siberian Russia. It flows N through Irkutsk oblast to join the Angara River below Bratsk. The lower Oka valley ...

Saint Petersburg, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Saint Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Rus. Sankt-Peterburg, city (1990 est. pop. 5,036,000), capital of the Leningrad region (although not administratively part of it) and the administrative center of...

Brancovan, Constantine

(Encyclopedia)Brancovan, Constantine brän-kōvänˈ [key], 1654–1714, prince of Walachia (1688–1714). A skillful politician who secured domestic peace, he furthered Walachia's economic and cultural development...

Dolan, Timothy Michael

(Encyclopedia)Dolan, Timothy Michael, 1950–, American Roman Catholic cardinal, b. St. Louis, Mo. Educated at Cardinal Glennon College, the Pontifical American College in Rome, and the Catholic University of Ameri...