Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sigismund III

(Encyclopedia)Sigismund III, 1566–1632, king of Poland (1587–1632) and Sweden (1592–99). The son of John III of Sweden and Catherine, sister of Sigismund II of Poland, he united the Vasa and Jagiello dynastie...

Narva, city, Estonia

(Encyclopedia)Narva närˈvə [key], city (1994 pop. 79,094), NE Estonia, on the left bank of the Narva River. A leading textile center, it also has machinery plants, sawmills, flax and jute factories, and food-pro...

Austerlitz

(Encyclopedia)Austerlitz ôˈstərlĭts, Ger. ouˈ– [key], Czech Slavkov u Brna, town, S Czech Republic, in Moravia. An agricultural center, the town has sugar refineries and cotton mills. It became a seat of the...

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...

Dmitri

(Encyclopedia)Dmitri dĭmēˈtrēəs [key], 1582–91, czarevich, son of Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) of Russia. His brother, Feodor I, succeeded Ivan in 1584, but Boris Godunov actually ruled Russia for the period ...

Petropavlovsk, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Petropavlovsk kəmchätˈskē [key], city (1989 pop. 269,000), capital of Kamchatka Territory, Russian Far East. It is a major port and naval base on the Northern Sea Route, and there are shipyards an...

Rubens, Peter Paul

(Encyclopedia)Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

Medici, Ferdinand II de'

(Encyclopedia)Medici, Ferdinand II de', 1610–70, grand duke of Tuscany (1620–70); son and successor of Cosimo II de' Medici. A pupil of Galileo, he founded (1657) the Accademia del Cimento, the first European a...

Paul I

(Encyclopedia)Paul I, 1754–1801, czar of Russia (1796–1801), son and successor of Catherine II. His mother disliked him intensely and sought on several occasions to change the succession to his disadvantage. Du...

Petrokrepost

(Encyclopedia)Petrokrepost shlüˈsəlbo͝orkh [key], town and fortress, NW European Russia, E of St. Petersburg. The town, the terminus of a railroad and of the lateral canals on Lake Ladoga, has shipbuilding and ...