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Catherine II

(Encyclopedia)Catherine II or Catherine the Great, 1729–96, czarina of Russia (1762–96). Catherine increased the power and prestige of Russia by skillful diplomacy and by extending Russia's western boundary i...

Nizhny Novgorod

(Encyclopedia)Nizhny Novgorod nyēshˈnyī nôfˈgərəd [key], formerly Gorky or Gorki, city (1989 pop. 1,438,000), capital of Nizhny Novgorod region and the administrative center of the Volga federal district, E ...

Oscar II

(Encyclopedia)Oscar II, 1829–1907, king of Sweden (1872–1907) and Norway (1872–1905), younger son of Oscar I. He succeeded his brother, Charles XV. He refused to concede to Norway its own consular representat...

Kun, Béla

(Encyclopedia)Kun, Béla bāˈlŏ ko͞on [key], 1886–1937, Hungarian Communist. A prisoner of war in Russia after 1915, he embraced Bolshevism. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 he was sent to ...

Djilas, Milovan

(Encyclopedia)Djilas, Milovan mēˈləvän jēˈläs [key], 1911–95, Yugoslav political leader and writer, b. Montenegro. A Communist party member from 1932, he helped Josip Broz Tito organize volunteers to fight...

Fairfax of Cameron, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron

(Encyclopedia)Fairfax of Cameron, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron, 1693–1781, proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, b. England. He inherited the Northern Neck, comprising the land between the Rappahannock and Po...

Tredyakovsky, Vasily Kirilovich

(Encyclopedia)Tredyakovsky, Vasily Kirilovich vəsēˈlyē kĭrēˈləvĭch trĕdyəkôfˈskē [key], 1703–69, Russian poet, translator, and scholar. Tredyakovsky rose from humble origins to membership in the Aca...

byliny

(Encyclopedia)byliny bĭlēˈnē [key] [Rus.,=what has happened], Russian scholarly term first applied in the 1840s to a great body of narrative and heroic poems. They are called by the folk stariny [Rus.,=what is ...

Baeyer, Adolf von

(Encyclopedia)Baeyer, Adolf von (Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer) äˈdôlf fən bāˈyər; yōhänˈ frēˈdrĭkh vĭlˈhĕlm [key], 1835–1917, German chemist. He taught at Berlin and Strasbourg and in...

Czech Legion

(Encyclopedia)Czech Legion, military force of about 40,000 to 50,000 men, composed mostly of Czech and Slovak Russian prisoners of war and deserters from the Austro-Hungarian army who enrolled in the Russian army d...