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Selenga

(Encyclopedia)Selenga sĕlĕng-gäˈ [key], river, 616 mi (992 km) long, rising in the Khangai Mts., NW Republic of Mongolia, and flowing east, then north, across the Mongolian-Russian border to Lake Baykal; the Or...

Golovnin, Vasily Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Golovnin, Vasily Mikhailovich vəsēˈlyē mēkhīˈləvĭch gələvnyēnˈ [key], 1776–1831, Russian explorer and writer. Sent in 1807 to make a geographical survey of Kamchatka and the Russian pos...

Gordon, Judah Leon

(Encyclopedia)Gordon, Judah Leon, 1830–92, Russian-Hebrew novelist and poet, b. Vilna. As teacher and writer he was one of the leaders in the renaissance of a progressive culture among the Jews (see Haskalah) and...

Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich

(Encyclopedia)Derzhavin, Gavril Romanovich gəvrēlˈ rəmäˈnəvĭch dyĭrzhäˈvĭn [key], 1743–1816, Russian classical poet. His satirical ode to Catherine II, Felitsa (1782), won her favor, and he became poe...

Diomede Islands

(Encyclopedia)Diomede Islands dīˈəmēd [key], pair of rocky islands in Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The larger island, Big Diomede, is Russian, while the smaller is part of Alaska. At 2 mi (3 km) ap...

Ekimov, Alexei

(Encyclopedia)Alexei Ekimov, 1945– , b. Leningrad, USSR, Russian physicist, studied at Leningrad State University and Ioffe Institute of the Russian Academy of Scie...

Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich

(Encyclopedia)Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich dəmēˈtrē styĭpäˈnəvĭch bûrtnyänˈskē [key], 1751–1825, Russian composer, studied with Galuppi in St. Petersburg and Venice. After producing two operas in ...

Togo, Heihachiro

(Encyclopedia)Togo, Heihachiro hāˈhächĭrōˈ tōˈgō [key], 1846–1934, Japanese admiral, Japan's greatest naval hero. He studied naval science in England (1871–78), gained international recognition for his...

Alexander Nevsky

(Encyclopedia)Alexander Nevsky nĕvˈskē [key] [Rus.,=of the Neva], 1220–1263, Russian hero, grand duke of Vladimir-Suzdal. As prince of Novgorod (1236–52) he earned his surname by his victory (1240) over the ...

Khasbulatov, Ruslan Imranovich

(Encyclopedia)Khasbulatov, Ruslan Imranovich, 1942–, Russian politician. A Chechen from the Caucasus region, he was an academic economist in Moscow before his election (1990) to the Russian Congress of People's D...