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Mannerheim, Baron Carl Gustav Emil

(Encyclopedia)Mannerheim, Baron Carl Gustav Emil kärl gŭˈstäv āˈmĭl mäˈnərhām [key], 1867–1951, Finnish field marshal and president of Finland (1944–46). Of a distinguished Swedish-Finnish family in ...

Olesha, Yuri

(Encyclopedia)Olesha, Yuri, 1899–1960, Russian novelist and dramatist. In his novel Envy (1927; tr. 1936) and in his other writing, Olesha focused on the conflict between the demands of an industrialized world an...

Shiloh, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Shiloh, battle of, Apr. 6–7, 1862, one of the great battles of the American Civil War. The battle took its name from Shiloh Church, a meetinghouse c.3 mi (5 km) SSW of Pittsburg Landing, which was a...

Ossetia

(Encyclopedia)Ossetia älänˈyä [key], Ossetian Iryston, region of the central Caucasus, divided between the Republic of Georgia and the Russian Federation. On the northern slope is North Ossetia-Alania (1990 est...

Bessarabia

(Encyclopedia)Bessarabia bĕsərāˈbēə [key], historic region, c.17,600 sq mi (45,600 sq km), largely in Moldova and Ukraine. It is bounded by the Dniester River on the north and east, the Prut on the west, and ...

Adjarian Autonomous Republic

(Encyclopedia)Adjarian Autonomous Republic or Ajarian Autonomous Republic əjärˌĭstänˈ, əjärˈĭstănˌ [key], autonomous region, c.1,160 sq mi (3,000 sq km), SW Georgia...

cold war

(Encyclopedia)cold war, term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the co...

Viviani, René

(Encyclopedia)Viviani, René rənāˈ vēvyänēˈ [key], 1863–1925, French statesman. He entered politics as a Socialist and joined Jean Jaurès in founding the journal Humanité and in forming (1905) the united...

autonomy

(Encyclopedia)autonomy ôtŏnˈəmē [key] [Gr.,=self-rule], in a political sense, limited self-government, short of independence, of a political state or, more frequently, of a subdivision. The term is also used f...

Oder-Neisse line

(Encyclopedia)Oder-Neisse line, frontier established in 1945 between Germany and Poland; it followed the Oder and W Neisse rivers from the Baltic Sea to the Czechoslovak border. The boundary, desired by most Poles ...