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communism

(Encyclopedia)communism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of...

balance of power

(Encyclopedia)balance of power, system of international relations in which nations seek to maintain an approximate equilibrium of power among many rivals, thus preventing the preponderance of any one state. Crucial...

Council of Europe

(Encyclopedia)Council of Europe, international organization founded in 1949 to promote greater unity within Europe and to safeguard its political and cultural heritage by promoting human rights and democracy. The c...

Debs, Eugene Victor

(Encyclopedia)Debs, Eugene Victor, 1855–1926, American Socialist leader, b. Terre Haute, Ind. Leaving high school to work in the railroad shops in Terre Haute, he became a railroad fireman (1871) and organized (1...

Kulakov, Feodor

(Encyclopedia)Kulakov, Feodor fyôˈdər ko͞oˈläkôf [key], 1918–78, Soviet political leader. A member of the Communist party after 1940, Kulakov held various agricultural management positions before becoming ...

Tereshkova, Valentina Vladimirovna

(Encyclopedia)Tereshkova, Valentina Vladimirovna, 1937–, Soviet cosmonaut. She was the first woman to orbit the earth, in Vostok 6 on June 16–19, 1963. She left the Soviet space program soon after and married c...

Russian language

(Encyclopedia)Russian language, also called Great Russian, member of the East Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). The principal language of administ...

agrarian reform

(Encyclopedia)agrarian reform, redistribution of the agricultural resources of a country. Traditionally, agrarian, or land, reform is confined to the redistribution of land; in a broader sense it includes related c...

Shushkevich, Stanislav Stanislavovich

(Encyclopedia)Shushkevich, Stanislav Stanislavovich, Belarusian Stanislau Stanislavavich Shushkevich, 1934–, Belarusian political leader and scientist, first head of state of independent Belarus after the dissolu...

Reed, John

(Encyclopedia)Reed, John, 1887–1920, American journalist and radical leader, b. Portland, Oreg. After graduating from Harvard in 1910, he wrote articles for various publications and from 1913 was attached to the ...