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Orel

(Encyclopedia)Orel əryôlˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 337,000), capital of Orel region, central European Russia, on the Oka River. It is a large railroad junction, an agricultural trade center, and an industrial city...

Ansky, Shloime

(Encyclopedia)Ansky, Shloime shloiˈmə änˈskē [key] pseud. of Solomon Seinwil Rapoport, 1863–1920, Russian-Yiddish author. He extensively researched regional Jewish folklore and incorporated folk elements int...

Dushanbe

(Encyclopedia)Dushanbe do͞oshănˈbə, –shänˈ– [key], city, capital of Tajikistan, W Tajikis...

Smith, Walter Bedell

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Walter Bedell, 1895–1961, U.S. general, b. Indianapolis, Ind. He enlisted (1910) in the Indiana National Guard, won a commission in the U.S. army (1918), and advanced to the rank of lieutenan...

Sorokin, Vladimir Georgevich

(Encyclopedia)Sorokin, Vladimir Georgevich, 1955–, Russian writer. Trained as an engineer, he turned to Moscow's underground writing world in the 1980s. His iconoclastic work was banned by the Soviets; his first ...

Brin, Sergey Mikhaylovich

(Encyclopedia)Brin, Sergey Mikhaylovich, 1973–, American business executive and computer scientist, b. Moscow, grad. Univ. of Maryland (B.S., 1993) and Stanford (M.S., 1995). His family immigrated to the United S...

Brustein, Robert Sanford

(Encyclopedia)Brustein, Robert Sanford, 1927–, American educator and drama critic, b. New York City. As dean of the Yale Univ. Drama School (1966–78), he made it one of the major American training grounds for t...

Pfitzner, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Pfitzner, Hans häns pfĭtsˈnər [key], 1869–1949, German conductor and composer, b. Moscow. Pfitzner studied music at Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt/ Main. His music, conservative in idiom (Pfit...

Blücher, Vasily Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Blücher, Vasily Konstantinovich blüˈkhər [key], 1889–1937?, Russian general. An enlisted man in the czarist army, Blücher joined the Bolshevik party in 1916. He rose to high command in the civ...

Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich

(Encyclopedia)Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich vlŭdēmˈyĭr vlŭdēmˌyĭrˈəvyĭch po͞oˈtyĭn [key], 1952–, Russian government official and political leader, b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). After graduating...