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Basov, Nikolai Gennadiyevich

(Encyclopedia)Basov, Nikolai Gennadiyevich nyĭkəlīˈ gĕnäˈdēyĕˌvĭch bäˈsəf [key], 1922–2001, Russian physicist and educator, b. Usman. He worked with A. M. Prokhorov to develop a technique for amplif...

Bulgars, Eastern

(Encyclopedia)Bulgars, Eastern bŭlˈgärz, –gərz [key], Turkic-speaking people, who possessed a powerful state (10th–14th cent.) at the confluence of the Volga and the Kama, E European Russia. The Bulgars app...

Warsaw Treaty Organization

(Encyclopedia)Warsaw Treaty Organization or Warsaw Pact, alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania,...

Ho Chi Minh

(Encyclopedia)Ho Chi Minh hô chē mĭn [key], 1890–1969, Vietnamese nationalist leader, president of North Vietnam (1954–69), and one of the most influential political leaders of the 20th cent. His given name ...

Liu Shaoqi

(Encyclopedia)Liu Shaoqi or Liu Shao-ch'i both: lyo͞o shou-chē [key], 1898?–1969, Chinese Communist political leader. Liu joined (1920) a Comintern organization in Shanghai, where he studied Russian. While in M...

Schnittke, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Schnittke, Alfred, 1924–98, Russian composer. He studied music in Vienna (1946–48) and at the Moscow Conservatory (1953–58), where he later (1962–72) taught instrumentation. Thereafter, he ear...

Chancellor, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Chancellor, Richard, d. 1556, English navigator. When, largely under the inspiration of Sebastian Cabot, a group of men in England undertook to finance a search for the Northeast Passage to Asia, Chan...

Aliyev, Ilham

(Encyclopedia)Aliyev, Ilham älēˈyĕf [key], 1961–, Azerbaijani political leader, president of Azerbaijan (2003–), b. Baku; son of President Heydar Aliyev. He earned a degree in history from Moscow State Uni...

Dnieper

(Encyclopedia)Dnieper nēˈpər [key], Belarusian Dnyapro, Rus. Dnepr, Ukr. Dnipro, river, c.1,430 mi (2,300 km) long, in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. One of the longest rivers in Europe, it rises in the Valdai Hi...

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...