Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jewish Autonomous Region

(Encyclopedia)Jewish Autonomous Region or Birobidzhan bērōbējänˈ [key], autonomous region (1995 pop. 211,900), c.13,800 sq mi (35,700 sq km), Khabarovsk Territory, Russian Far East, in the basins of the Biro a...

Alliluyeva, Svetlana

(Encyclopedia)Alliluyeva, Svetlana svyĕtläˈnä äl-lĕlo͞oˈyəvə [key], 1926–2011, only daughter of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, who committed suicide when Sve...

Sugihara, Chiune

(Encyclopedia)Sugihara, Chiune, 1900–1986, Japanese diplomat who saved several thousand European Jews during World War II. He served (1920–22) in the army, then joined the Japanese foreign ministry. In 1939 he ...

Brest, city, Belarus

(Encyclopedia)Brest –lĭtôfskˈ [key], Pol. Brześć nad Bugiem, city, capital of Brest region, W Belaru...

Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Zhdanov, Andrei Aleksandrovich əndrāˈ əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch zhdäˈnôf [key], 1896–1948, Soviet Communist leader. A loyal supporter of Stalin, he was made (1934) secretary of the Leningrad Comm...

Voroshilov, Kliment Yefremovich

(Encyclopedia)Voroshilov, Kliment Yefremovich vôrəshēˈlŏf, Rus. klyĭmyĕntˈ yəfrĕmˈəvĭch vərəshēˈləf [key], 1881–1969, Soviet military leader and public official. A Bolshevik from 1903, he was an...

Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich

(Encyclopedia)Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich ĕdˈwärd shəvˈärdnädˈzyə [key], 1928–2014, Georgian politician and diplomat. Known for pragmatism rather than polemicism, Shevardnadze served as the head o...

Five-Year Plan

(Encyclopedia)Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. Nations other than the former USSR a...

Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich

(Encyclopedia)Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovich gēôrˈgē kənstəntyēˈnəvĭch zho͞oˈkôf [key], 1896–1974, Soviet marshal. He fought in the October Revolution (1917) and in the civil war (1918–20), which b...

Yalta Conference

(Encyclopedia)Yalta Conference, meeting (Feb. 4–11, 1945), at Yalta, Crimea, USSR, of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. Most of ...