Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

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,...

Castro, Fidel

(Encyclopedia)Castro, Fidel (Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz) käsˈtrō [key], 1926–2016, Cuban revolutionary, premier of Cuba (1959–76), president of the Council of State and of the Council of Ministers (1976–2...

Mao Zedong

(Encyclopedia)Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung mou dzŭ-do͝ong [key], 1893–1976, founder of the People's Republic of China. Mao was one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians and his ideas on revolutionary stru...

Gomułka, Władysław

(Encyclopedia)Gomułka, Władysław vwädĭsˈwäf gəmo͝oˈkə [key], 1905–82, Polish Communist leader. Long a Communist, he helped establish the Polish Workers' party and was (1943–49) secretary of its centr...

Tito, Josip Broz

(Encyclopedia)Tito, Josip Broz yôˈsĭp brôz tēˈtō [key], 1892–1980, Yugoslav Communist leader, marshal of Yugoslavia. He was originally Josip Broz. As premier and minister of defense from 1945, Marshal T...

Russia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 CE5 Russia, officially the Russian Federation, Rus. Rossiya, republic (2015 est. pop. 143,888,000), 6,591,100 sq mi (17,070,949 sq km). The largest country in the world by area, Russia is bou...

Landrum-Griffin Act

(Encyclopedia)Landrum-Griffin Act, 1959, passed by the U.S. Congress, officially known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. It resulted from hearings of the Senate committee on improper activities ...

Alexy II

(Encyclopedia)Alexy II or Aleksy II əlyĕkˈsē [key], 1929–2008, 15th patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (1990–2008), b. Estonia, as Aleksey Mikhailovich Ridiger. He spent 11 years as a Russian Orthodox paris...

totalitarianism

(Encyclopedia)totalitarianism tōtălˌĭtârˈēənĭzəm [key], a modern autocratic government in which the state involves itself in all facets of society, including the daily life of its citizens. A totalitarian...

Comintern

(Encyclopedia)Comintern kəmĭntārnˈ [key] [acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International, founded at Moscow in 1919. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin feared a resurgence of the Second, or Soci...