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Czartoryski

(Encyclopedia)Czartoryski chärtôrĭsˈkē [key], Polish princely family. Although of ancient lineage, it rose to prominence only in the 17th cent., and in the 18th cent. during the reign of the Saxon kings of Pol...

Mazepa, Ivan

(Encyclopedia)Mazepa, Ivan ēvänˈ məzyāˈpə [key], c.1640–1709, Cossack hetman [leader] in the Russian Ukraine. He was made hetman (1687) on the insistence of Prince Gallitzin, adviser to the Russian regent,...

Gallitzin

(Encyclopedia)Gallitzin gəlyēˈtsĭn [key], Russian princely family. Among many alternate spellings are Galitzin, Galytzin, and Galitsin. Vasily Vasilyevich Gallitzin, d. 1619, helped to enthrone the first false ...

Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich

(Encyclopedia)Kerensky, Aleksandr Feodorovich kərĕnˈskē, Rus. əlyĭksänˈdər fyôˈdərəvĭch kâˈrĭnskē [key], 1881–1970, Russian revolutionary. A lawyer, he was elected to the fourth duma in 1912 as ...

Beauharnais, Eugène de

(Encyclopedia)Beauharnais, Eugène de də bōärnāˈ [key], 1781–1824, French general; son of Alexandre and Josephine de Beauharnais (Empress Josephine). He served ably in the campaigns of his stepfather, Napol...

Rachel, Russian poet who wrote in Hebrew

(Encyclopedia)Rachel, pseud. of Rachel Bluwstein, 1890–1931, Russian poet who wrote in Hebrew. She moved to Palestine in 1909 where she worked as a laborer. Her verse is simple and relates to the experience of Je...

Oistrakh, David Feodorovich

(Encyclopedia)Oistrakh, David Feodorovich oiˈsträk [key], 1908–74, Ukrainian violinist, b. Odessa. Encouraged by his father, an amateur violinist, he began to study his instrument at the age of five. He graduat...

Leopold I, prince of Anhalt-Dessau

(Encyclopedia)Leopold I, 1676–1747, prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1693–1747). He served as field marshal in the Prussian army and was nicknamed “the Old Dessauer.” As chief military adviser to King Frederick Wil...

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