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Soloviev, Vladimir Sergeyevich

(Encyclopedia)Soloviev, Vladimir Sergeyevich vlədyēˈmĭr sĭrgāˈəvĭch sələvyôfˈ [key], 1853–1900, Russian religious philosopher and poet; son of Sergei Mikhailovich Soloviev. Soloviev believed in the i...

Cimmerians

(Encyclopedia)Cimmerians sĭmērˈeənz [key], ancient people of S Russia of whom little is actually known. They are mentioned in Homer, but they emerge into history only in the 8th cent. b.c. when they were driven...

Jolson, Al

(Encyclopedia)Jolson, Al jōlˈsən [key], 1888–1950, American entertainer, whose original name was Asa Yoelson, b. Russia. He emigrated to the United States c.1895. The son of a rabbi, Jolson first planned to be...

Pale

(Encyclopedia)Pale. 1 In Irish and English history, that district of indefinite and varying limits around Dublin, in which English law prevailed. The term was first used in the 14th cent. to designate what had prev...

Latgale

(Encyclopedia)Latgale lătgălˈēə [key], region and former province, in Latvia, N of the Western Dvina River. Daugavpils was the chief city. The region was settled in the early Middle Ages by the Latgalians, who...

Berlin, Sir Isaiah

(Encyclopedia)Berlin, Sir Isaiah, 1909–97, English political scientist, b. Riga, Latvia (then in Russia). His family moved to St. Petersburg when he was a boy and emigrated to London in 1921. He was educated at O...

Kievan Rus

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Kievan Rus (c.1000) Kievan Rus kēˈĕfən [key], medieval state of the Eastern Slavs. It was the earliest predecessor of modern Ukraine and Russia. Flourishing from the 10th to the 13th cent....

Cossacks

(Encyclopedia)Cossacks kŏsˈăks, –əks [key], Rus. Kazaki, Ukr. Kozaky, peasant-soldiers in Ukraine and in several regions of Russia who, until 1918, held certain privileges in return for rendering military ser...

Mongols

(Encyclopedia)Mongols mŏngˈgəlz, –gōlz [key], Asian people, numbering about 6 million and distributed mainly in the Republic of Mongolia, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, and Kalmykia and the B...

Karelia

(Encyclopedia)Karelia kərēˈlēə [key], constituent republic (1990 pop. 800,000), 66,409 sq mi (172,300 sq km), NW European Russia, extending from the Finnish border in the west to the White Sea in the east and ...