Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

156 results found

icebreaker

(Encyclopedia)icebreaker, ship of special hull design and wide beam, with relatively flat bottom, designed to force its way through ice. When the icebreaker charges into the ice at full speed, its sharply inclined ...

Zetkin, Klara

(Encyclopedia)Zetkin, Klara kläˈrä tsĕtˈkĭn [key], 1857–1933, German Communist leader and feminist. A teacher, she early joined the Social Democratic party and together with Rosa Luxemburg, became prominent...

dialectical materialism

(Encyclopedia)dialectical materialism, official philosophy of Communism, based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as elaborated by G. V. Plekhanov, V. I. Lenin, and Joseph Stalin. In theory dialecti...

Glyndebourne Festival

(Encyclopedia)Glyndebourne Festival glīnˈdəbərn, glīnˈbôrn [key], opera festival given each summer since 1934 on the estate of John Christie at Glyndebourne, near Lewes, Sussex, England. The festival is know...

Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Sholokhov, Mikhail Aleksandrovich mēkhəyĕlˈ əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch shôˈləkhŏf [key], 1905–84, Russian novelist. Sholokhov won international fame for an epic novel of his native land, The Sil...

Ratas, Jüri

(Encyclopedia)Ratas, Jüri, 1978–, Estonian political leader. A member of the Center party, a populist party with strong support among ethnic Russians, Ratas was mayor of Talinn (2005–7), before entering the Es...

Kasparov, Garry

(Encyclopedia)Kasparov, Garry kəspärˈôf, –ŏf [key], 1963–, Armenian chess player, b. Azerbaijan (then in the USSR) as Garik Kimovich Wainshtein. He became the world junior champion at the age of 16 and was...

Igor, 1151–1202, Russian prince

(Encyclopedia)Igor (Igor Sviatoslavich) ēˈgər svyäˌtəsläˈvĭch [key], 1151–1202, Russian prince. In 1185 he was defeated by the Cumans in an expedition that was immortalized in the epic Slovo o polku Igor...

Kirill

(Encyclopedia)Kirill kĭrēlˈ [key], 16th patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (2009–), b. Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev. The son and grandson of Russian Orthodox priests, he be...

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis, Mo. Founded in 1880, it is the country's second-oldest orchestra (the New York Philharmonic is the oldest). It performed in the Kiel Opera House until 1966, ...