Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) ice dancing, ice-skating competition in which couples are required to perform dance routines to music. The sport gained popularity in the 1930s and the first world championships were held in 1950. Ice...

(Encyclopedia) Alekseyev, Mikhail Vasilyevich mēkhəēlˈvəsēˈlyəvĭch əlyĭksyāˈəf [key], 1857–1918, Russian general, chief of staff (1915–17) of Czar Nicholas II. With other officers he urged the czar...

(Encyclopedia) suprematism, Russian art movement founded (1913) by Casimir Malevich in Moscow, parallel to constructivism. Malevich drew Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky to his revolutionary, nonobjective art. I...

(Encyclopedia) parapsychology, study of mental phenomena not explainable by accepted principles of science. The organized, scientific investigation of paranormal phenomena began with the foundation (1882) of the Soc...

(Encyclopedia) Pugachev, Emelian Ivanovich yĭmĭlyänˈ ēväˈnəvĭch po͞ogəchôfˈ [key], c.1742–75, Russian peasant leader, head of the peasant rebellion of 1773–74. A Don Cossack, he exploited a widespre...

(Encyclopedia) Akhmatova, Anna əndrāˈəvnə gôryĕngˈkô [key], 1888–1966, Russian poet of the Acmeist school. Her brief lyrics, simply and musically written in the tradition of Pushkin, attained great popula...

(Encyclopedia) Shelekhov, Grigori Ivanovich grĭgôˈrē ēväˈnəvĭch shĕˈlyĭkhəf [key], 1747–95, Russian fur trader in North America, b. Rylsk, Ukraine. He had built up a large fur business in Siberia when...

(Encyclopedia) Stambuliski, Alexander, Bulgarian Aleksandr Stamboliski both: älĕksänˈdər stämbōlēˈskē [key], 1879–1923, Bulgarian politician. He was a leader of the Peasants' party and by 1911 had become...

(Encyclopedia) Russian American Company, colonial trading company, chartered by Czar Paul I in 1799. The charter granted the merchant-dominated company monopoly trading privileges in Russian America, which included ...

(Encyclopedia) Catherine I, 1683?–1727, czarina of Russia (1725–27). Of Livonian peasant origin, Martha Skavronskaya was a domestic when she was captured (1702) by Russian soldiers. As mistress of Aleksandr D. M...