Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Simeon I, c.863–927, ruler (893–927) and later first czar of Bulgaria. He was placed on the throne by his father, Boris I, who had returned from a monastery to depose his first son, Vladimir (reig...

(Encyclopedia) Menshikov, Aleksandr Danilovich, Prince əlyĭksänˈdər dənyēˈləvĭch mĕnˈshĭkəf [key], 1672?–1729, Russian field marshal and statesman. Of lowly origin, he became an intimate companion of...

(Encyclopedia) Anastasia (Anastasia Nikolayevna) ănəstāˈshə nyĭkəlīˈəfnă [key], 1901–18, youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, last of the Russian czars. She was killed with the rest of her immediate f...

(Encyclopedia) Kharkiv khärˈkəf [key], Rus. Kharkov, city (1990 est. pop. 1,600,000), capital of Kharkiv region, E Ukraine, at the confluence of the Kharkiv, Lopan, and Udy rivers in the upper Donets valley. Ukra...

(Encyclopedia) Lermontov, Mikhail Yurevich mēkhəyēlˈ yo͞orˈyĭvĭch lyĕrˈməntŭf [key], 1814–41, Russian poet and novelist. Given an extensive private education by his wealthy grandmother, Lermontov began...

(Encyclopedia) Gulistan, Treaty of go͞olĭstänˈ [key], 1813, signed by Russia and Iran (Persia) at Gulistan, a village in what is now NW Azerbaijan. It ended the Russo-Persian war that had begun in 1804. Persia c...

(Encyclopedia) Beaumont, William, 1785–1853, American physician, b. Lebanon, Conn. He was privately educated and was licensed (1812) to practice in Vermont. His Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice an...

(Encyclopedia) Frederick William III, 1770–1840, king of Prussia (1797–1840), son and successor of Frederick William II. Well-intentioned but weak and vacillating, he endeavored to maintain neutrality in the Nap...

(Encyclopedia) Perse, St.-John, pseud. of Alexis Saint-Léger Léger, 1887–1975, French poet and diplomat, b. West Indies. Léger, an opponent of appeasement of the Nazis, was enormously influential in France's fo...

(Encyclopedia) Stephen Dušan or Dushan both: stĕˈfän do͞oˈshän [key], c.1308–1355, king (1331–46) and czar (1346–55) of Serbia, son of Stephen Uros III. He is also known as Stephen Uros IV. He was procl...