Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Ivan II or Ivan Asen ēˈvän äˈsən [key], d. 1241, czar of Bulgaria (1218–41). On the death (1207) of his father, Kaloyan, founder of the second Bulgarian empire, the throne was usurped by Ivan'...

(Encyclopedia) Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich mēkhəyēlˈ ēväˈnəvĭch glēnˈkä [key], 1804–57, first of the nationalist school of Russian composers. His two operas, A Life for the Czar (1836) and Russlan and Lu...

(Encyclopedia) Finland, Gulf of, eastern arm of the Baltic Sea, c.285 mi (460 km) long and from c.10 to c.75 mi (15–120 km) wide, between Finland and Russia and Estonia. The shallow gulf receives the Narva River a...

(Encyclopedia) Prokopovich, Feofan fāəfänˈ prəkəpôˈvĭch [key], 1681–1736, Russian churchman. He was appointed bishop by Czar Peter I to carry out his ecclesiastic reforms and wrote Spiritual Regulation (1...

(Encyclopedia) Bar, Confederation of, union formed in 1768 at Bar, in Podolia (now in W Ukraine), by a number of Polish nobles to oppose the interference of Catherine II of Russia in Polish affairs. Headed by the Pu...

(Encyclopedia) Gorky, Maxim or Maksim both: məksyēm gôrˈkē [key] [Rus.,=Maxim the Bitter], pseud. of Aleksey Maximovich Pyeshkov, 1868–1936, Russian writer, b. Nizhny Novgorod (named Gorky, 1932–91). Gorky ...

(Encyclopedia) Moscow or Muscovy, grand duchy of, state existing in W central Russia from the late 14th to mid-16th cent., with the city of Moscow as its nucleus. Its formation and eventual ascendancy over other Rus...

(Encyclopedia) Carême, Marie Antoine märēˈ äNtwänˈ kärĕmˈ [key], 1784–1833, celebrated French cook and gastronomist. He was chef for Talleyrand, Czar Alexander I, George IV, and Baron Rothschild. His wri...

(Encyclopedia) Concert of Europe, term used in the 19th cent. to designate a loose agreement by the major European powers to act together on European questions of common interest. The concert emerged after the Congr...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Khanate of the Golden Horde (c.1300) Golden Horde, Empire of the, Mongol state comprising most of Russia, given as an appanage to Jenghiz Khan's oldest son, Juchi, and actually conquered and f...