Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Anhalt änˈhält [key], former state, c.900 sq mi (2,330 sq km), central Germany, surrounded by the former Prussian provinces of Saxony and Brandenburg. Dessau, the capital, and Köthen were the chie...

(Encyclopedia) Tatarstan tətärˈēə [key], republic (1990 est. pop. 3,660,000), 26,255 sq mi (68,000 sq km), E European Russia, in the middle Volga and lower Kama river valleys. Kazan is the capital; other import...

(Encyclopedia) Berlin, Congress of, 1878, called by the signers of the Treaty of Paris of 1856 (see Paris, Congress of) to reconsider the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, which Russia had forced on the Ottoman Em...

(Encyclopedia) Turkmanchai, Treaty of to͝orkmänchīˈ [key], 1828, agreement signed by Russia and Persia at the village of Turkmanchai (Torkaman), East Azerbaijan prov., NW Iran. It concluded the Russo-Persian war...

(Encyclopedia) Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Bet...

(Encyclopedia) Leo I, Saint (Saint Leo the Great), c.400–461, pope (440–61), an Italian; successor of St. Sixtus III. A Doctor of the Church, he was one of the greatest pontiffs of the early years of the church....

(Encyclopedia) Kuchuk Kainarji, Treaty of ko͞ocho͞okˈ kīnärˈjē, Turk. küchükˈ kīˌnärjäˈ [key], 1774, peace treaty signed at the end of the first of the Russo-Turkish Wars undertaken by Catherine II of...

(Encyclopedia) Nicodemus, Gospel of, book composed of the Acts of Pilate and Christ's Descent into Hell, part of the loosely defined New Testament Apocrypha. The Acts of Pilate is an amplified account of the trial, ...

(Encyclopedia) Azov, Sea of, Gr. Maiotis, Lat. Palus Maeotis, ancient Rus. Surozhskoye, northern arm of the Black Sea, c.14,000 sq mi (36,300 sq km), shared by S European Russia and E Ukraine. The shallow sea (maxim...

(Encyclopedia) John of Brienne brēĕnˈ [key], c.1170–1237, French crusader. He was a count and in 1210 married Mary, titular queen of Jerusalem. Mary died in 1212, and their daughter, Yolande (1212–28), succee...