Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich ēˈsäk əmäno͞oāˈləvĭch bäˈbəl [key], 1894–1940, Russian writer, b. Odessa. Babel was quick to embrace the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, but in the end it was t...

(Encyclopedia) Maghreb or Magrib both: mäˈgrĭb [key] [Arab.,=the West], Arabic term for NW Africa. It is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia but actually pertains only to the area of the thr...

(Encyclopedia) Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich lĭsĕngˈkō, Rus. trəfēmˈ dyĭnyēˈsəvĭch lĭsyĕnˈkə [key], 1898–1976, Russian agronomist. As president of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences ...

(Encyclopedia) Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), international organization established as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1973, during the cold war, to promo...

(Encyclopedia) Motlanthe, Kgalema Petrus kälāˈmä, mōtlänˈtā [key], 1949–, South African politician, b. Johannesburg. A fierce opponent of apartheid, he was influenced by Steve Biko and organized student pr...

(Encyclopedia) Djukanović, Milo mēˈlō jo͞okänˈōvĭch [key], 1962–, Montenegrin political leader, president (1998–2002, 2018–) and prime minister (1991–98, 2003–6, 2008–10, 2012–16) of Montenegr...

(Encyclopedia) Comintern kəmĭntārnˈ [key] [acronym for Communist International], name given to the Third International, founded at Moscow in 1919. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin feared a resurgence of the Second, or Soci...

(Encyclopedia) Åland Islands ōˈläntsûˈu̇rnä [key], archipelago, 581 sq mi (1,505 sq km), in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia. Pol...

(Encyclopedia) Johnson, Boris (Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson), 1964–, British political leader, b. New York City, grad. Oxford (1986). While at Oxford Johnson was president of the prestigious Oxford Union deb...

(Encyclopedia) Haywood, William Dudley, 1869–1928, American labor leader, known as Big Bill Haywood, b. Salt Lake City, Utah. He began work as a miner at 15 years of age. In 1896 he joined the newly organized West...