Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, major cold war confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and other American actions against Cuba as well as to P...

(Encyclopedia) Bolshevism and Menshevism bōlˈshəvĭzəm, bŏlˈ–, mĕnˈshəvĭzəm [key], the two main branches of Russian socialism from 1903 until the consolidation of the Bolshevik dictatorship under Lenin ...

(Encyclopedia) Vishinsky or Vyshinsky, Andrei Yanuarievich both: əndrāˈ yəno͞oärˈyĭvĭch vĭshēnˈskē [key], 1883–1954, Soviet diplomat and jurist. He studied law at the Univ. of Kiev, early entered the ...

(Encyclopedia) Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich ĕdˈwärd shəvˈärdnädˈzyə [key], 1928–2014, Georgian politician and diplomat. Known for pragmatism rather than polemicism, Shevardnadze served as the head o...

(Encyclopedia) Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), organization that seeks to upgrade moral life, especially through abstinence from alcohol. The National WCTU of the United States was founded (1874) in Cleve...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 CE5 Yugoslavia yo͞oˌgōsläˈvēə [key], Serbo-Croatian Jugoslavija, former country of SE Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula. Belgrade was the capital and by far the largest city. Yugoslavs (...

(Encyclopedia) Kolomyya kələmĭˈyə [key], Ger. Kolomea, Pol. Kołomyja, city (1989 pop. 63,000), W Ukraine, on the Prut River and in the Carpathian foothills. It is a rail junction and agricultural trade center....

(Encyclopedia) African Union (AU), international organization established in 2002 by the nations of the former Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU is the successor organization to the OAU, with greater power...

(Encyclopedia) Wilkinson, Ellen, 1891?–1947, English politician. Of a working-class family, she graduated from the Univ. of Manchester and became a union organizer. A Labour member of Parliament (1924–31, 1935�...

(Encyclopedia) Husák, Gustav go͝osˈtäf ho͝oˈsäk [key], 1913–91, Czechoslovakian political leader. A member of the Communist party from 1933, he helped to lead the Slovak national uprising against the German...