Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) De Leon, Daniel dē lēˈŏn [key], 1852–1914, American socialist leader. Born on the island of Curaçao of Spanish-American parents, he was educated in Germany and the Netherlands before going (187...

(Encyclopedia) Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich ləzärˈ mōĭsyāˈyəvich kəgənōˈvich [key], 1893–1991, Soviet Communist leader. A Jewish shoemaker and labor organizer, he joined the Communist party in 1911. A...

(Encyclopedia) Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, nondenominational, coeducational Christian seminary; opened 1836, chartered 1839. Originally Presbyterian, Union Theological Seminary has been free ...

(Encyclopedia) MacDonald, Ramsay (James Ramsay McDonald), 1866–1937, British statesman, b. Scotland. The illegitimate son of a servant, he went as a young man to London, where he joined the Social Democratic Feder...

(Encyclopedia) Parvanov, Georgi Sedefchov, 1957–, Bulgarian political leader, president of Bulgaria (2002–12), b. Sirishnik. A historian by profession, he joined the Bulgarian Communist party (BCP) in 1981 and w...

(Encyclopedia) Rokossovsky, Konstantin kənstəntyēnˈ rŏkŏs-sôfˈskē [key], 1896–1968, Soviet general, b. Warsaw. He entered the czarist army and in 1917 joined the Bolshevik forces in the Russian Revolution...

(Encyclopedia) Zoshchenko, Mikhail Mikhailovich mēkhəyēl mēkhīˈləvĭch zôˈshchənkô [key], 1895–1958, Soviet humorist. Zoshchenko was born in Poltava, but spent most of his life in St. Petersburg where h...

(Encyclopedia) Western European Union (WEU), European security and defense organization. It was set up in Brussels in 1955 as a defensive, economic, social, and cultural organization, consisting of Belgium, France, ...

(Encyclopedia) Zhivkov, Todor tôˈdôr zhĭvkôfˈ [key], 1911–98, Bulgarian political leader. A printer, and a Communist party member from 1932, he rose to prominence as a partisan leader during World War II and...

(Encyclopedia) Central American Federation or Central American Union, political confederation (1825–38) of the republics of Central America—Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. United under ...