Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Sugihara, Chiune, 1900–1986, Japanese diplomat who saved several thousand European Jews during World War II. He served (1920–22) in the army, then joined the Japanese foreign ministry. In 1939 he ...

(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) Turkistan or Turkestan both: tûrkˌĭstănˈ, –stänˈ [key], historic region of central Asia. Western, or Russian, Turkistan extended from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Chinese frontier in th...

(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) Rama, Edi 1964–, Albanian political leader and artist, prime minister of Albania (2013–). He studied and taught art in Tirana, then moved to France (1994) and embarked on a career as a painter. Re...

(Encyclopedia) Jobert, Michel mēshĕlˈ zhôbĕrˈ [key], 1921–2002, French diplomat, b. Morocco (then a French colony). In 1963, he joined Georges Pompidou's staff during Pompidou's premiership. After Pompidou's...

(Encyclopedia) Brauchitsch, Walther von välˈtər fən brouˈkhĭch [key], 1881–1948, German field marshal. Of a Prussian Junker family, he served in World War I with the general staff and later remained in the m...

(Encyclopedia) International, any of a succession of international socialist and Communist organizations of the 19th and 20th cent. After World War I, the Second International was revived (1919) by moderate social...

(Encyclopedia) Chernomyrdin, Viktor Stepanovich vyēkˈtôr styĭpänˈəvyĭch chərˌnōmĭrˈdən [key], 1938–2010, Soviet and Russian government official. Beginning in 1957, he held positions in the Soviet nat...

(Encyclopedia) Hardie, James Keir kērˈ härˈdē [key], 1856–1915, British labor leader and socialist, b. Scotland. A coal miner, he became a union organizer and in 1888 founded the Scottish Labour party. In 189...