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Don Cossacks

(Encyclopedia)Don Cossacks, Cossack settlers (see Cossacks) who in the 16th cent. founded the virtually independent republic of the Don Cossacks on the fertile steppes along the lower course of the Don River. Novoc...

Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Zhukovsky, Vasily Andreyevich vəsēˈlyē əndrāˈəvĭch zho͞okôfˈskē [key], 1783–1852, Russian poet and translator. Zhukovsky wrote fine lyrics and odes, including the patriotic poem “The ...

Sophia Alekseyevna

(Encyclopedia)Sophia Alekseyevna sôˈfyə əlyĭksyāˈyəvnə [key], 1657–1704, regent of Russia (1682–89); daughter of Czar Alexis by his first wife and sister of Czar Feodor III. Supported by the streltsi (...

Izvolsky, Aleksandr Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Izvolsky, Aleksandr Petrovich əlyĭksänˈdər pētrôˈvĭch ēzvôlˈskē [key], 1856–1919, Russian diplomat instrumental in fostering the Triple Entente with France and Great Britain. He rose in...

Brancovan, Constantine

(Encyclopedia)Brancovan, Constantine brän-kōvänˈ [key], 1654–1714, prince of Walachia (1688–1714). A skillful politician who secured domestic peace, he furthered Walachia's economic and cultural development...

Elizabeth, czarina of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Elizabeth, 1709–62, czarina of Russia (1741–62), daughter of Peter I and Catherine I. She gained the throne by overthrowing the young czar, Ivan VI, and the regency of his mother, Anna Leopoldovna...

Baring, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Baring, Maurice, 1874–1945, English author. After a career in the diplomatic service, he turned to journalism in 1904. A war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, he wrote several books on Ru...

Stolypin, Piotr Arkadevich

(Encyclopedia)Stolypin, Piotr Arkadevich pyôˈtər ərkäˈdyĭvĭch stəlĭˈpĭn [key], 1862–1911, Russian premier and minister of the interior (1906–11) for Czar Nicholas II. He sought to fight the revoluti...

Mazepa, Ivan

(Encyclopedia)Mazepa, Ivan ēvänˈ məzyāˈpə [key], c.1640–1709, Cossack hetman [leader] in the Russian Ukraine. He was made hetman (1687) on the insistence of Prince Gallitzin, adviser to the Russian regent,...

Kotzebue, August von

(Encyclopedia)Kotzebue, August von ouˈgo͝ost fən kôtˈsəbo͞o [key], 1761–1819, German dramatist and politician. He wrote some 200 plays, including Menschenhass und Reue (1789, tr. The Stranger, 1798), Die S...
 

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