Monday, April 04, 2005

Novocherkassk

Also spelled  Novocerkassk,   city, Rostov oblast (province), southwestern Russia. It lies at the confluence of the Tuzlov and the Aksay rivers. The original 16th-century town of Starocherkasskaya stood along the Don River, but it was frequently inundated and was moved to its present site in 1805. Novocherkassk long served as the capital of the Don Cossack region and was a centre of opposition to the Bolsheviks

Lenin's Testament

Formally  Letter to the Congress , Russian  Pismo K Syezdu  two-part document dictated by Vladimir I. Lenin on Dec. 23–26, 1922, and Jan. 4, 1923, and addressed to a future Communist Party Congress. It contained guideline proposals for changes in the Soviet political system and concise portrait assessments of six party leaders (Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Grigory Y. Zinovyev, Lev B. Kamenev, Nikolay Bukharin, and Georgy Pyatakov). The testament, written

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Hungary, The revolution of 1956

Rákosi—who in 1952 came to preside over the government as well as the party—was, under Moscow, all-powerful until the death of Stalin in 1953, when a period of fluctuation began. In July 1953 Rákosi was deposed from the prime ministership in favour of Imre Nagy—a “Muscovite” but a Hungarian in his attitudes and not unpopular in the country. Nagy promised a new course—an end to the forced

Semiconductor Device

A p-n junction diode is a solid-state device that has two terminals. Depending on impurity distribution, device geometry, and biasing condition, a junction diode can perform various functions. There are more than 50,000 types of diodes with voltage ratings from less than 1 volt to more than 2,000 volts and current ratings from less than 1 milliampere to more than 5,000 amperes. A p-n junction

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Pieris

The leaves are usually alternate, broad, leathery, lance-shaped, and toothed. The flowers, which are cylindrical or urn-shaped, have a five-lobed calyx (the sepals, collectively) and grow in a terminal or

Friday, April 01, 2005

Lebed, Aleksandr Ivanovich

Soviet general and politician (b. April 20, 1950, Novocherkassk, near Rostov, Russian S.F.S.R., U.S.S.R.—d. April 28, 2002, Abakan, Russia), was a decorated military hero who made headlines in 1991 when he refused to lead troops against Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin in the aborted coup against Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev; in 1996 he unsuccessfully ran against Yeltsin in the Russian Federation's presidential

Mahathir Bin Mohamad

The son of a schoolmaster, Mahathir was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College and the University of Malaya in Singapore, where he studied medicine. After graduating in 1953, he worked as a government

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Valera Y Alcalá Galiano, Juan

His novels are characterized by deep psychological analysis of the characters, especially women. He was opposed to naturalistic

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Obregón, álvaro

Though Obregón had little formal education, he learned a great deal about the needs and desires of poor Mexicans from his work as a farmer and labourer. He did not take part in

Rand, Ayn

Rand graduated from the University of Petrograd in 1924 and two years later immigrated to the United States. She initially worked as a screenwriter

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Bka'-brgyud-pa

Also spelled  Kagyupa  (Tibetan: “Transmitted Word”), third largest Buddhist sect in Tibet. Its members are followers of the 11th-century teacher Mar-pa, who distinguished himself as a translator of Buddhist texts while continuing to live the life of a householder. Mar-pa studied in India under the master yogin (spiritual adept, or ascetic) Naropa, and the school stresses the more severe practices