ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0-9
Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party ... Rye
Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party
Marxist revolutionary party ancestral to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Founded in 1898 in Minsk, the Social-Democratic Party held that Russia could achieve socialism only after developing a ...
Russian State Library
national library of Russia, located in Moscow, notable for its extensive collection of early printed books and a collection of manuscripts that includes ancient Slavonic codices. Originally founded in 1862 ...
Russian State Museum
museum opened in St. Petersburg in 1898 as the central museum of Russian art and life. It is housed in the buildings of the former Mikhailovsky Palace, designed by Karl ...
Russian-American Company
Russian trading monopoly that established colonies in North America (primarily in California and Alaska) during the 19th century. The Northeastern Company, headed by the merchants Grigory I. Shelikov and Ivan ...
Russo-Finnish War
(Nov. 30, 1939-March 12, 1940), war waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the beginning of World War II, following the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (Aug. 23, ...
Russo-Japanese War
(1904-05), military conflict in which a victorious Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in the Far East, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a ...
Russo-Polish War
(1919-20), military conflict between Soviet Russia and Poland, which sought to seize Ukraine. It resulted in the establishment of the Russo-Polish border that existed until 1939.
Russo-Turkish wars
series of wars between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the 17th-19th century. The wars reflected the decline of the Ottoman Empire and resulted in the gradual southward extension of ...
rust
disease of thousands of economically important plants, as well as weeds, caused by more than 4,000 species of fungi.
rust fly
(family Psilidae), any of a group of insects (order Diptera) that are small, slender, brownish flies with long antennae. The larvae feed on plants and may be garden pests. The ...
Rustamid kingdom
Islamic state on the high plateau of northern Algeria, founded by followers of the Ibadiyah branch of Kharijism. It was one of several kingdoms that arose in opposition to the ...
Rustaveli, Shota
major Georgian poet, author of the Georgian national epic, The Knight in the Panther's Skin.
Rustavi
city, southeastern Georgia, on the Kura River. The city was developed after World War II with the establishment of a large iron and steel works that supplied rolled steel and ...
Rustenburg
town, North-West province, South Africa, west of Pretoria. Founded in 1850, its name was allegedly derived from the rust ("rest") that white settlers were able to enjoy between black African ...
rustic style
in decorative arts, any peasant or rural decorative inclination; more precisely, a type of furniture made of wood or metal, the main components of which are carved and fretted to ...
rustic ware
in pottery, creations of the French potter Bernard Palissy, who from about 1548 produced large earthenware dishes decorated with naturalistic pictures of reptiles, insects, and the like in high relief. ...
rustication
in architecture, type of decorative masonry achieved by cutting back the edges of stones to a plane surface while leaving the central portion of the face either rough or projecting ...
Rustin, Bayard
black American civil-rights activist.
Ruston
city, seat of Lincoln parish, northern Louisiana, U.S., 33 miles (53 km) west of Monroe. It was founded in 1883 by Robert E. Russ, for whom the town was named, ...
rutabaga
root vegetable closely related to the turnip. See turnip.
Rutaceae
family of flowering plants belonging to the order Sapindales and valuable as a source of edible fruit and as ornamentals. Known as the citrus, or rue, family, the Rutaceae includes ...
Rutebeuf
French poet and jongleur whose pungent commentaries on the orders of society are considered the first expression of popular opinion in French literature.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
coeducational state institution of higher learning in New Jersey, U.S. Rutgers was founded as private Queens College by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1766. The college struggled to survive in ...
Ruth, Babe
professional baseball player. Largely because of his home-run hitting between 1919 and 1935, Ruth became, and perhaps remains to this day, America's most celebrated athlete.
Ruth, Book of
Old Testament book belonging to the third section of the biblical canon, known as the Ketuvim, or Writings. In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth stands with the Song of Solomon, Lamentations, ...
Ruthenian
any of those Ukrainians who were formerly Polish or Austrian and Austro-Hungarian subjects. The name is a Latinized form of the word Russian, but the Ruthenians are Ukrainians who, by ...
ruthenium
(Ru), chemical element, one of the platinum metals of Group VIII of the periodic table, used as an alloying agent to harden platinum and palladium. Silver-gray ruthenium metal looks like ...
Rutherford
borough (town), Bergen county, northeastern New Jersey, U.S. It lies 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Paterson, near the Passaic River. Laid out in 1862, the settlement was originally known ...
Rutherford atomic model
description of the structure of atoms proposed (1911) by the British physicist Ernest Rutherford. The model described the atom as a tiny, dense, positively charged core called a nucleus, in ...
Rutherford, Dame Margaret
actress who was popular on the British stage and screen from the 1930s in roles as a lovable English eccentric.
Rutherford, Ernest, Baron Rutherford of Nelson, of Cambridge
British physicist who laid the groundwork for the development of nuclear physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908.
Rutherford, Mark
British writer distinguished as a novelist, critic, and religious thinker.
Rutherfurd, Lewis Morris
American astrophysicist who made the first telescopes designed for celestial photography.
Ruthven, Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord
Protestant who played an important role in the political intrigues of 16th-century Scotland.
Ruthwell Cross
cross bearing an important runic inscription in the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) language, from Ruthwell in the historic county of Dumfriesshire, Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland. The cross, which is ...
rutile
the most abundant of three naturally occurring forms of titanium dioxide (TiO2; see also anatase; brookite). It forms red to reddish brown, hard, brilliant metallic, slender crystals, often completely surrounded ...
Rutilius Claudius Namatianus
Roman poet who was the author of an elegiac poem, De reditu suo, describing a journey from Rome to his native Gaul in the autumn of AD 417. The poem ...
Rutland
unitary authority and historic county in the East Midlands of England. Rutland is the smallest county in England.
Rutland
city, seat (1784) of Rutland county, south-central Vermont, U.S. It lies between the Green Mountains and the Taconic Range on Otter Creek. In 1759 the site was an outpost on ...
Rutland
county, western Vermont, U.S. It is bounded by New York state (the border formed in part by Lake Champlain and the Poultney River) and the Taconic Mountains to the west ...
Rutland, John James Robert Manners, 7th Duke of, Marquess Of Granby, Earl Of Rutland, Lord Manners Of Haddon
Conservative Party politician of reformist inclinations who was a leading figure in the "Young England" movement of Britain in the 1840s.
Rutledge, John
American legislator who, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, strongly supported the protection of slavery and the concept of a strong central government.
Rutledge, Wiley B, Jr.
associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1943-49).
Ruud, Birger
Norwegian ski jumper, who was the only athlete to win both a jumping and a downhill event in the same Olympics.
Ruvo di Puglia
town, Bari provincia, Puglia (Apulia) regione, southeastern Italy. It lies on the eastern slopes of the Murge plateau, west of Bari city. Ancient Rubi was the centre of the Peucettii, ...
Ruvubu River
river that rises in several branches east of Bujumbura, Burundi. It flows first south and then north-northeast to form a part of the Tanzania-Burundi border. It eventually joins the Akagera ...
Ruvuma River
perennial river rising in the Matagoro Mountains in southeastern Tanzania. Flowing eastward into the Indian Ocean at a point about 20 miles (32 km) north of Cape Delgado, the Ruvuma ...
Ruways, ar-
site of a giant industrial complex, Abu Dhabi emirate, United Arab Emirates. It lies along the Persian Gulf about 140 miles (220 km) west of Abu Dhabi, the national capital. ...
Ruwenzori Range
mountain range bordering Uganda and Congo (Kinshasa); the range is thought to be the "Mountains of the Moon" described by the 2nd-century-AD geographer Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus). The mountains were long ...
Ruysbroeck, Jan van
Flemish mystic whose writings influenced Johann Tauler, Gerhard Groote, and other mystics.
Ruysdael, Salomon van
Dutch landscape painter of the Baroque style, uncle of the landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael.
Ruyter, Michiel Adriaanszoon de
Dutch seaman and one of his country's greatest admirals. His brilliant naval victories in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars enabled the United Provinces to maintain a balance of power ...
Ruzicka, Leopold
Swiss chemist and joint recipient, with Adolf Butenandt of Germany, of the 1939 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on ringed molecules, terpenes (a class of hydrocarbons found in ...
Rwanda
landlocked republic lying south of the Equator in east-central Africa. It is bounded on the west by Congo (Kinshasa) and Lake Kivu, on the north by Uganda, on the east ...
Rwanda
the peoples of the Republic of Rwanda, who speak an Interlacustrine Bantu language known as Rwanda. The Rwanda are divided into two main ethnic groups: the Hutu, traditionally farmers; and ...
Rwanda language
a Bantu language spoken by some eight million people primarily in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), Uganda, and Tanzania. The Bantu languages form a subgroup ...
rya rug
floor covering handmade in Sweden and Finland using techniques resembling those employed in Oriental carpets but having extremely long, recumbent pile and great flexibility. In one Swedish type the nap ...
Ryabushinsky Family
family of wealthy Russian industrialists. Descended from peasants, they successfully invested in textiles, land, and banking in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They were prominent in liberal politics prior ...
Ryan, Nolan
American professional right-handed baseball pitcher who in 1983 became the first pitcher to surpass Walter Johnson's record of 3,508 career strikeouts, set in 1927.
Ryan, T. Claude
American airline entrepreneur and aircraft manufacturer who designed the plane from which Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis was built.
Ryan, Thomas Fortune
American financier who played a key role in numerous mergers and business reorganizations that took place about the turn of the 20th century, including those resulting in the creation of ...
Ryazan
', oblast (province), western Russia. It occupies an area of 15,300 square miles (39,600 square km) in the middle Oka River basin and extends southward across the northern end of ...
Ryazan
medieval Russian principality from the 12th to the early 16th century. Ryazan became an independent princedom early in the 12th century under Yaroslav, the son of the grand prince Svyatoslav ...
Ryazan
', city and administrative centre of Ryazan oblast (province), western Russia. It lies along the Oka River on the site of the ancient town of Pereyaslavl-Ryazansky, about 120 miles (193 ...
Rybakov, Anatoly
Russian author whose novels of life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin's dictatorship were published-and became popular-after the institution of glasnost in the late 1980s.
Rybinsk
city, Yaroslavl oblast (province), northwestern Russia, on the Volga River. The 12th-century village of Rybnaya sloboda became the town of Rybinsk in 1777. Its river port flourished after the opening ...
Rybinsk Reservoir
large artificial body of water on the upper Volga River, northwestern Russia, formed by two dams on the Volga and its tributary, the Sheksna. The project began in 1935, the ...
Rybnik
city, southwestern Slaskie wojewodztwo (province), southern Poland, on the Nacyna River. Situated in a sub-Carpathian valley in a forested area of the Upper Silesian coalfields, Rybnik has ...
Rydberg constant
(symbol R), fundamental constant of atomic physics that appears in the formulas developed (1890) by the Swedish physicist J. R. Rydberg, describing the wavelengths or frequencies of light in various ...
Rydberg, Johannes Robert
Swedish physicist for whom the Rydberg constant in spectroscopy is named.
Rydberg, Viktor
author of the Romantic school who, with his broad range of achievements, greatly influenced Swedish cultural life.
Ryde
town on the northeastern coast of the Isle of Wight, historic county of Hampshire, England, opposite Portsmouth on the mainland. It is located on the site of a former village ...
Ryder Cup
biennial professional team golf event first held in 1927. Until 1979 it was played between teams of golfers from the United States and Great Britain, but in 1979 and thereafter ...
Ryder, Albert Pinkham
American painter, noted for his highly personal seascapes and mystical allegorical scenes.
rye
(species Secale cereale), cereal grass and its edible grain that is used to make rye bread and rye whiskey. The plant grows to a height of 1 to 2 m ...
Rye
city and town (township), on Long Island Sound, in Westchester county, southeastern New York, U.S. The original town site, at Pendingo Neck, was first settled (1660) by a company of ...