ST. PETERSBURG
Leningrad. The name of the city of St. Petersburg from 1924 until 1991. The city also was named Petrograd 1914-1924.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg
Peter the Great. Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, Tsar of Russia from 1682 to 1725.
www.historylearningsite.co.uk/peter_the_great.htm
Tsar. The title of the ruler of Russia from 1547 to 1917.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar
Piotr. The name “Peter” in Russian. Peter the Great is popularly known as “Piotr”.
KGB. Initials for the Committee for State Security (Komityet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti), the 1954-1991 name of the Soviet Union’s secret police and intelligence agency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB
Vladimir Putin. President of Russia,1999-2008, and Prime Minister beginning in 2008.
http://www.upi.com/topic/Vladimir_Putin/
Bliny. The plural of “blin” (Yiddish “blintz,” French “crepe”), a small pancake that may be stuffed with anything from chocolate to chicken to caviar.
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item0006D/default.asp
Gorbachev. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was a Russian leader until 1991 and a 1990 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0821290.html
Glasnost. The period of candidness in discussion of Soviet current and past political and social problems introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev beginning in 1985.
http://www.historyorb.com/russia/glasnost.shtml
Bolshevik Revolution. The 1917 October Revolution, or Russian Revolution, during in which the Bolshevik faction of Russian Marxists overthrew the Russian Provisional Government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution
Bloody Sunday. The January 22, 1905, massacre of more than 100 workers who went to the Winter Palace to petition Tsar Nicholas II to improve working conditions.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSsunday.htm
Romanov. The family name of the imperial dynasty that ruled Russia for more than 300 years until the 1917 revolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov
Nicholas II. Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov, the last tsar of Russia, executed in 1918.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia
Catherine the Great. Ekaterina Alexeevna was Empress of Russia, 1762-1796.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/catherinegreat
Amber. A fossil of tree resin, mostly found in the Baltic Sea, and much of which is appreciated as jewelry and sold widely in St. Peterburg.
http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/Mineralo/amber/amber.htm
Baltic region. The Baltic Sea countries all share access to the Baltic Sea: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_region
The Wanderers. A group of 19the century Russian realist artists
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peredvizhniki
Ploshchad Pobedy. Russian for “Victory Square” and the location of St. Petersburg’s “Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad.”
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/monuments/heroic-defenders.asp
Red Army. The ‘Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army’’ was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. In 1922, it became the army of the Soviet Union.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army
Dostoevsky. Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881).
http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/
Gogol. Russian writer Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852).
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gogol.htm
Vladimir Nabokov. Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977).
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nabokov.htm
Alexander Pushkin. Leading Russian author Aleksandr Sergeyevich (1799-1837).
http://www.online-literature.com/alexander-pushkin/
Vladimir Lenin. (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov). One of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, Lenin masterminded the Bolshevik takeover of power in Russia.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/lenin_vladimir.shtml
Borsht. A Russian or Polish soup usually containing beet juice. Also “borscht” or “borshch.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht
Le Blond. (Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond). French architect and garden designer, mastermind of Peterhof, and most important 18th century architect of St. Petersburg.
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1366371/Alexandre-Jean-Baptiste-Le-Blond
Rudolf Nureyev. (Rudolh Khametovich Nureyev). 20th century Russian ballet dancer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Nureyev
Mikhail Baryshnikov. (Mikhail Nikolaevitch Baryshnikov). Russian ballet dancer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Baryshnikov
Do svidaniya. Russian for “Good-bye” or “Until we meet again.”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=do+svidaniya
