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One of the Northmen who founded a dynasty in Russia in the 9th century; also, one of the Northmen composing, at a later date, the imperial bodyguard at Constantinople.

, huge in bulk; immense; enormous; as, the vast ocean; vast mountains; the vast empire of Russia. Through the vast and boundless deep. Milton.

A Russian liquid measure, equal to 3.249 gallons of U.S. standard measure, or 2.706 imperial gallons. McElrath.

A Russian measure of length containing 3,500 English feet. [Written also werst.]

A Russian drink distilled from rye.

In the greater part of Russia, a division for local government consisting of a group of mirs, or village communities; a canton.

volunteers who sail under the flag of the regular navy and subject to naval discipline. Prussia in 1870, in the Franco-German war, organized such a navy, which was commanded by merchant seamen with temporary commissions, with the claim (in which England acquiesced) that it did not come within the meaning of the term p…

journey; a knapsack; a beggar's receptacle for charity; a peddler's pack. [His hood] was trussed up in his walet. Chaucer.

A whirlwind, or whirlwind squall, encountered in the Straits of Magellan. W. C. Russell.

A kind of carpet woven with loops like the Brussels, but differing from it in having the loops cut so as to form an elastic velvet pile; -- so called because made originally at Wilton, England.

A leguminous plant (Genista tinctoria) of Europe and Russian Asia, and adventitious in America; -- called also greenwood, greenweed, dyer's greenweed, and whin, wood-wash, wood-wax, and wood- waxen.

An instrument common among the Russians, Poles, and Tartars, consisting of a series of strips of wood or glass graduated in length to the musical scale, resting on belts of straw, and struck with two small hammers. Called in Germany strohfiedel, or straw fiddle.

Russia leather.

In Russia, an elective local district and provincial administrative assembly. Originally it was composed of representatives elected by the peasantry, the householders of the towns, and the landed proprietors. In the reign of Alexander III. the power of the noble landowners was increased, the peasants allowed only to el…

A dirigible balloon of the rigid type, consisting of a cylindrical trussed and covered frame supported by internal gas cells, and provided with means of propulsion and control. It was first successfully used by Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin.

cally, applied to the several customs unions successively formed under the leadership of Prussia among certain German states for establishing liberty of commerce among themselves and common tariff on imports, exports, and transit.