Yeats, pronounced yayts, William Butler (1865-1939), an Irish poet and dramatist, won the 1923 Nobel Prize for literature. Many critics consider him the greatest poet of his time. Yeats led the Irish Literary Revival, a movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's that stimulated new appreciation of traditional Irish literature. The movement also encouraged the creation of works written in the spirit of Irish culture, as distinct from English culture...

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Yiddish language is a language of European Jews and their descendants. Yiddish has been the language of the Ashkenazim for about 1,000 years. The Ashkenazim are Jews primarily of central and eastern European origin. Yiddish is generally classified as a Germanic language, like English, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian tongues--Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. However, Yiddish is written in Hebrew characters from right to left like Hebrew and Aramaic, two Semitic languages used by the Jews...

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Yiddish literature is the literature of Jews who write and speak the Yiddish language. Yiddish literature originated in the late 1200's and reached its peak in the late 1800's and early 1900's...

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Yoga is a term that has two meanings. It is both (1) a school of thought in the Hindu religion and (2) a system of mental and physical exercise developed by that school. Followers of the yoga school, who are called yogis or yogins, use yoga exercise to achieve their goal of isolation of the soul from the body and mind. Many non-Hindus in Western countries practice some form of yoga exercise in hope of improving their health and achieving peace of mind. The word yoga means discipline in Sanskrit, the classical language of India...

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Zappa, Frank (1940-1993), was one of the most creative and versatile personalities in the history of American rock music. Zappa was a composer, bandleader, and guitarist. Although he was one of the major innovators of rock music, he also attempted to blend jazz and classical music. Zappa performed much of his work through his band, the Mothers of Invention, a shifting group of musicians that he led for many years...

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Zola, pronounced ZOH luh, Emile, pronounced ay MEEL (1840-1902), made naturalism the leading form of literature in France in the late 1800's. He described life as he saw it, and his books and his life demonstrate his courage, intelligence, and sense of justice. Zola's open letter J'accuse (1898) helped win a new trial for Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer unjustly convicted of spying. Zola was convicted of libel after publication of the letter. He fled to England for a year, but he later became a national hero for his part in the affair. Zola also tried to win acceptance for artist Edouard Manet and other impressionist painters who broke with artistic tradition...

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World War I (1914-1918) involved more countries and caused greater destruction than any other war except World War II (1939-1945). An assassin's bullets set off the war, and a system of military alliances (agreements) plunged the main European powers into the fight. Each side expected quick victory. But the war lasted four years and took the lives of nearly 10 million troops...

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World War II (1939-1945) killed more people, destroyed more property, disrupted more lives, and probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other war in history. It brought about the downfall of Western Europe as the center of world power and led to the rise of the Soviet Union. The development of the atomic bomb during the war opened the nuclear age...

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Following the August 1991 coup d'etat (see Glossary) in Moscow and declarations of independence by Estonia, Latvia, and Ukraine, the Supreme Soviet in Minsk declared the independence of Belarus on August 25, 1991, by giving its Declaration of State Sovereignty the status of a constitutional document and renaming the country the Republic of Belarus...

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Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939. Two and onehalf weeks later, Soviet troops moved into the western portions of Belorussia and Ukraine. Ignorant of, or disbelieving the existence of, mass persecutions under Stalin, most Belorussians welcomed the Red Army, only to learn quickly of the harsh reality of communism. Arrests and deportations were common, and the socalled flourishing of national culture was strictly circumscribed by the ideological and political goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU--see Glossary). About 300,000 persons were deported from western Belorussia to Soviet labor camps between September 1939 and June 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union...

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