Riga Vre-g9\ City (pop., 2000 prelim.: 764,328), capital of Latvia. Riga is situated on both banks of the Western Dvina River, above its mouth on the Gulf of Riga. It was founded as a trading post in 1201 on the site of an ancient Liv settlement and joined the Hanseatic League in 1282. In the Middle Ages it was dominated by the Teutonic Order, and it was fought over by the Poles and Russians in the 16th century. Riga was cap¬ tured by Sweden in 1621 and granted self-government, but it was ceded to Russia in 1721. The city became the capital of an independent Latvia from 1918 to 1940 but was thereafter incorporated into the U.S.S.R. Riga again became the capital of an independent Latvia in 1991. It is a prin¬ cipal Baltic port and a major administrative, cultural, and industrial cen¬ tre. Its medieval remains include a 13th-century church and a 14th-century castle.
Riga, Gulf of Large gulf of the Baltic Sea. Bounded by Latvia and Estonia, it covers about 7,000 sq mi (18,000 sq km). The gulf, icebound
from December to April, has a maximum depth of 177 ft (54 m). The coasts are mostly low and sandy, and several important rivers, including the Western Dvina, reach the sea there. Several ports and resorts, includ¬ ing Riga, line its shores.
Riga, Treaty of (1921) Treaty between Poland and Russia signed in Riga, Latvia, that ended the Russo-Polish War of 1919-20 and set their mutual border. The treaty, which gave Poland parts of Byelorussia (Belarus) and Ukraine, lasted until World War II, after which a new treaty established a new border.
right Portion of the political spectrum associated with conservative political thought. The term derives from the seating arrangement of the French revolutionary parliament (c. 1790s) in which the conservative rep¬ resentatives sat to the presiding officer’s right. In the 19th century, the term applied to conservatives who supported authority, tradition, and property. In the 20th century a divergent, radical form developed that was associated with fascism. See also left.
right-to-work law In the U.S., any state law forbidding various union-security measures, particularly the union shop, under which work¬ ers are required to join a union within a specified time after they begin employment. Supporters of such laws maintain that they are more equi¬ table because they allow a person to choose whether or not to join a labour union. Opponents contend that the name right-to-work law is misleading because such laws do not guarantee employment to anyone. On the con¬ trary, they maintain that such laws tend to reduce workers’ job security by weakening the bargaining power of unions.
right whale Any of five species (genera Balaena, Eubalaena, and Capered) of baleen whales (family Balaenidae) with a stout body and an enormous head. (The name refers to two species considered the “right” whales to hunt because of their value, slowness, and buoyancy after death.) The upper jaw is strongly arched, and the lower lip curves upward along the side, giving the lower jaw a scooplike form. There is no dorsal fin except in the pygmy right whale ( Caperea marginata), a small, seldom-seen whale of the Southern Hemisphere. The bowhead whale (.Balaena mysticetus), inhabiting Arctic and northern temperate waters, is black, with a white chin, throat, and sometimes underparts. It grows to about 65 ft (20 m). The northern right whale (E. glacialis) grows to 60 ft (18 m). Similar to the bowhead but with a smaller, less strongly arched head, it may also have a “bonnet,” a horny growth infested with parasites, on its snout. Both species have been protected since 1946.
Southern right whale [Eubalaena australis).
ILLUSTRATION BY LARRY FOSTER
rights of the accused See rights of the accused
Rigveda or Rgveda \rig-'va-d9\ Oldest religious scripture in the world and most revered of the Vedas, completed by the 12th century bc. Con¬ sisting of more than 1,000 hymns addressed to devas (gods), it reflects a polytheism that is mainly concerned with the propitiation of divinities asso¬ ciated with the sky and the atmosphere. It makes reference to such ritu¬ als as marriage and funeral rites, which differ little from those practiced today in Hinduism. It is the source of much Indian thought, and many consider its study essential to understanding India.
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Riis ► Ringgold I 1623
Riis Vres\, Jacob A(ugust) (b. May 3, 1849, Ribe, Den.—d. May 26, 1914, Barre, Mass., U.S.) U.S. journalist and social reformer. He immi¬ grated to the U.S. at 21 and became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877-88) and the New York Evening Sun (1888-99). He publi¬ cized the deplorable living conditions in the slums of New York’s Lower East Side, photographing the rooms and hallways of tenements. He com¬ piled his findings in How the Other Half Lives (1890), a book that stirred the nation’s conscience and spurred the state’s first significant legislation to improve tenements.
Rijn, Rembrandt van See Rembrandt van Rijn
Rikken Seiyukai \'rik- I en-'sa-yu- I kI\ English "Friends of Consti¬ tutional Government" Dominant Japanese political party from its inception in 1900 until 1940. Founded by ho Hirobumi, it initially stood for increased parliamentary participation in government. It was supported by the landlord class and zaibatsu business interests, and was generally more conservative than its chief rival, the Democratic Party (Minseito).
Riley, James Whitcomb (b. Oct. 7, 1849, Greenfield, Ind., U.S.—d. July 22, 1916, Indianapolis, Ind.) U.S. poet. He came into touch with the populace of rural Indiana through his early work experiences. His verse contributions to the Indianapolis Daily Journal, written in Hoosier dia¬ lect ostensibly by a farmer, established his reputation as “the poet of the common people.” His best-known poems include “When the Frost Is on the Punkin” and “The Raggedy Man.” Among his many collections are The Old Swimmin’ Hole (1883), Pipes o’ Pan at Zekesbury (1888), and Home Folks (1900).
rilievo See relief
Rilke Vril-koV, Rainer Maria orig. Rene Maria Rilke (b. Dec. 4, 1875, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—d. Dec. 29, 1926, Valmont, Switz.) Austro-German poet. After an unhappy childhood and an ill- planned preparatory education, Rilke began a life of wandering that took him across Europe. His visits to Russia inspired his first serious work, the long poem cycle The Book of Hours (1905). For 12 years beginning in 1902 his geographic centre was Paris, where he researched a book on Auguste Rodin, associated with the great sculptor, and developed a new style of lyrical poetry that attempted to capture the plastic essence of a physical object; the results were New Poems (1907-08) and its prose counterpart, the novel The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge (1910). After 13 years of writing very little because of writer’s block and depres¬ sion, in 1922 he finally completed the 10 poems of the Duino Elegies (1923), a profound meditation on the paradoxes of human existence and one of the century’s poetic masterpieces. Unexpectedly and with aston¬ ishing speed, he then composed Sonnets to Orpheus (1923), a superb 55-poem cycle inspired by the death of a young girl, which continues the Elegies’ meditations on death, transcendence, and poetry. The two works brought him international fame.
Rimbaud \ra n -'bo\, (Jean-Nicolas-) Arthur (b. Oct. 20, 1854, Charleville, France—d. Nov. 10,
1891, Marseille) French poet and adventurer. The provincial son of an army captain, he had begun by age 16 to write violent, blasphemous poems, and he formulated an aes¬ thetic doctrine stating that a poet must become a seer, break down the restraints and controls on personal¬ ity, and thus become the instrument for the voice of the eternal. He was invited to Paris by Paul Verlaine, with whom he had a homosexual relation¬ ship and engaged in a wild and dis¬ sipated life. The Drunken Boat (written 1871), perhaps his finest poem, displays his astonishing ver¬ bal virtuosity and a daring choice of images and metaphors. In Les Illu¬ minations (written 1872-74), a col¬ lection of mainly prose poems, he tried to abolish the distinction between reality and hallucination. A Season in Hell (1873), which alter¬ nates prose passages with dazzling lyrics, became his farewell to poetry