Borodin \b9-r9-'dyen,\ English N.bor-o-'denX, Mikhail (Markovich) orig. Mikhail Gruzenberg (b. July 9, 1884, Yanovichi, Russia—d. May 29, 1951, Siberia) Russian diplomat. He joined the Bolshevik faction in 1903, was arrested (1906), and lived in exile in the U.S. He returned to Russia in 1917 and in 1923 was sent to China as an adviser to Sun Yat-sen. There he built the loosely structured Nationalist Party (Guomin- dang) into a highly centralized Leninist-style organization and helped the Chinese Nationalists develop their army. After leaving China (1927), he served as deputy director of the Tass news agency and editor of the Mos¬ cow Daily News (1932^49). He was arrested in a Stalinist purge of Jew¬ ish intellectuals and died in a Siberian labour camp.
Borodino, Battle of (Sept. 7, 1812) Bloody battle of the Napoleonic Wars, fought during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, near the town of Borodino, about 70 miles (110 km) west of Moscow. Napoleon’s 130,000
Borobudur, Java, Indonesia.
ROBERT HARDING PICTURE UBRARY/PHOTOBANK BKK
troops won a narrow victory over 120,000 Russians under Mikhail Kutuzov. The Russians suffered about 45,000 dead and wounded, while the French lost about 30,000 men. The victory allowed Napoleon to occupy Moscow.
boron Semimetallic chemical element, chemical symbol B, atomic num¬ ber 5. Pure crystalline boron is a black, lustrous, very hard but brittle semi¬ conductor that does not occur naturally. Boron compounds are found widely dispersed as various minerals, including borax and the gemstone tourmaline. The element is used to harden certain steels, among other met¬ allurgical uses, and is also used in semiconductor devices. Its borate com¬ pounds, in which it has valence 3, are essential to plant growth and have many uses in soaps, mild antiseptics, and eye ointments. Industrially, they are used as herbicides, fire retardants in fabrics, and catalysts in numer¬ ous organic chemical reactions. They are also used in electroplating and glass and ceramic formulations. The exceptional hardness and inertness of certain boron compounds, including boron carbide, aluminum boride, and boron nitride (which has an electronic structure resembling that of diamond), make them useful as abrasives and reinforcing agents, particu¬ larly for high-temperature applications.
Borromeo \ I b6r-ro- , ma-o\ / Saint Charles (b. Oct. 1538, Arona, duchy of Milan—d. Nov. 3, 1584, Milan; canonized 1610; feast day November 4) Archbishop of Milan and leading figure in the Counter- Reformation. He earned a doctorate in canon and civil law at the Univer¬ sity of Pavia in 1559. His uncle, Pope Pius IV, appointed him cardinal and archbishop of Milan in 1560. He was active in directing the Council of Trent, and he later helped execute its decrees and draw up the Roman cat¬ echism in 1566. He established seminaries and colleges in Milan and nearby cities and gained renown for his heroic behaviour during the plague of 1576-78.
Borromini, Francesco orig. Francesco Castelli (b. Sept. 25, 1599, Bissone, Duchy of Lombardy—d. Aug. 2, 1667, Rome)
Italian Baroque architect. Though he worked with Gian Lorenzo Bernini on the design of the famous baldachin in St. Peter's Basilica, the two later became bitter rivals. Borromini’s first independent commission was the Roman church and monastery of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638-41), the dome of which appears to float because its spring points (see arch) and light sources are concealed below. His works, com¬ posed of flowing concave and convex forms, contain spaces that are irregu¬ lar ovals and polygons, as at Sant’Ivo della Sapienza (1642-60). His for¬ tunes declined in later years, and in 1667 he committed suicide. His influ¬ ence was felt in northern Italy and central Europe in the next century.
Borsippa \bor-'si-p3\ Ancient city, Babylonia. Located southwest of Babylon (near modern Al-Hillah, Iraq), its proximity to that capital helped it become an important religious centre. Hammurabi built or rebuilt the temple at Borsippa, dedicating it to the deity Marduk. During the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II, the city reached its greatest prosperity. Borsippa was destroyed by Xerxes I in the early 5th century bc and never fully recovered.
Interior of the dome of the church of S. Ivo della Sapienza, Rome, by Francesco Borromini, 1642-60.
GEKS
borzoi Vbor-.zoiX Breed of hound developed in Russia. It is descended
from the Arabian greyhound and a collielike Russian sheepdog. For¬ merly known as the Russian wolf¬ hound, it was originally bred to hunt wolves and hares. It is graceful, strong, and swift, attaining a height of about 26-31 in. (66-79 cm) and a weight of 55-105 lbs (25^48 kg). It has a long, narrow head; small ears; a deep but narrow chest; long, mus¬ cular hindquarters; and a long, curved tail. Its silky coat is flat or slightly curled and usually is white with darker markings. It is noted for its elegant appearance.
Borzoi
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© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
254 I Bosanquet ► Bosnian conflict
Bosanquet Vbo-zan-.ketA, Bernard (b. June 14, 1848, Alnwick, Northumberland, Eng.—d. Feb. 8, 1923, London) British philosopher. He helped revive in Britain the absolute idealism of G.W.F. Hegel and sought to apply its principles to social and political problems. His debt to Hegel is most evident in his works on ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics. His Some Suggestions in Ethics (1918) presents a view of reality as a synthe¬ sis in which traditional oppositions such as pleasure/duty and egoism/ altruism are reconciled. His other works include Knowledge and Reality (1885), Logic (1888), and History of Aesthetic (1892). His idealism was attacked by G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell.
Bosch \'bosh\, Hieronymus orig. Jeroen van Aken or Jerome van Aken (b. c. 1450s, ’s Hertogenbosch, Brabant—d. Aug. 9, 1516, ’s Hertogenbosch) Netherlandish painter. He was the son and grandson of accomplished painters; his name comes from his native town of ’s Her¬ togenbosch. He enjoyed a successful career and was widely imitated. Of the numerous works attributed to him, none can be dated precisely. His paintings blend fantasy and reality in apocalyptic scenes of chaos with half-human, half-animal creatures, devils, and demons interacting with human figures in imaginary architecture and landscapes. Among his best- known works is The Garden of Earthly Delights , depicting the dreams that afflict people who live in a pleasure-seeking world. One of the most original northern European artists of the late Middle Ages, he was an out¬ standing draftsman and one of the first to make drawings as independent works. He also produced decorative works, altarpieces, and stained-glass designs.
Bosch (Gavino) \'bosh\, Juan (b. June 30, 1909, La Vega, Dom. Rep.—d. Nov. 1, 2001, Santo Domingo) Scholar, poet, and president of the Dominican Republic (1963). Bosch was raised in a lower-middle-class family. Dismayed by the brutality of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, he spent 24 years in exile but returned after Trujillo’s death to build a leftist anti¬ communist movement. After winning the first free presidential election in 38 years, he instituted liberal constitutional changes, many of which ben¬ efited the country’s poor. His reforms, however, alienated landholders and industrialists, and after only seven months in office Bosch was ousted in a military coup. When his supporters revolted against the ruling junta in 1965, U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, claiming that Bosch’s followers were communists, sent troops to suppress the rebellion. Over the subse¬ quent three decades, Bosch ran repeatedly but unsuccessfully for presi¬ dent.
Bose Vbos\, Subhas Chandra (b. Jan. 23, 1897, Cuttack, Orissa, India—d. Aug. 18, 1945, Taipei, Taiwan?) Indian revolutionary. Prepar¬ ing in Britain for a career in the Indian civil service, he resigned his can¬ didacy on hearing of nationalist turmoil back home. Sent by Mohandas K. Gandhi to organize in Bengal, he was deported and imprisoned several times. He favoured industrialization, which put him at odds with Gan¬ dhi’s economic thought, and though he was elected president of the Indian National Congress in 1938 and 1939, without Gandhi’s support he felt bound to resign. He slipped out of India in 1941 and carried on his struggle against the British from Nazi Germany and later from Southeast Asia. In 1944 he invaded India from Burma (Myanmar) with a small army of Indian nationals and Japanese, but his army was soon forced to retreat. He fled Southeast Asia after the Japanese surrender in 1945 and died of bums suffered in a plane crash.