What is "troika"

1842, "carriage drawn by three horses abreast," from Russian troika "three-horse team, any group of three," from collective numeral troje "group of three" (from PIE *tro-yo-, suffixed form of *trei-, see three) + diminutive suffix -ka. Sense of "any group of three administrators, triumvirate" is first recorded 1945.

n. 1 A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast. 2 A party or group of three. 3 A committee consisting of three leaders; a triumvirate

1. n. a Russian carriage pulled by three horses abreast

2. the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one [syn: three, 3, III, trio, threesome, tierce, leash, triad, trine, trinity, ternary, ternion, triplet, tercet, terzetto, trey, deuce-ace]

3. a modern Russian triumvirate

Troika is a Russian folk dance, where a man dances with two women. The Russian word troika means three-horse team/gear. In the Russian dance the dancers imitate the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage.

This dance is included into repertoires of virtually all Russian ethnographic dance ensembles.

Similar folk dances are known among other Slavic peoples, e.g., the Polish Trojak.

A Cajun dance of the same name, Troika, exists, and is very similar to the Russian dance. It has been suggested that the Cajun version of the dance originated at the times when Cossacks of the Russian tsar army were stationed in Paris.

Troika (from , meaning "a set of three", or triumvirate, or three of a kind (disambiguation), or threesome) may refer to:

Troika is a chocolate-based confection made by Nidar AS of Trondheim, Norway. It consists of three distinct layers, prompting its name " Troika". The top layer is soft raspberry jelly, the middle layer is truffle, and the bottom one is marzipan. It is also covered with dark chocolate. Troika was launched in 1939 with the name "Geletrøffel". The name of the chocolate is inspired by the Russian word " Troika", which means a group of three.

It also contains almonds.

The Troika is an amusement park ride designed and manufactured by HUSS Park Attractions in the mid-1970s. The name Troika means "group of three" in Russian, a reference to its three armed design.

A troika (, "triplet" or "trio") is a traditional Russian harness driving combination, using three horses abreast, usually pulling a sleigh. It differs from most other three-horse combinations in that the horses are harnessed abreast. The middle horse is usually harnessed in a horse collar and shaft bow; the side horses are usually in breastcollar harness. The troika is traditionally driven so that the middle horse trots and the side horses canter; the right-hand horse will be on the right lead and the left-hand horse on the left lead. The troika is often claimed to be the world's only harness combination with different gaits of the horses.

The term "troika" is sometimes used to refer to any three-horse team harnessed abreast, regardless of harness style or what horse-drawn vehicle is used.

At full speed a troika can reach , which was a very high speed on land for vehicles in the 17th–19th centuries, making the troika closely associated with the fast ride.

The troika was developed in Russia during the 17th century, first being used for speedy delivering of mail and then having become common by the late 18th century. It was used for travelling in stages where teams of tired horses could be exchanged for fresh animals to transport loads over long distances. Prior to this time, only groups of three or more people could use three horses, and a single person or two people had the right to only drive a single horse or a pair.

During the Russian Empire, the upper classes would use a troika driven by a livery-clad postilion. Decorated troikas were popular in major religious celebrations and weddings.

The troika was a part of both urban and rural culture. The horses usually driven in a troika were generally plain and rather small; for example the Vyatka horse was not taller than . However, the wealthy preferred to use the elegant Orlov Trotter.

The first troika competitions were held in the Moscow hippodrome in 1840. The troika was also exhibited at the 1911 Festival of Empire in London.

The Troika was an unofficial name for the alliance between the three parties ( Ennahda, Ettakatol, and CPR) that ruled in Tunisia after the 2011 Constituent Assembly election. Ali Laarayedh stepped down as prime minister on 9 January 2014; Mehdi Jomaa was appointed in his place on 10 January 2014.

Troika: Russia’s westerly poetry in three orchestral song cycles is a 2011 album of contemporary classical songs performed by soprano Julia Kogan, who also conceived the project. She is accompanied by The St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic conducted by Jeffery Meyer. The songs are set to Russian, English, and French language poetry by five classic Russian writers: Joseph Brodsky, Mikhail Lermontov, Vladimir Nabokov, Aleksandr Pushkin and Fyodor Tyutchev. Eight modern composers, from France, Russia, and the United States, wrote music for the album: Isabelle Aboulker, Ivan Barbotin, Eskender Bekmambetov, Jay Greenberg, James DeMars, Andrey Rubtsov, Michael Schelle and Lev Zhurbin.

The three song cycles on the album are “there…”, set to Russian poems and their English auto-translations by Joseph Brodsky; “Sing, Poetry”, set to Russian poems and their English auto-translations by Vladimir Nabokov; and “Caprice étrange”, set to French poems by Mikhail Lermontov, Aleksandr Pushkin and Fyodor Tyutchev. The common point of the three song cycles is that they are based upon poetry that reflects its authors’ active linguistic integration into Western culture.