High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Russian Biographical Dictionary (RBD, Russian: Русский биографический словарь) is a Russian-language biographical dictionary published by the Russian Historian Society edited by a collective with Alexander Polovtsov as the editor-in-chief. The dictionary was published in 25 volumes from 1896 to 1918 and considered as one of the most comprehensive Russian biographical sources for the 19th and early 20th century period.