Alma

Alma (älmä`, ăl`mə), city (1991 pop. 25,910), S central Que., Canada, on the Saguenay River. In 1954 its name was shortened from St. Joseph d'Alma. There are granite quarries in the region, and the town has pulp and paper and aluminum plants.

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Alma 

a river in Crimean Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, measuring 83 km from its source, the Sary-Su River. Alma’s upper reaches flow through the Crimean Preserve. The river empties into the Gulf of Kalamita in the Black Sea and has an average flow rate of 1.2 m³/sec. The river dries up for an average of two months a year and up to six months in dry years. In the lower reaches its water is used for irrigation. The river valley is planted with apple orchards.

On Sept. 8 (20), 1854, during the Crimean War of 1853–56, a battle took place on the Alma between the Russian troops under the command of Admiral A. S. Menshikov (33,600 men, 96 guns) and the combined French, British, and Turkish troops, which landed in Evpatoriia on Sept. 6 (18) under the command of Marshall A. J. Saint-Arnaud and General F. J. Raglan (55,000 men, 120 guns). The Russian troops, outflanked, outnumbered, and outgunned by the allies, suffered defeat and retreated to Sevastopol’. The Russians lost 5,700 and the allies 4,300 men, including 3,000 Englishmen.