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Apparatchik (Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
: ??????´????, plural apparatchiki) is a Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
 colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party
Communist party

A political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government....
 or government; i.e., an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" (apparatus) that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management.

Members of the "apparat" were frequently transferred between different areas of responsibility, usually with little or no actual training for their new areas of responsibility.






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Apparatchik (Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
: ??????´????, plural apparatchiki) is a Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
 colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party
Communist party

A political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government....
 or government; i.e., an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" (apparatus) that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management.

Members of the "apparat" were frequently transferred between different areas of responsibility, usually with little or no actual training for their new areas of responsibility. Thus, the term apparatchik, or "agent of the apparatus" was usually the best possible description of the person's profession and occupation.

The term was usually associated with a specific mindset
Mindset

A mindset, in decision theory and systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviours, choices, or tools....
, attitude and appearance of the person; when used by "outsiders", it often bore derogatory connotations.

Today this term is also used in contexts other than Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
. For example, it is often used to describe people who cause bureaucratic bottlenecks in otherwise efficient organizations. It is also frequently used to describe individuals, appointed to positions in any government, on the basis of ideological or political loyalty rather than competence.

See also

  • Bureaucracy
    Bureaucracy

    Bureaucracy is the structure and set of regulations in place to control activity, usually in large organizations and government. As opposed to adhocracy, it is represented by standardized procedure that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body, formal division of powers, hierarchy, and relationships....
  • New class
    New class

    The New Class is a term to describe the privileged ruling class of bureaucrats and Communist party functionaries which typically arises in a Stalinist communist state....
  • Nomenklatura
    Nomenklatura

    The nomenklatura were a small, elite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc....
  • Partmaximum
    Partmaximum

    Partmaximum was a limit on the salary of a member of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. Partmaximum was introduced in 1920 by a decree of the All-Russian Supreme Soviet for all communists that held executive positions in Party, industry, government and Soviet trade unions....
  • Political commissar
    Political commissar

    A political commissar, or politruk, is an officer appointed by a government to oversee a unit of the military. They are used by the government to ensure that previously appointed officers and troops are loyal to the new regime....


External links

Robert Shea
Robert Shea

Robert Joseph Shea was a novelist and former journalism best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!....
, , essay on apparatchiks by author/journalist on personal web site.