apparatchik

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English

WOTD – 22 April 2011

Etymology

From Russian аппара́тчик (apparátčik, “operator, apparatchik”), from аппара́т (apparát, “apparat, apparatus (of state)”) + suffix -чик (-čik).

Pronunciation

Noun

apparatchik (plural apparatchiks or apparatchiki)

  1. (historical) A member of the Soviet apparat; a Communist bureaucrat or agent.
    • 1965 February 12, “Russia: Borrowing from the Capitalists”, in Time‎, volume 85, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 March 2009:
      Whether conservatively toeing their Marx or boldly advocating such heretical Western-style reforms as the primacy of profits, every important planner, apparatchik and economist in Russia is caught up in Communism's greatest debate since Stalin set backward Russia on its cruel-but successful-forced march into the 20th century industrial world.
    • 2007, Elizabeth Roberts, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OL, page 34:
      In these dire conditions the ambitious Serbo-Croatian Communist Party apparatchik Slobodan Milošević played the national card in Kosovo.
  2. (by extension) A blindly loyal bureaucrat.
    • 2007 April 20, “Gonzales v. Gonzales”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:
      Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch. […] He delegated responsibility for purging their ranks to an inexperienced and incompetent assistant who, if that’s possible, was even more of a plodding apparatchik.
    • 2011 February 27, Peter Preston, “The Unfinished Global Revolution by Mark Malloch Brown – review”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN:
      He's so outspoken, so little the Labour apparatchik, that Prime Minister Brown decides he can't send this voluble critic of Iraq invasion to sit at a UN occasion alongside George W Bush.
    • 2024 June 7, Angelique Chrisafis, quoting Gabriel Attal, “‘You can feel a shift’: will the French be lured by Le Pen?”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      “Does France, a founder member of the EU, really want to be the country that sends the biggest battalion of far-right apparatchiks to the European parliament?” Attal asked.

Translations

Further reading

French

Pronunciation

Noun

apparatchik m (plural apparatchiks)

  1. apparatchik

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Noun

apparatchik m (plural apparatchiks)

  1. (historical) apparatchik (Communist bureaucrat or agent)
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