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__NOTOC__ An '' apparatchik'' () was a full-time, professional
functionary An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
or the
Soviet government The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the executive and administrative organ of the highest body of state authority, the All-Union Supreme Soviet. It was formed on 30 December 1922 and abolished on 26 December 199 ...
''apparat'' ( аппарат, apparatus), someone who held any position of
bureaucratic Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...
or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management called
nomenklatura The ''nomenklatura'' (; from , system of names) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in the bureaucracy, running all spheres of those countries' activity: ...
. James Billington describes an ''apparatchik'' as "a man not of grand plans, but of a hundred carefully executed details." The term is often considered derogatory, with negative
connotation A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive or ...
s in terms of the quality, competence, and attitude of a person thus described. Members of the apparat (''apparatchiks'' or ''apparatchiki'') 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. Not all apparatchiks held lifelong positions. Many only entered such positions in middle age. They were known to receive various benefits including free holiday vouchers, free meals and accommodation. Today ''apparatchik'' is also used in contexts other than that of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
or communist countries. According to ''
Collins English Dictionary The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. It was first published in 1979. Corpus The dictionary uses language research based on the Collins Corpus, which is ...
'' the word can mean "an official or bureaucrat in any organization". According to Douglas Harper's ''
Online Etymology Dictionary Etymonline, or ''Online Etymology Dictionary'', sometimes abbreviated as OED (not to be confused with the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', which the site often cites), is a free online dictionary that describes the etymology, origins of English la ...
'', the term was also used in the meaning "Communist agent or spy", originating in the writings of
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
,  1941.


See also

* Cadre (politics) *
Clientelism Clientelism or client politics is the exchange of goods and services for political support, often involving an implicit or explicit ''quid-pro-quo''. It is closely related to patronage politics and vote buying. Clientelism involves an asymmetri ...
* Jobsworth * New class *
Partmaximum Partmaximum () was a limit on the salary of a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Communist Party in the Soviet Union, a maximum wage. Partmaximum was introduced in 1920 by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (ВЦ ...
* Cadre management in the Soviet Union


References


Further reading

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External links

*{{cite web , url=http://bobshea.net/empire_of_the_rising_scum.html , title=Empire of the Rising Scum , first=Robert , last=Shea , author-link=Robert Shea , date=1990 , website=BobShea.net Cadre management in the Soviet Union Management occupations Political pejoratives for people Soviet phraseology