Apparatchik (Russian: аппара́тчик, IPA: [ʌpʌˈraʨɪk] plural apparatchiki) is a Russian colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party 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. There exist many possible systems for transliterating the Cyrillic alphabet of the Russian language to English or the Latin alphabet. ... Look up translate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... An official is, in the primary sense, someone who holds an office in an organisation, of any kind. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ...

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, 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. For example, it is often used to describe people who cause bureaucratic bottlenecks in otherwise efficient organizations, especially at support services groups (such as IT services). 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. It has been used in the press to draw attention to structural parallels between Soviet government and other organizations as in Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch. ^[1] Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) is the 80th and current Attorney General of the United States. ...

See also

Look up Apparatchik in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Alexis de Tocqueville
• Bureaucracy
• Nomenklatura
• Partmaximum
• Political commissar

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... For other uses, see Tocqueville (disambiguation) Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (Verneuil-sur-Seine, ÃŽle-de-France, July 29, 1805– Cannes, April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Bureaucracy. ... The nomenklatura were a small, élite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of the Soviet Union: in government, industry, agriculture, education, etc. ... Partmaximum (Партмаксимум) was a limit on the salary of a member of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. ... A political commissar is an officer appointed by a communist party to oversee a unit of the military. ...

References