Apparatchiks

   The noun apparatchik derives from the Russian word apparat (“apparatus”), designating an agent or employee of one of the many organs of the Soviet state. The term defines a loyal member of the ruling elite, particularly a functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and is also used in a derogatory manner to refer to a member of Soviet bureaucracy. Apparatchiks were characterized by their cronyism and social distance from the Soviet masses. They are the embodiment of Marxist theoretician Milovan Djilas’s “new class” enabled by the imposition of state socialism. The term fell into disuse in the postindependence period with the emergence of new types of social and political classes, such as the oligarchs and the siloviki>.