Apparatchik

{{Short description|Term for a Soviet communist bureaucrat}}

{{for|the electronic rock music supergroup|Apparatjik}}

{{other uses}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}

{{russianterm

| russian = аппаратчик

| rusr = apparatchik

| literal meaning = functionary

}}

An apparatchik ({{langx|ru|аппара́тчик}}) was a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or the Soviet government apparat (аппарат, apparatus), someone who held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management called nomenklatura. James Billington describes an apparatchik as "a man not of grand plans, but of a hundred carefully executed details."{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a4PRx21WVqMC&dq=apparatchik&pg=PA455 |last=Billington |first=James H. |author-link=James H. Billington |date=1999 |title=Fire in the Minds of Men |location=New Brunswick, NJ |publisher=Transaction Publishers |page=455 |isbn=978-0-7658-0471-6}} The term is often considered derogatory, with negative connotations in terms of the quality, competence, and attitude of a person thus described.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9EehH16HO48C&dq=derogatory++Apparatchik&pg=PR20 |last=Pearson |first=Raymond |date=1998 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire |location=New York City |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-17407-1}}

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.{{cite book |last=Huntford |first=Roland |author-link=Roland Huntford |date=1972 |title=The New Totalitarians |chapter=Chapter 7: The Rule of the Apparatchiks |location=New York City |publisher=Stein & Day |page=135 |isbn=0-8128-1408-8}} Not all apparatchiks held lifelong positions. Many only entered such positions in middle age.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08wU08p7QHAC&dq=apparatchik&pg=PA25 |first1=David Stuart |last1=Lane |first2=Cameron |last2=Ross |name-list-style=amp |date=1999 |title=The Transition from Communism to Capitalism: Ruling Elites from Gorbachev to Yeltsin |location=New York City |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=25–26 |isbn=0-312-21612-2}} They were known to receive various benefits including free holiday vouchers, free meals and accommodation.{{Cite web |url=https://communistcrimes.org/en/elite-and-their-privileges-soviet-union |title=The Elite and Their Privileges in the Soviet Union |first=Olev |last=Liivik |date=28 October 2020 |website=Communist Crimes |access-date=2020-11-24 |language=en}} Today apparatchik is also used in contexts other than that of the Soviet Union or communist countries. According to Collins English Dictionary the word can mean "an official or bureaucrat in any organization".{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/apparatchik |title=Collins English Dictionary |chapter=apparatchik |edition=11th |access-date=2 August 2012}} According to Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary, the term was also used in the meaning "Communist agent or spy", originating in the writings of Arthur Koestler, {{circa}} 1941.{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Apparatchik |title=Apparatchik |website=Dictionary.com}}