nomenklatura

noun /nɒˌmɛnkləˈtjʊəɹə/

1. A list of bureaucratic posts in government and industry in the former Soviet Union and other communist countries, filled by those appointed by the Party.

2. The people on such lists; (by extension), any privileged class, a social or political elite.

   [Gorbachev] did not champion perestroika and glasnost alone; much of the nomenklatura had decided that the Soviet economic and social model was dysfunctional, corrupt and endemically inefficient and had to change.

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Russian номенклату́ра (nomenklatúra), from Latin nōmenclātūra (“a calling by name, list of names”), from nomen (“name”) + calare (“call”). Doublet of nomenclature.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry nomenklatura (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← noirettenoncuple →

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