apparatchik

American  

[ah-puh-rah-chik, uh-puh-raht-chyik] / ˌɑ pəˈrɑ tʃɪk, ʌ pʌˈrɑt tʃyɪk /

noun

plural

apparatchiks,

plural

apparatchiki

1. a member of an apparat, especially in a Communist country.

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apparatchik British  

/ ˌæpəˈrɑːtʃɪk /

noun

1. a member of a Communist apparat

2. an official or bureaucrat in any organization

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Etymology

Origin of apparatchik

1940–45; < Russian apparátchik, equivalent to apparát apparat + -chik agent suffix

Example Sentences

They need assistants — high-level apparatchiks and other agents for the day-to-day work of running the regime.

From Salon

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired a senior official tasked with economic policy and condemned "incompetent" apparatchiks for delays in the opening of an important factory, state media said Tuesday.

From Barron's

“Who’s going to volunteer to be the next civil servant if they think their supervisor is an apparatchik?”

From Salon

Are they academics, scholars and scientists, or do they also include those of less elevated standing — technocrats, policy wonks, apparatchiks, pundits, journalists — who command a sizable public audience?

From Salon

Baehr seems to believe that cultural edicts can be handed down as imperiously as judicial opinions, so a handful of well-placed apparatchiks can redirect the zeitgeist.

From Seattle Times