nomenklatura

American  

[noh-muhn-klah-toor-uh] / ˌnoʊ mən klɑˈtʊər ə /

noun

plural

nomenklaturas

1. a select list or class of people from which appointees for top-level government positions are drawn, especially from a Communist Party.

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nomenklatura British  

/ ˌnəʊmɛnkləˈtʃuːrə /

noun

1. (formerly, in the USSR and E Europe) a list of individuals drawn up by the Communist Party from which were selected candidates for vacant senior positions in the state, party, and other important organizations

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Etymology

Origin of nomenklatura

First recorded in 1980–85, nomenklatura is from the Russian word nomenklatúra literally, nomenclature

Example Sentences

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a new generation of leaders rose in the former republics, but Belarus remained under old Soviet nomenklatura rule even after independence.

From New York Times

Then their lives get consumed by their university love affair and, finally, by Gorbachev’s rise to the top through the ranks of party nomenklatura.

From New York Times

The first red hippies were the sons or daughters of the privileged Soviet nomenklatura – well-behaved kids from elite families.

From The Guardian

Under state socialism, this led to widespread resentment of the nomenklatura, with their imported foods and country dachas.

From The New Yorker

The whole apparatus of the state with its phony legalism and its compromised nomenklatura, they insist, must go.

From New York Times