nomenklatura

American  

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

noun

nomenklaturas plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• nomenklaturas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of nomenklatura

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nomenklatura nomenklaturas

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 ● Mar. 30, 2022

Volodymyr Chemerys, a former Lutsenko ally, said that Lutsenko represented a familiar archetype: the child of late-Soviet Communist nomenklatura, devoid of ideological belief, who thinks of power as a natural birthright.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 16, 2019

There are many versions of nomenklatura chic, but their common purpose is to telegraph “positivity”—rapt support for a man, a brand, a party, or a message.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 21, 2016

An insurgent appeared from within the local nomenklatura, and it looked as if he might beat the bland former construction engineer whom the Kremlin appointed governor in 2008.

From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2012

Subsistence was implicitly guaranteed by the kleptocracy that ruled them and, in principle, it was always possible to ignore the moral stench and join the nomenklatura, thereby developing instant upward mobility.

From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Vaknin, Samuel

Most freedom fighters are assimilated and digested by the very establishment they fought against or as the founders of new, privileged nomenklaturas.

From Terrorists and Freedom Fighters by Vaknin, Samuel