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• soviet
  soviet

  noun

  (in the Soviet Union).
• Soviet
  Soviet

  adjective

  of, characteristic of, or relating to the former Soviet Union, its people, or its government

soviet

American  

[soh-vee-et, -it, soh-vee-et] / ˈsoʊ viˌɛt, -ɪt, ˌsoʊ viˈɛt /

noun

• soviets
  plural

1. (in the Soviet Union).

   1. (before the revolution) any governmental council.

   2. (after the revolution) a local council, originally elected only by manual workers, with certain powers of local administration.

   3. (after the revolution) a higher council elected by a local council, being part of a hierarchy of soviets culminating in the Supreme Soviet.

2. any similar council or assembly connected with a socialistic governmental system elsewhere.

3. (initial capital letter) Often Soviets. a governing official or person living in the Soviet Union.

   The Soviets have denied our charge.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a soviet.

2. (initial capital letter) of the Soviet Union.

   a Soviet statesman.

soviet ¹ British  

/ ˈsɒv-, ˈsəʊvɪət /

noun

1. (in the former Soviet Union) an elected government council at the local, regional, and national levels, which culminated in the Supreme Soviet

2. (in prerevolutionary Russia) a local revolutionary council

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adjective

1. of or relating to a soviet

Soviet ² British  

/ ˈsəʊvɪət, ˈsɒv- /

adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to the former Soviet Union, its people, or its government

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anti-Soviet
  noun
• sovietdom
  noun
• pro-Soviet
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• soviets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of soviet

First recorded in 1915–20; from Russian sovét “council, counsel, advice,” Old Russian, Old Church Slavonic sŭvětŭ, equivalent to sŭ- “together, with” + větŭ “counsel”; loan translation of Greek symboúlion

Explanation

In the former U.S.S.R., a soviet was an elected legislative body, similar to a parliament. Soviet is from the Russian sovet, "governing council," and its Greek source, symboulion, "council of advisors." After the Russian Revolution, the term soviet was used for local governments elected by workers, as well as the higher councils that those local soviets elected in turn. Each separate republic making up the Soviet Union had its own governing soviet, and together they formed the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body in the country.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

soviet Soviet soviets

“China respects the sovereign status of the former soviet countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2023

But even there he found a soldiers’ soviet, and troops who refused to salute their officers.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2018

He also appeared for the Great Train robber Charles Wilson and for the soviet spy George Blake.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2017

Thousands of handwritten pages carefully numbered, they form one of the most precious acquisitions of Memorial, the institute and archive established to preserve the memory of the gulag and the crimes of soviet communism.

From The Guardian ● May 30, 2012

The people in a shop or an industry are a soviet.

From The Bullitt Mission to Russia by William C. (William Christian) Bullitt

At the start of the war its armed forces relied on old Cold War-era Soviet weaponry.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

The visit coincides with the 35th anniversary of the country's independence from the Soviet Union.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by the islands seized by the Soviet Union in 1945 at the end of World War II.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Grossman’s work as a reporter during the Soviet Union’s struggle against Germany exceeded anything he might have accomplished as a soldier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

At the Pentagon, on a wall-sized map of the Atlantic Ocean, young men used long poles to plot the latest locations of American and Soviet ships.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin

Can you discuss incorporating the film's themes about race, the soviets, the government, surveillance and conformity, and free will?

From Salon ● May 29, 2020

As the delegates talked, Germany continued to collapse from within: inspired by the Russian Revolution, workers and soldiers were forming soviets, or councils.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2018

StevenSigmon The CIA trained Afghans to use pressure cookers against the soviets.

From Time ● Apr. 16, 2013

Lenin and the Bolsheviks soon gained control of the Petrograd soviet, as well as the soviets in other major Russian cities.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012

Constitutional government had been replaced by the soviets and by committees of soldiers and workmen.

From Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs