/nɒˌmɛnkləˈtjʊəri/, /nɒˌmɛŋkləˈtʃʊəri/, U.S. /ˌnoʊmənkləˈt(j)ʊri/.nomenklaturan.
/nɒˌmɛnkləˈtjʊərə/, /nɒˌmɛŋkləˈtʃʊərə/, U.S. /ˌnoʊmənˌkləˈt(j)ʊrə//nɒˌmɛnkləˈtjʊəri/, /nɒˌmɛŋkləˈtʃʊəri/, U.S. /ˌnoʊmənkləˈt(j)ʊri/. Politics.
1. In the Soviet Union and other communist countries: a list of posts in government and industry filled by Party appointees. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > aristocracy or upper class > [noun] > member of > in former Soviet Union or communist countries
nomenklatura1958
nomenclature1959
boyar1968
1958 D. J. R. Scott Russ. Polit. Inst. iv. 182 Departments at all levels are expected to maintain records of persons suitable for appointments to any post which may occur within their nomenklatura.
1963 M. Fainsod How Russia is Ruled (ed. 2) xv. 518 Key functionaries at every supervisory level of the trade-union apparatus are on the nomenklatura of the corresponding or superior Party committee.
1992 E. Herring Collapse of Soviet Union in J. Baylis & N. J. Rengger Dilemmas World Polit. xiv. 369 The party shadows all bureaucratic activity, collectivized agriculture, and nomenklatura (the lists of posts and candidates for those posts almost exclusively from the party).
1998 Asian Surv. 38 248 In post-Mao China..the big change seems to be in the nomenklatura requirement that Politburo members should have college degrees.
2. As a collective noun: the holders of these posts, who enjoy a number of social and economic privileges. Also (in extended use): any powerful or privileged elite. Cf. new class n., priviligentsia n.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > political philosophy > communism > [noun] > adherent of > privileged class in communist state
priviligentsia1953
new class1957
nomenklatura1975
1975 G. V. Daniels tr. A. Sakharov My Country i. 25 The nomenklatura has..an inalienable status, and has recently become hereditary.
1986 W. Garner Zones of Silence v. 32 He poured out a generous measure of vodka. ‘The best. Only the nomenklatura can buy it in the Soviet workers' paradise.’
1989 W. Oddie Crockford's File vi. 186 It will be..ignored by the nomenklatura of the American Church wherever its recommendations are not to its liking.
2000 Daily Tel. 30 Mar. 31/1 Robert Mugabe's expropriations of white farms on behalf of the Zimbabwean nomenklatura will doubtless do as much for the country's agriculture as Stalin's purges of the pre-war Red Army did for Soviet military prowess.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1958