Nomenklatura

The Nomenklatura were the group running the  regime of the Soviet Union during the era when the Communist Party had a political monopoly and outlawed opposition. 

At the time of the Soviet Union's demise, along with the nomenklatura in 1992, nearly 300 million people were without citizenship in the country of their birth. More Blacks in apartheid South Africa, a country with 1/10th the population, had property rights than white people in communist Russia.

The idea of an elitist and privileged nomenklatura to staff the civil service of the Soviet state originated with its founder, Vladimir Lenin.

• Coextensive with the nomenklatura were admin-client relations. Marxist theory and its ruling Nomenklature built its power by seizure, expropriation, and coercion.  Officials under this regime who had the authority to appoint individuals to certain positions cultivated loyalties among those whom they appointed. The admin (the official making the appointment) promoted the interests of clients in return for their support. Powerful admins, such as the members of the Politburo, had many clients. Moreover, an official could be both a client (in relation to a higher-level admin) and a patron (to other, lower-level officials).

• Because a client was beholding to his admin for his position, the client was eager to please his admin by carrying out his communist policies, even if they were evil.

See also

• Superdelegate
• Elitism
• Marxism
• Revolutionary vanguard