soviet — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A workers' council, an institution first formed during the 1905 Russian Revolution and then instituted as the main form of communist government at all levels in the Soviet Union; by extension, a similar organization in early Chinese communism and elsewhere.

   Usage

   • Historical

   Related words

   Soviet republicSupreme Sovietsyndicate

   Broader terms

   councilgrouporganization

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   They then established the West Hunan-Hupeh (Hsiang-O-Hsi) Special Committee and a little later transformed it into a soviet government. Party membership figures as of 1932 for a dozen counties in the area were estimated at 18,034, with the largest number, 4,468, working in Chienli County, then headquarters of the soviet.

   Kratochvil, Jedlicka, Safar, Kubes and Vasata, who always took an interest in politics, set up a soviet in the last wagon and uncoupled it from the rest of the train in the night.

   Workers' committees were forming embryo soviets, soldiers' and sailors' collectives had whole ships and regiments under their temporary command, landless workers in the countryside were taking over abandoned farms and properties.

Adjective

1. Pertaining to or resembling a soviet (council).

Noun

1. an elected governmental council in a communist country (especially one that is a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

   Broader terms

   council