Nomenklatura
The Russian term nomenklatura (номенклату́ра), derived from the Latin nomenclatura meaning a list of names, meant in a literal sense the list of members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union but came to be used figuratively for the privileged Communist Party ÃÂélite in the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. Milovan Djilas wrote of the nomenklatura as the "New class", and it was widely seen (and resented) by ordinary citizens as a bureaucratic ÃÂélite that had simply supplanted the earlier wealthy capitalist ÃÂélites. Members of the nomenklatura would enjoy special privileges such as shopping at well-stocked stores and being allowed to travel abroad. The same term was used in Poland for the members of the former Polish Communist Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza).After the fall of the Communist regimes in central and eastern Europe, most of the nomenklatura were able to use their influence to secure lucrative positions in formerly state-owned industries or buy state property at ridiculously low prices. In Russia especially, this led to the creation of a new class of super-rich "oligarchs", many of whom were effectively the old nomenklatura wearing considerably better suits.