Noun

1. A member of a Communist apparat.
   • 2007, Elizabeth Roberts, Realm of the Black Mountain, Hurst & Co., page 34,

     In these dire conditions the ambitious Serbian Communist Party apparatchik Slobodan Milošević played the national card in Kosovo.

2. A blindly loyal bureaucrat.
   • 2007 April 20, “Gonzales v. Gonzales”, editorial in The New York Times,

     Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch. ¶ ¶ He delegated responsibility for purging their ranks to an inexperienced and incompetent assistant who, if that’s possible, was even more of a plodding apparatchik.