soviet

noun

1. (historical)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.

   “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.”

2. A citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

   “The major obstacle to a border settlement is the status of Heixiazi, a 330-square kilometer island at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. The island is claimed by the Chinese but controlled by the USSR. Because Heixiazi overlooks Khabarovsk as well as the point where the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Amur River, the Soviets are reluctant to give it up.”

3. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of soviet (“workers' council”).

   “Толчками и скачками дело все же идет к тому, что давно провозглашенный нашей партией переход власти к Советам будет осуществлен.”

adj

1. Pertaining to or resembling a soviet (council).
2. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of Soviet (pertaining to the Soviet Union)

   “An engineer who is not very soviet in his convictions is the hero.”

   “Why are separate divisions for teachers and administrators in a state organization any more "soviet" than the same divisions in a city educational […]”

   “The Soviet government is not very soviet anymore or, for that matter, much of a government.”

   “"It felt very soviet, very intimidating", said Steven Sharp, one of Rose’s closest lieutenants.”

   “[…] that has been enlarged most quickly and widely is the very soviet region newly created in northern Sichuan.”

3. (historical, not-comparable)Pertaining to the Soviet Union or its constituent republics.

   “Later, in the 1980s, western scholars found that, notwithstanding the substantial Soviet military buildup near the Chinese borders in the late 1960s, it was Beijing that initiated the clash on Zhenbao (Damanski) Island.”

   “A monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin erected in Moscow's metro is stirring debate, with some Russians welcoming it as a historical tribute, but others saying it's a mistake to commemorate someone who presided over so much suffering.”

4. Supporting or representing the Soviet Union or Sovietism; Sovietist.

   “He remained more Soviet than his parents and often accused Gorbachev of having destroyed the Soviet Union on behalf of US intelligence.”

   “Only in the GDR were the returning POWs presumed guilty; there East Germans, attempting to be "more Soviet than the Soviets," […]”

   “It would also be incorrect to creat a "scale of Sovietism", arguing, say, that Gildin was more Soviet than Litvakov, or that Litvakov was more Soviet than Dobrushin. Essentially, they were equally Soviet, even if they saw their Sovietism rather differently: […]”