zinovievitehttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zinovievite_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_useZinovievite, adj. & n.
Revised 2021

Zinovieviteadjective & noun

Now historical.
  1. adjective
    1. 1936–
      Relating to or supporting Grigori Zinoviev, Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician who was executed by Stalin in 1936.
      1. 1936
        Report of court proceedings: The case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite terrorist centre, heard before the Military collegium of the Supreme court of the U.S.S.R.
        (title)
      2. 1989
        Nikolayev and his friends and relations, as well as six unconnected former supporters of the left-wing ‘Zinovievite’ party faction, were tried as members of a terrorist conspiracy and shot.
        Independent 17 May 24/5
      3. 1999
        He advocated a relaxation in policies not only toward the peasantry but also toward the former Zinovievite left opposition.
        A. Knight, Who killed Kirov? vii. 178
  2. noun
    1. 1937–
      A supporter of Grigori Zinoviev, Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician who was executed by Stalin in 1936.
      1. 1937
        The Trotskyites and Zinovievites were implacable adversaries of the League of Nations.
        Foreign Affairs vol. 16 50
      2. 1970
        The Fifteenth Party Congress, at which Stalin and his supporters squared off against the Zinovievites, or ‘Leningrad opposition’, as they were then called.
        S. Talbott, translation of N. Krushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (1971) i. 28
      3. 2015
        Anyone who had been in the Leningrad party in the mid-1920s was in some sense a Zinovievite, since Zinoviev was the Leningrad party boss.
        S. Fitzpatrick, On Stalin's Team (2017) iv. 112

Originally published as part of the entry for Zinoviev letter, n.

Zinovievite, adj. & n. was revised in March 2021.

Zinovievite, adj. & n. was last modified in July 2023.