Les Jones

Word of the Day > Word of the Day: Satrap, Satrapy

From Merriam-Webster:

Pronunciation: 'sA-"trap also 'sa-"trap or 'sa-tr&p
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin satrapes, from Greek satrapEs, from Old Persian khshathrapAvan, literally, protector of the dominion
1 : the governor of a province in ancient Persia
2 a : RULER b : a subordinate official : HENCHMAN

And a satrapy is defined as "the territory or jurisdiction of a satrap."

Found in a Charles Krauthammer op-ed.

Yeltsin is not the first great revolutionary to have failed at building something new. Nonetheless, it is worth remembering what he did achieve. He brought down not just a party, a regime and an empire, but an idea. Communism today survives only in the lunatic kingdom of North Korea, in Fidel Castro's personal satrapy and in the minds of such political imbeciles as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who can sustain his socialist airs only as long as he sits on $65 oil.

For a less positive take on the Boris Yeltsin era, see this.

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