Blat: Encyclopedia II - Blat - Soviet Union

Blat - Soviet Union

Blat is a term which appeared in the Soviet Union to denote the use of informal agreements, Party contacts, or black market deals to achieve results or get ahead. The adverbial usage of the word is po blatu, meaning "by blat".

Because, in the Soviet Union, the Gosplan wasn't able to calculate efficient or even feasible plans, enterprises often had to rely on people with connections, who could then use blat to help fulfill the quotas. Eventually most enterprises came to have a supply expediter - a tolkach - to perform this task.

Accordingly, blatnoy means a man that took some job or enrolled in university using connections, or, sometimes, bribes. In Soviet republics abundancy of blatnoys was taken to such extremes as impossibilty of gaining some post or enrolling at some prestigious majors in universities without proper connections.

The original meaning of the word (adjective or noun) blatnoy is "criminal" or "belonging to criminal subculture" (e.g., "blatnoy language", "blatnoy behavior", "blatnoy outlook"),

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Soviet Union", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki