Etymology

people's republic

Today it means: Self-designation of a state with a Marxist-Leninist government. Full definition →

Russian народная республика
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The story

  1. Russian · calque ofнародная республика
  2. English todaypeople's republic

Calque of Russian народная республика (narodnaja respublika) (from народный (narodnyj) + республика (respublika) “people's republic, popular republic, national republic”), coined in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Attested in English from 1918.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.