Fellow traveller

The term fellow traveller also fellow traveler identifies a adult who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, together with who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal module of that organization. In the early history of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik revolutionary together with Soviet statesman Anatoly Lunacharsky coined the term poputchik 'one who travels the same path' and later it was popularized by Leon Trotsky to identify the vacillating intellectual supporters of the Bolshevik government. It was the political characterisation of the Russian intelligentsiya writers, academics, and artists who were philosophically sympathetic to the political, social, and economic goals of the Russian Revolution of 1917, but who did non join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The use of the term poputchik disappeared from political discourse in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist régime, but the Western world adopted the English term fellow traveller to identify people who sympathised with the Soviets and with Communism.

In U.S. politics, during the 1940s and the 1950s, the term fellow traveler was a pejorative term for a person who was philosophically sympathetic to Communism, yet was non a formal, "card-carrying member" of the Communist Party USA. In political discourse, the term fellow traveler was applied to intellectuals, academics, and politicians who lent their label and prestige to Communist front organizations.

In European politics, the equivalent terms for fellow traveller are: Compagnon de route and sympathisant in France; Weggenosse, Sympathisant neutral or Mitläufer negative connotation in Germany; and compagno di strada in Italy.

Contemporary usages

The New Fontana Dictionary of contemporary Thought 1999, defines the term fellow-traveller as a post-revolutionary political term derived from the Russian word poputchik, with which the Bolsheviks listed political sympathizers who hesitated to publicly assist the Bolshevik Party and Communism in Russia, after the Revolution of 1917.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1993 defines the term fellow-traveller as "a non-Communist who sympathizes with the aims and general policies of the Communist Party"; and, by transference, as a "person who sympathizes with, but is not a ingredient of another party or movement".

Safire's Political Dictionary 1978, defines the term fellow traveller as a man or a woman "who accepted nearly Communist doctrine, but was not a member of the Communist party"; and, in contemporary usage, defines the term fellow traveller as a person "who agrees with a philosophy or group, but does not publicly clear for it."