Comrade

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Comrade" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In political contexts, comrade means a fellow party member, commonly left-wing. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution, popular culture in the West has often associated it with communism. As such, it can be used as a derogatory reference to left-wingers, akin to "commie". In particular, the Russian word tovarishch may be used as derogatory reference to Communists.