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Communist machinery applying short shock to traitor (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

apparat

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'communist machinery' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'short shock to traitor' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'shock' becomes 'appal' (synonyms).
'to traitor' becomes 'rat' (rat can mean a treacherous person).
'appal' with its last letter taken off is 'appa'.
'appa'+'rat'='APPARAT'

'applying' acts as a link.

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(Other definitions for apparat that I've seen before include "bureaucrats" , "communist group" , "Soviet system" , "Admin system of a communist party" , "Political machine" .)

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