Potemkin village

Definitions

Any false construct devised to disguise a shortcoming or improve appearances.

idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“Such concentration not only simplifies the task of keeping tabs on foreigners' movements, but it also enables the Government to influence⟳ the outside world's picture of Russia by arranging matters in Moscow to make⟳ it a sort⟳ of huge, latter-day Potemkin Village.”

“When a government substitutes propaganda for governing, the Potemkin village is all. Since we don't get⟳ honest information from this White House, we must instead, as the Soviets once did, decode our rulers' fictions to discern what's really happening.”

“When Soviet bureaucrats wanted to impress⟳ foreign visitors with the success of the grand experiment⟳, they would visit⟳ Potemkin villages—fake towns where actors pretended to be living a life of luxury amid bulging granaries and well-paved streets bustling with happy babushkas pushing prams.”

“In the interviews, some residents praised the changes, but others described the reconstruction as a “Potemkin village,” an ornamental facade camouflaging problems created by Moscow’s invasion, like⟳ a chronic water shortage.”

CEFR level