Kulak
Encyclopedia
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire
, Soviet Russia
, and early Soviet Union
. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire
who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform
, which began in 1906.
According to the political theory of Marxism-Leninism
of the early 1900s, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Vladimir Lenin
described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine.” Marxism-Leninism had intended a revolution to liberate poor peasants and farm laborers alongside the proletariat
(urban and industrial workers). In addition, the planned economy
of Soviet Bolshevism required the collectivization of farms and land to allow industrialization or conversion to large-scale agricultural production. In practice, these Marxist-Leninist theories led to disruption of agriculture as government officials violently seized kulak farms and murdered resistors.
The Stolypin reform created a new class of landowners by allowing peasants to acquire plots of land for credit from the large estate owners. They were to repay the credit (a kind of mortgage loan) from their farm work. By 1912, 16% of peasants (up from 11% in 1903) had relatively large endowments of over 8 acres (3.2 ha) per male family member (a threshold used in statistics to distinguish between middle-class and prosperous farmers, i.e., kulaks). At that time an average farmer's family had 6 to 10 children.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917
, the Bolsheviks considered only batraks and bednyaks as true allies of the Soviets and proletariat. Serednyaks were considered unreliable, "hesitating" allies; and kulaks were identified as class enemies because they owned land. But, often those classified as kulaks were not especially prosperous. The average value of goods confiscated from kulaks during the policy of "dekulakization
" (раскулачивание) at the beginning of the 1930s was only $90–$210 (170-400 rubles) per household. Both peasants and Soviet officials were often uncertain as to what constituted a kulak. They often used the term to label anyone who had more property than was considered "normal," according to subjective criteria, and personal rivalries played a part in the classification of enemies. In the early years, being classified as a kulak carried no penalty other than mistrust from the Soviet authorities. During the height of collectivization, however, people identified as kulaks were subjected to deportation and extrajudicial punishment
. They were often murdered in local violence; others were formally executed after conviction as kulaks.
In May 1929, the Sovnarkom issued a decree that formalised the notion of "kulak household" (кулацкое хозяйство). Any of the following defined a kulak:
By the last item, any peasant who sold his surplus goods on the market could be automatically classified as a kulak. In 1930 this list was extended to include those who were renting industrial plants, e.g., sawmill
s, or who rented land to other farmers. Grigory Zinoviev
, a well-known Soviet politician, said in 1924, "We are fond of describing any peasant who has enough to eat as a 'kulak'." At the same time, the ispolkoms (executive committees of local Soviets) of republics, oblast
s, and krai
s were given rights to add other criteria for defining kulaks, depending on local conditions.
— Izvestia
, November 1928
In 1928 there was a food shortage in the cities and in the army. In response the Soviet government encouraged the formation of collective farms
and, in 1929, introduced a policy of mandatory collectivization. Many peasants were attracted to collectivization by the idea that they would be able to afford tractors to generate increased production.
In July 1929 it remained official Soviet policy that the kulak should not be terrorised and should be enlisted into the collective farms
. Joseph Stalin
disagreed with this, saying, "Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their production with the production of kolkhozes and sovkhozes."
On 30 January 1930 the Politburo
approved of the extermination of kulaks as a class. Three separate categories for the kulaks were designated. The first consisted of kulaks to be sent to the Gulag
s, the second was for kulaks to be relocated to distant parts of the USSR (such as the north Urals and Kazahkstan), and the third to other parts of their province.
Other peasants were outraged by the idea that other people would use their tools/animals as common property; they often retaliated against the state by destroying their tools and killing the livestock. They would have to give their animals to the collectives, but the people could eat the meat; they could also conceal or sell both meat and hides. Many peasants chose to slaughter livestock rather than allow them to become common property. In the first two months of 1930, peasants killed millions of cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and goats. Through this and a severe winter, a quarter of the nation’s livestock died. It was a greater loss than during the Civil War, and herds did not reach previous levels until the 1950s.
In response to the widespread slaughter, the Sovnarkom issued decrees to prosecute "the malicious slaughtering of livestock" (хищнический убой скота). Many peasants attempted to sabotage the collectives by attacking members and government officials.
Stalin requested severe measures to put an end to the kulak resistance. In 1930, Stalin declared:
Often local officials were assigned minimum quotas of kulaks to identify, and were forced to use their discretionary powers to "find" kulaks wherever they could. This led to many cases in which a farmer who employed only his sons, or any family that had a metal roof on their house, was labelled as kulaks and deported. The same fate was the end of those labeled as podkulachnik
s (подкулачник), so-called "kulak helpers".
A new wave of persecution against "ex-kulaks" was started in 1937. It was part of the Great Purge
, conducted by Nikolai Yezhov
after the NKVD Order no. 00447. Those deemed ex-kulaks were either executed or sent to labor camps. With few rich or middle-class peasants left to arrest and, to satisfy the conviction quotas demanded by Stalin and Yezhov, the NKVD terrorized more of the peasantry to induce more denunciations. In the wave of round-ups that followed, the term 'kulak' lost its previous distinction and became a general accusation (like wrecking
), which could be leveled at anyone whom the troikas wished to convict. During the Great Purge, hundreds of thousands of peasants were falsely accused of being ex-kulaks and sent to the Gulag or executed based on circumstantial evidence, forged evidence or none at all.
After being resettled to Siberia and Kazakhstan, many kulaks managed to renew their prosperity. Their fortitude was the basis for recriminations against some sections of NKVD
that were in charge of the "labor settlements" (трудовые поселения) in 1938-1939, as they were considered to have permitted "kulakization" (окулачивание) of the "labor settlers" (трудопоселенцев). The new settlers ability to exceed the prosperity of the neighboring kolkhoz
es was attributed to "wrecking" and "criminal negligence
".
to as few as 700,000 by Soviet news sources. A collection of estimates is maintained by Matthew White.
According to data from Soviet archives, which were published only in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books based on these sources have said that 1,317,022 reached the destinations. The remaining 486,370 may have died or escaped. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who died in labor colonies from 1932-1940 was 389,521. Former "kulaks" and their families made up the majority of victims of the Great Purge
of the late 1930s, with 669,929 arrested and 376,202 executed.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, and early Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The word kulak originally referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
who emerged from the peasantry and became wealthy following the Stolypin reform
Stolypin reform
The Stolypin agrarian reforms were a series of changes to Imperial Russia's agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Pyotr Stolypin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers...
, which began in 1906.
According to the political theory of Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
of the early 1900s, the kulaks were class enemies of the poorer peasants. Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
described them as "bloodsuckers, vampires, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine.” Marxism-Leninism had intended a revolution to liberate poor peasants and farm laborers alongside the proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
(urban and industrial workers). In addition, the planned economy
Planned economy
A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions regarding production and investment are embodied in a plan formulated by a central authority, usually by a government agency...
of Soviet Bolshevism required the collectivization of farms and land to allow industrialization or conversion to large-scale agricultural production. In practice, these Marxist-Leninist theories led to disruption of agriculture as government officials violently seized kulak farms and murdered resistors.
Definitions
According to the Soviet terminology, the peasants were divided into three broad categories: bednyaks, or poor peasants; serednyaks, or mid-income peasants; and kulaks, the higher-income farmers who had larger farms than most Russian peasants. In addition, they had a category of batraks, landless seasonal agriculture workers for hire.The Stolypin reform created a new class of landowners by allowing peasants to acquire plots of land for credit from the large estate owners. They were to repay the credit (a kind of mortgage loan) from their farm work. By 1912, 16% of peasants (up from 11% in 1903) had relatively large endowments of over 8 acres (3.2 ha) per male family member (a threshold used in statistics to distinguish between middle-class and prosperous farmers, i.e., kulaks). At that time an average farmer's family had 6 to 10 children.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, the Bolsheviks considered only batraks and bednyaks as true allies of the Soviets and proletariat. Serednyaks were considered unreliable, "hesitating" allies; and kulaks were identified as class enemies because they owned land. But, often those classified as kulaks were not especially prosperous. The average value of goods confiscated from kulaks during the policy of "dekulakization
Dekulakization
Dekulakization was the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families in 1929-1932. The richer peasants were labeled kulaks and considered class enemies...
" (раскулачивание) at the beginning of the 1930s was only $90–$210 (170-400 rubles) per household. Both peasants and Soviet officials were often uncertain as to what constituted a kulak. They often used the term to label anyone who had more property than was considered "normal," according to subjective criteria, and personal rivalries played a part in the classification of enemies. In the early years, being classified as a kulak carried no penalty other than mistrust from the Soviet authorities. During the height of collectivization, however, people identified as kulaks were subjected to deportation and extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment
Extrajudicial punishment is punishment by the state or some other official authority without the permission of a court or legal authority. The existence of extrajudicial punishment is considered proof that some governments will break their own legal code if deemed necessary.-Nature:Extrajudicial...
. They were often murdered in local violence; others were formally executed after conviction as kulaks.
In May 1929, the Sovnarkom issued a decree that formalised the notion of "kulak household" (кулацкое хозяйство). Any of the following defined a kulak:
- use of hired labor
- ownership of a millMill (grinding)A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
, a creameryCreameryIn a dairy, the creamery is the location of cream processing. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream returned to the skimmed milk....
(маслобойня, butter-making rig), other processing equipment, or a complex machine with a mechanical motor - systematic renting out of agricultural equipment or facilities
- involvement in trade, money-lending, commercial brokerage, or "other sources of non-labor income".
By the last item, any peasant who sold his surplus goods on the market could be automatically classified as a kulak. In 1930 this list was extended to include those who were renting industrial plants, e.g., sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s, or who rented land to other farmers. Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
, a well-known Soviet politician, said in 1924, "We are fond of describing any peasant who has enough to eat as a 'kulak'." At the same time, the ispolkoms (executive committees of local Soviets) of republics, oblast
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
s, and krai
Krai
Krai or kray was a type of an administrative division in the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, and is one of the types of the federal subjects of modern Russia ....
s were given rights to add other criteria for defining kulaks, depending on local conditions.
Dekulakization
— Izvestia
Izvestia
Izvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
, November 1928
In 1928 there was a food shortage in the cities and in the army. In response the Soviet government encouraged the formation of collective farms
Collective farming
Collective farming and communal farming are types of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise...
and, in 1929, introduced a policy of mandatory collectivization. Many peasants were attracted to collectivization by the idea that they would be able to afford tractors to generate increased production.
In July 1929 it remained official Soviet policy that the kulak should not be terrorised and should be enlisted into the collective farms
Collective farming
Collective farming and communal farming are types of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise...
. Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
disagreed with this, saying, "Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the kulaks, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their production with the production of kolkhozes and sovkhozes."
On 30 January 1930 the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
approved of the extermination of kulaks as a class. Three separate categories for the kulaks were designated. The first consisted of kulaks to be sent to the Gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
s, the second was for kulaks to be relocated to distant parts of the USSR (such as the north Urals and Kazahkstan), and the third to other parts of their province.
Other peasants were outraged by the idea that other people would use their tools/animals as common property; they often retaliated against the state by destroying their tools and killing the livestock. They would have to give their animals to the collectives, but the people could eat the meat; they could also conceal or sell both meat and hides. Many peasants chose to slaughter livestock rather than allow them to become common property. In the first two months of 1930, peasants killed millions of cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and goats. Through this and a severe winter, a quarter of the nation’s livestock died. It was a greater loss than during the Civil War, and herds did not reach previous levels until the 1950s.
In response to the widespread slaughter, the Sovnarkom issued decrees to prosecute "the malicious slaughtering of livestock" (хищнический убой скота). Many peasants attempted to sabotage the collectives by attacking members and government officials.
Stalin requested severe measures to put an end to the kulak resistance. In 1930, Stalin declared:
- In order to oust the 'kulaks' as a class, the resistance of this class must be smashed in open battle and it must be deprived of the productive sources of its existence and development... That is a turn towards the policy of eliminating the kulaks as a class. The Communist party agreed to the use of force in the collectivization and dekulakization efforts. They intended to eliminate the kulaks as a class by the following: death sentence, labor settlements (not to be confused with labor campLabor campA labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
s, although the former were also managed by the GULAGGulagThe Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
); or deportation "out of regions of total collectivization of the agriculture". Tens of thousands of kulaks were executed, property was expropriated to form collective farms, and many families were deported to unpopulated areas of SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Soviet Central AsiaCentral AsiaCentral Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
Often local officials were assigned minimum quotas of kulaks to identify, and were forced to use their discretionary powers to "find" kulaks wherever they could. This led to many cases in which a farmer who employed only his sons, or any family that had a metal roof on their house, was labelled as kulaks and deported. The same fate was the end of those labeled as podkulachnik
Podkulachnik
Podkulachnik was a political label used in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s to brand people considered traitors to the Soviet Government.-History:Podkulachnik is considered by many to be a Stalinist neologism from the late 1920s...
s (подкулачник), so-called "kulak helpers".
A new wave of persecution against "ex-kulaks" was started in 1937. It was part of the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, conducted by Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Yezhov
Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov was a senior figure in the NKVD under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge. His reign is sometimes known as the "Yezhovshchina" , "the Yezhov era", a term that began to be used during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s...
after the NKVD Order no. 00447. Those deemed ex-kulaks were either executed or sent to labor camps. With few rich or middle-class peasants left to arrest and, to satisfy the conviction quotas demanded by Stalin and Yezhov, the NKVD terrorized more of the peasantry to induce more denunciations. In the wave of round-ups that followed, the term 'kulak' lost its previous distinction and became a general accusation (like wrecking
Wrecking (Soviet crime)
Wrecking , was a crime specified in the criminal code of the Soviet Union in the Stalin era. It is often translated as "sabotage"; however "wrecking" and "diversionist acts" and "counter-revolutionary sabotage" were distinct sub-articles of Article 58 , and the meaning of "wrecking" is closer to...
), which could be leveled at anyone whom the troikas wished to convict. During the Great Purge, hundreds of thousands of peasants were falsely accused of being ex-kulaks and sent to the Gulag or executed based on circumstantial evidence, forged evidence or none at all.
After being resettled to Siberia and Kazakhstan, many kulaks managed to renew their prosperity. Their fortitude was the basis for recriminations against some sections of NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
that were in charge of the "labor settlements" (трудовые поселения) in 1938-1939, as they were considered to have permitted "kulakization" (окулачивание) of the "labor settlers" (трудопоселенцев). The new settlers ability to exceed the prosperity of the neighboring kolkhoz
Kolkhoz
A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...
es was attributed to "wrecking" and "criminal negligence
Criminal negligence
In the criminal law, criminal negligence is one of the three general classes of mens rea element required to constitute a conventional as opposed to strict liability offense. It is defined as an act that is:-Concept:...
".
Numbers executed
The overwhelming majority of kulaks executed and imprisoned were male, but precise numbers have been difficult to obtain. Many historians consider the Great Famine a result of the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class." This has complicated attempts to distinguish the executions of kulaks. A wide range of death tolls has been suggested, from as many as 60 million suggested by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
to as few as 700,000 by Soviet news sources. A collection of estimates is maintained by Matthew White.
According to data from Soviet archives, which were published only in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books based on these sources have said that 1,317,022 reached the destinations. The remaining 486,370 may have died or escaped. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who died in labor colonies from 1932-1940 was 389,521. Former "kulaks" and their families made up the majority of victims of the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
of the late 1930s, with 669,929 arrested and 376,202 executed.
See also
- DekulakizationDekulakizationDekulakization was the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families in 1929-1932. The richer peasants were labeled kulaks and considered class enemies...
- Enemy of the peopleEnemy of the peopleThe term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...
- Collectivization in the USSR
- YeomanYeomanYeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
- EarthEarth (1930 film)Earth is a 1930 Soviet film by Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko, concerning an insurrection by a community of farmers, following a hostile takeover by Kulak landowners...
(1930), Ukrainian film by Alexander DovzhenkoAlexander DovzhenkoAleksandr Petrovich Dovzhenko , was a Soviet screenwriter, film producer and director of Ukrainian descent. He is often cited as one of the most important early Soviet filmmakers, alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin.- Biography :...
, concerning a community of farmers and their resistance to collectivization. - Ural-Siberian MethodUral-Siberian methodThe Ural-Siberian method was an extraordinary approach launched in the Soviet Union for the collection of grain from the countryside. It was introduced in Urals and Siberia, hence the name. The Ural-Siberian method was a return to the drastic policies that had characterized War Communism in the...
External links
- Ludo Martens, "The kulak: The first wave of collectivization", Another View of Stalin, 1995