Kulak

Full Description

A Russian term originally meaning “fist,” used by Soviet propaganda to designate prosperous peasants deemed to be class enemies of the revolution. During collectivisation (1929–1933), the policy of “dekulakisation” resulted in the deportation of approximately 1.8 million people to Siberia and Central Asia, the execution of hundreds of thousands, and the destruction of rural communities across the Soviet Union. In practice, the label was applied arbitrarily — any peasant who resisted collectivisation could be designated a kulak.

Critical Perspective

The concept of the kulak reveals how Soviet ideology created its own enemies. Most “kulaks” were not wealthy in any meaningful sense — they were simply peasants who owned a cow or a few more acres than their neighbours. The campaign against them was an exercise in manufactured class warfare, designed to justify the destruction of rural autonomy and the subordination of the countryside to the party-state.