What is a Kulak?

Were 'Capitalist Peasants' Really a Threat to the Soviet Regime?

Jun 12, 2007 Kerry Kubilius

The word 'kulak' was an almost meaningless term for peasants who were chosen arbitrarily for deportation to Russia's labor settlements.

What is a Kulak?

“Kulak” is a derogatory term initially used by the Soviets to identify so-called “capitalist peasants.” These peasants were thought to have been a threat to the Soviet State and the process of converting the peasantry into collective farm workers. They owned property and land, and may have sold goods or services in order to increase their wealth. The word “kulak” means “fist” in Russian.

When Stalin came to power and initiated the “dekulakization” of the peasants, local soviet officials may have used the original understanding of the word “kulak” in order to carry out their directives. The kulaks’ land was taken from them, their personal property seized, and families split up as their heads were sent to do forced labor while women and children were shipped to “special settlements.”

In time, the meaning of the word “kulak” changed. As the local soviet officials had never really adhered to the strict meaning of the word, and the quotas of kulaks to deport had to be filled according to orders from the State, other peasants were accused of being kulaks. These peasants might have angered the local soviet in some way, may have resisted a direct order, may have been caught stealing, may have been helping other kulaks, or may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also sent to special settlements were those representative of Russia under the Tsar – people who were officials or had special titles that existed only in the pre-Soviet world.

Special settlements, as described in The Unknown Gulag, were filled with accused kulaks. The special settlers – the Soviets’ unrealized dream of an industrial labor force – were the most unfortunate of the peasants. Whether or not they had been wealthy before their deportation, they were now considered kulaks by the State. In addition, because their farm equipment, building tools, food, and livestock had been taken before their deportation, they were left with less than bare essentials when they reached the special settlements.

Dekulakization was the attempt to eliminate kulaks as a class. Little provision was made for kulak survival in the special settlements. With the death of the kulaks, there was hope for less opposition to collective farms and Soviet directives. There was also the hope that formerly close-knit communities would lose their local leaders and be dependent, not on the traditions and social dynamic that existed within villages across rural Russia, but on the local soviets, who implemented Stalin’s orders.

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