The+Persecution+of+the+Kulaks

//By Sophia Murray//

media type="youtube" key="FcumJNNX0qc" width="297" height="221" align="right"

The Kulak Class:
The Kulaks were wealthier, more prosperous peasants that were higher up in the Russian class system than the average "poverty-stricken" peasant. The Kulaks owned farmland and livestock, used farming machinery, employed workers for labour, sold surplus and even leased land. The Kulaks were a major part of Russian society before the Russian Revolution.


 * War Communism:**

The peasants greatly suffered from Lenin's implementation of War Communism between 1918-1921 within which industry and land were nationalized and private trade was suppressed and replaced with food rationing. The state wished to humiliate the Kulaks under War Communism by organizing committees of poorer peasants that both administered and supervised the rationing of grain taken from the richer peasants. A food levy was eventually decreed by the authorities in which the peasants were forced to give up the majority of their produce, apart from a small portion needed for sustenance and sowing, to feed the Red Army and the Urban population.


 * The New Economic Policy:**

Unlike War Communism, the New Economic Policy of 1921 worked in the Kulak's favour. War Communism had failed to improve the U.S.S.R.'s economy and so Lenin tried to counter its effects by introducing the New Economic Policy in which he compromised by letting go of some basic Marxist ideals for the seemingly essential capitalist production. In this, some private trade and private ownership was permitted as well as the selling of surplus. The Soviet government was against the Kulaks because they were considered to be capitalists, and therefore enemies of the communist state. At this time, however, the state believed them to be necessary for rebuilding Russia's economy.


 * The First Five Year Plan:**

Stalin's first Five Year Plan in 1928 forced industrialization and resulted in the elimination of the Kulaks as a class. This plan created a command economy which, by nature, is the antithesis of a free market economy. Production, distribution, and consumption were matters that were all under the control of the centralized state. Stalin implemented collectivization under this plan which established Kolkhoz, or collectives, in which all land was pooled. The peasants were forced to give up their land and become workers on these collective farms. The Farm Committee, which consisted of party officials, controlled the peasants and gave them orders. There was some resistance amongst the peasants, but it was to no avail and only resulted in famine and mass starvation. Seven million people died of starvation in over five years. Much like in War Communism, grain was taken away from the peasants. Under the first Five Year Plan, the peasants' grain was taken away to feed the cities and to sell on foreign markets. Foreign currency was greatly needed in order to pay for heavy industry.


 * Dekulakization:**

The Kulaks valiantly protested collectivizaiton, but never saw reform. By the end of 1929, the government launched a campaign to "liquidate the Kulaks as a class" in what was referred to as, "dekulakization." Over 3 million Kulaks, as well a millions of other peasants who opposed collectivizaiton, were rounded up and shot or sent to the Gulags (forced labour camps) where they died in exile. The Gulags were a place in which the prisoners were either worked to death or subjected to unspeakable torture. Stalin's bloodlust was insatiable and he destroyed all those who stood in his way. The Kulaks symbolized free enterprise in Russia and so in Stalin's eyes, they could not be allowed to exist.


 * Sources:**

http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/en/09context/regime.html http://rayuzwyshyn.net/dovzhenko/Earth.htm Falk, Jerry. History Twelve Student Workbook. Third ed. Surrey: Hazelmere, 2010. Print. Lynch, Michael. // Reaction and Revolutions: Russia 1881-1924. // London: Hodder & Stoughton Educational, 1992. Print. Access to History http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324575/kulak