Definition: The Bolshevik / Communist rulers of the USSR identified a class of peasant farmers who were better off and exploited their poorer farming brethren: these were dubbed Kulaks. In practice, there was no such class, just a prejudiced attack by Bolshevik leaders on the more efficient and successful of Russia’s peasants. ‘Kulaks’ were often those with larger farms and more animals, who could hire peasant labour and even lease land. They were at the core of the peasant village’s society and government. They were favoured by Lenin’s New Economic Policy. Stalin ordered the Kulaks to be liquidated as a class in 1929 as part of his drive to collectivize, and a vast number found themselves stripped of possessions and exiled to the wilds of Russia.
The term Kulak had been in use before the Bolsheviks took and twisted it. Russian peasants called anyone who was deemed exploitative a Kulak, however this did not include peasants who hired labour and were successful but conmen and usurers.
