Dekulakization

Uncommon card · No. 120023

Dekulakization (Russian: раскулачивание, romanized: raskulachivaniye; Ukrainian: розкуркулення, romanized: rozkurkulennya) was a campaign of repression in the Soviet Union directed against so-called kulaks, a loosely defined category of supposedly wealthy or exploitative peasants. The campaign involved mass arrests, executions, expropriation of property, and deportations of entire households to remote and inhospitable regions. The campaign began following Joseph Stalin's announcement of the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" on December 27, 1929. It had two objectives: to eliminate potential resistance to the collectivization of agriculture, and to provide forced labor for the colonization and economic exploitation of Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan, and the Soviet North. Between 2.1 and 2.3 million people were deported to special settlements in remote regions between 1930 and 1933. Between 20,000 and 30,000 were executed by extrajudicial commissions (troiki). Historian Manfred Hildermeier...

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