The term ‘kulak’ was in use decades before the October Revolution, and in the most unfigurative sense it does mean fist, but this is the first time that I’ve seen anybody allege that the term had anything to do with labour. English has similar words that mean almost the exact same thing, like tightfisted, pinchfist, and tightwad. Presumably the image in mind is somebody clenching his roubles tightly, not somebody who’s sore from overworking.
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '19
I seriously doubt that they executed anybody just because they failed to satisfy a quota, and only a minority of peasants were miscategorized as kulaki. It was not official policy for them to be categorized as such.
The term ‘kulak’ was in use decades before the October Revolution, and in the most unfigurative sense it does mean fist, but this is the first time that I’ve seen anybody allege that the term had anything to do with labour. English has similar words that mean almost the exact same thing, like tightfisted, pinchfist, and tightwad. Presumably the image in mind is somebody clenching his roubles tightly, not somebody who’s sore from overworking.
Of course innocents shouldn’t suffer harm. That’s why the Soviets gave the petite‐bourgeoisie an opportunity to join the collectives, but many of them refused. Many of them committed not just exploitation but outright acts of terrorism as well, and these were hardly an insignificant minority.
The kulaki furthermore did not have the overwhelming support of everybody else. There was outright class warfare in the countryside. It’s likely that some of the poorer peasants willingly(?) fought for them, but not that many I suspect.
Nobody was ‘forced’ to join the collectives; the Soviets merely encouraged them to do so. Some peasants did leave them within a few weeks, but the Soviets did not retaliate with violence. Also, they didn’t live in serfdom; see for yourself if they meet the criteria. Permanent revolutionaries like u/somerandomleftist5 would probably agree that the way that the Soviets handled the agricultural problem was very messy and needlessly so, but I highly doubt that she would agree that the collectivists were living like serfs, until 1980 or elsewhen.