Kulak
Kulaks (from the Russian кулак (kulak, "fist") were peasants in the Russian Empire who owned larger farms and used hired labor, as a result of the Stolypin reform introduced since 1906. Among Peter Stolypin's intentions was to create a group of prosperous farmers. In 1912, 16 per cent (11% in 1903) of Russian farmers had over 8 acres (32,000 m²) per male family member (a threshold used to distinguish middle-class and prosperous farmers in statistics).
The peasantry was tentatively divided into three broad categories: bednyaks, or poor peasants, seredniaks, or medium-prosperity ones, and kulaks, the rich farmers. In addition, there was a category of batraks, or landless agriculture workers for hire (farm hands).
After the Russian Revolution, Bolsheviks considered only batraks and bednyaks as true allies of the proletariat. Serednyaks were considered unreliable, "hesitating" allies, and kulaks were class enemies by definition. However, often those declared to be kulaks were not especially prosperous. Both peasants and Soviet officials were often uncertain what constituted a kulak, and the term was often used to label anyone opposed to the Soviet agricultural program.
By 1928, there was a food shortage in the cities and in the army. The Soviet government encouraged the formation of collective farms and in 1929 introduced a policy of forced collectivization. Some peasants were attracted to collectivization by the idea that they would be in a position to afford tractors and would enjoy increased production.
However, many peasants were reluctant to give up their property and form collectives. Some of them attempted to sabotage the collectives by attacking members and government officials, burning crops and destroying property. Peasants often slaughtered livestock so that the collectives would not be able to seize them. These actions were classified as hostile by the Soviet authorities. By 1932, half of the draught animals and other livestock had been killed due to forced collectivization, drought and lack of feeding stuff. This process contributed to a famine from which many people died in the early 1930s.
Stalin requested harsh measures to put an end to the kulak resistance. The Kulaks were to be liquidated as a class and subject to three fates: death sentence, labor camps, or deportation. Tens of thousands of alleged kulaks were summarily executed, property was confiscated to form collective farms, and many families were deported to Siberia and Soviet Central Asia.
A new wave of repressions, this time against "ex-kulaks", was started in 1937 after the NKVD Order no. 00447.
According to data from Soviet archives, which were published in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books say that 1,317,022 reached the destination. The remaining 486,370 must have died or escaped. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who had died in labor colonies from 1932 to 1940 was 389,521.
It is difficult to determine how many people died because of the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class". The data from the Soviet archives do not tell us exactly how many people escaped and survived and what number of deaths would have been if there had been no deportation. These data do not include people who were executed or died in prisons and gulags rather than died in labor colonies. Besides, many historians consider the great famine a result of the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" and therefore they estimate the death toll at about 7 million. A collection of estimates is available at this site.