Russian history has known many historical events associated with various class phenomena. One of these was the kulaks - this is the rural bourgeoisie. Class division in the Soviet Union was a sensitive issue. The attitude towards the kulaks changed in accordance with the course of history and the course of the ruling power. But in the end, everything came to such a process as the dispossession and liquidation of the kulaks as a class. Let's take a look at the pages of history.
Kulaks - what is it? And who is the fist?
Fists before the revolution of 1917 were considered successful merchants. A different semantic coloring is given to this term after the revolution of 1917. At a certain moment, when the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks changed the direction of its political course, the significance of the kulaks also changed. Sometimes it approached the middle class, taking the position of the farming class - a transitional phenomenon of post-capitalism, or the agricultural elite, playing the role of exploiters who used the labor of wage workers.
Legislation regardingkulaks also did not give an unambiguous assessment. The terms adopted at the Plenums of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks differed from the terms used by individual historical leaders of the RSFSR. The Soviet government changed its policy several times - initially the course of dispossession was chosen, then the coming thaw chose the "course on the kulak" and the most severe course on the elimination of the kulaks. Next, we will consider the prerequisites, causes and other features of these historical events. The final attitude of the Soviet government in the end: the kulaks are a class enemy and adversary.
Terminology before the 1917 revolution
In the very first sense, the word "fist" had only a negative meaning. This was later used in Soviet propaganda against representatives of this class. In the minds of the peasant people, the idea was strengthened that the only honest source of income is physical and hard work. And those people who made a profit in another way were considered dishonorable (usurers, buyers and merchants were included here). In part, we can say that the interpretation is as follows: the kulaks are not an economic status, but more psychological traits or a professional occupation.
Russian Marxism and the concept of the kulaks
The theory and practice of Russian Marxism divided all peasants into three main categories:
- Fists. This included we althy peasants using hired labor, the bourgeoisie of the countryside. On the one hand, there wasnegative attitude towards such peasants, and on the other hand, it was fair to say that there is no official concept of "kulaks". Even during the liquidation of its representatives, clear signs were not formulated according to which a citizen was or was not assigned to this class.
- The rural poor. This group included, first of all, hired workers of the kulaks, they are also farm laborers.
- Middle peasants. Drawing an analogy with our time, we can say that this is a kind of modern middle class in the peasantry. According to their economic situation, they were between the first two groups indicated.
However, even with the existence of such a classification, there were still many contradictions in the definition of the terms "middle peasant" and "kulak". These concepts were often found in the works of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, which determined the ideologies of power for many years. But he himself did not completely distinguish between these terms, indicating only one distinguishing feature - the use of hired labor.
Dispossession or dekulakization
Although not everyone agrees with the statement that dispossession is political repression, but it is so. It was applied according to the administrative procedure, measures to eliminate the kulaks as a class were performed by local executive authorities, guided by political and social signs indicated in the resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, issued on January 30, 1930year.
Beginning of dispossession: 1917-1923
The first measures to combat the kulaks began in 1917, after the revolution. June 1918 was marked by the creation of committees of the poor. They played an important role in determining the Soviet policy of the kulaks. The committees performed redistributive functions locally. It was they who decided what to do with what was confiscated from the kulaks. Those, in turn, became more and more convinced every day that the Soviet government would not leave them alone just like that.
In the same year, on November 8, at a meeting of delegates to the committees of the poor, V. I. Lenin made a statement that it was necessary to develop a decisive course for the elimination of the kulaks as a class. He must be defeated. Otherwise, capitalism will appear thanks to him. In other words, the kulaks are evil.
Preparation for administrative dispossession
On February 15, 1928, the Pravda newspaper publishes materials discrediting the kulaks for the first time. It was reported about the difficult and oppressive rural situation, about the dangerous growth in the number of rich peasants. It was also said that the kulaks pose a threat not only in the countryside, but also in the Communist Party itself, by controlling a certain number of cells.
Reports that the kulaks did not allow representatives of the poor and farm laborers into the local branches of the parties were regularly full of on the pages of the newspaper. Rich peasants were forcibly confiscated bread and a variety of available supplies. And that led to them cutting backcrops and reduced personal farming. This, in turn, affected the employment of the poor. They were losing jobs. All this was positioned as temporary measures due to the state of emergency in the countryside.
But in the end, a transition was made to the policy of eliminating the kulaks. Due to the fact that poorer peasants began to suffer from dispossession, attempts were made to support certain segments of the population. But they did not lead to anything good. In villages and villages, hunger and poverty levels are gradually beginning to rise. People began to doubt whether it was a good decision to eliminate the kulaks as a class.
Implementation of mass repressions
1928-1932 became a time of collectivization and dispossession. How did it happen? To carry out dispossession, kulaks were divided into 3 main groups:
- "Terrorists". This included kulaks, who constituted a counter-revolutionary asset and organized uprisings and terrorist acts, the most active participants.
- This included less active participants in counter-revolutionary processes.
- All other representatives of the kulaks.
The arrest of the first category was the most serious. Such cases were transferred to the prosecutor's office, regional committees and regional committees of the party. The kulaks belonging to the second group were evicted to distant places in the USSR or remote regions. The third category was settled in specially designated areas outside the collective farms.
The first group of kulaks received the strictest measures. They were sent to concentration camps because they were a threatthe security of society and Soviet power. In addition, they could arrange terrorist acts and uprisings. In general terms, dispossession measures assumed the immediate liquidation of kulaks in the form of exile and mass resettlement, and confiscation of property.
The second category was characterized by mass escapes from resettlement areas, as there was often a harsh climate in which it was not easy to live. The Komsomol members who carried out dispossession were often cruel and could easily organize unauthorized executions of kulaks.
Number of victims
The decision to liquidate the kulaks as a class led to great social upheavals. According to available data, almost 4 million people were subjected to repression over the entire period. Of this number, 60% (2.5 million people) were sent to kulak exile. Almost 600 thousand people died out of this number, and the highest death rate was in 1930-1933. These figures exceeded the birth rate by almost 40 times.
According to one investigation by journalist A. Krechetnikov, in 1934 there was a secret certificate from the OGPU department, according to which 90 thousand kulaks died on the way to the exile point and another 300 thousand died from malnutrition and diseases that reigned in places of exile.
Politics eased
In 1932, the process of mass dispossession was officially suspended. But it turned out to be more difficult to almost completely stop the running machine due to the resistance from below.
In July 1931a decree was issued on the transition from mass to individual dispossession, and instructions were given on what constitutes an excess in the process and how to deal with the lack of control over dispossession. At the same time, the idea was promoted that the softening of policy towards representatives of this class does not mean a weakening of the class struggle in the countryside. On the contrary, it will only gain strength. In the post-war period, liberation from the "kulak exile" began. People began to return home en masse. In 1954, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the last kulaks-immigrants received freedom and rights.
Bread is not from fists
It is worth considering separately such a moment associated with the restriction of the kulaks as a class - the production of bread. In 1927, with the help of this population, 9.78 million tons were produced, while the collective farms produced only 1.3 million tons, of which only half (0.57 million tons) eventually entered the market. In 1929, thanks to processes such as collectivization and dispossession, the collective farms produced 6.52 million tons.
The government encouraged the transition of poor peasants to the collective farms and thus planned to quickly destroy the kulaks, who previously were in fact the only producer of bread. But it was forbidden to admit to the collective farms persons recognized as representatives of this class. The ban on the lease of land, on the hiring of private labor, as a result, caused a sharp decline in agriculture, which was more or less stopped only in 1937.
Rehabilitation and Afterword
Victims of repressionare rehabilitated in the Russian Federation in accordance with the Federal Law "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression" dated 1991-18-10. According to the same law, the rehabilitation of persons subjected to the process of dispossession and members of their families is carried out. The judicial practice of the Russian Federation considers such persecution as an action within the framework of political repression. The peculiarity of Russian legislation is that it is necessary to establish the fact of dispossession. During rehabilitation, all property or its value was returned to the family, of course, if this property was not nationalized during the Great Patriotic War, and also if there were no other obstacles.
