What is "kurkul"? This is an offensive word that is given to a person who is overly economical. However, a hundred years ago, this term had a completely different meaning. Peasants were called kurkuly, but not all, but those who, according to the Bolsheviks, lived too well.
In the dictionary
According to Ushakov, "kurkul" is "a money-grubber, a hoarder, a miser". But when this word first appeared, it had a slightly different connotation. "Kurkul" is "a prosperous peasant, a resident of Ukraine." A synonym for this word is "fist". In order to understand the meaning of this word, it is worth remembering the events that took place after the 1917 revolution.
Fist
Kurkul is the same as a fist. There is no exact information about the origin of this word. It probably originated in the 1920s. "Kurkul" is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Russian word "fist". Both the first and second concepts have a brightly negative connotation.
In the post-revolutionary years, the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards we althy peasants changed several times. At first it was negative, then softened, for a short time in the policy of the new governmenteven there was a "course on the fist." In the early twenties, the destruction of the kulaks as a class began.
Curcules were called speculators, the rural bourgeoisie. We althy peasants used hired labor, that is, according to the policy of the Bolsheviks, they were engaged in the exploitation of the poorer villagers.
Dispossession of kulaks
The final decision to liquidate the kulaks was made by Lenin and his associates as early as November 1918. In a matter of months, committees of the poor were created, which, as a rule, included laborers who had previously worked for we althy peasants. They launched a fierce fight against kurkuli.
The land, inventory and the so-called food surplus were taken away from the kulaks. What this surplus was, no member of the Committee of the Poor could explain. We althy peasants found themselves in unbearable conditions. They were deprived of the opportunity to earn. A few years later, most of them were sent to Siberia. Many died along the way from cold and hunger.
In Soviet times, the word "kurkul" became synonymous with such words as "miser", "hoarder". Propaganda worked so effectively that already in the thirties, few people thought about the true meaning of this neologism. And only in the 60s, works began to appear in literature that tell about the tragic fate of the peasants. And not only the we althy. First, the kulaks were sent to Siberia, then the so-called middle peasants. One of the works of fiction that tells about the victimsdispossession, - "Bread for the dog" Tendryakov.