Kulaks

Kulaks were one of the supposed enemy groups of the regime. They were 'wealthy' peasants who had benefited from the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Who were kulaks?

Bolsheviks believed that the NEP had led to kulaks emerging.
Kulaks were peasants who benefited more than others from the grain trade.
They were also known as 'Nepmen' after the New Economic Policy.

Very few kulaks

Historians have found that almost no peasants actually held large amounts of extra grain.
The small improvements in nutrition in Russian villages led to the Bolsheviks accusing those with extra grain of trying to sabotage communism.

Land ownership

Many peasants believed that they should be left alone on the land they had seized in 1917.
They did not want the state to interfere in their farming.

Finding kulaks

Many revolutionaries believed that the government should do more to bring villages under control.
This led them to look for more kulaks to use as examples of enemies of communism.
Overall, this caused peasants to be even more sceptical of outside interference.

1The Leadership Struggle, 1924-1929

1.1Struggle for Power 1924-28

1.1.1Stalin & his Rivals

1.1.2The End of Lenin & Stalin

1.1.3Stalin & the Communist Party

2Five Year Plans & Collectivisation

2.1Changes in Industry

2.1.1Industrialisation & Gosplan

2.2Agriculture & Collectivisation

2.2.1Five Year Plans & Grain Hoarding

2.2.2Collectivisation

2.2.3Kulaks

3Purges, Show Trials & The Cult of Stalin

3.1The Use of Terror in the 1930s

3.1.1Purges

3.1.2NKVD

3.1.3Show Trials

3.1.4Labour Camps

3.2Propaganda & Censorship

3.2.1Art & Religion Under Stalin

3.2.2Media & the Cult of Stalin

3.2.3The Cult of Stalin

3.2.4History

4Life in the Soviet Union, 1924-1941

4.1Life in the Soviet Union

4.1.1Living Conditions & Ethnic Minorities in the USSR

5The Second World War, 1941-1953

5.1USSR in the War

5.1.11941-1942

5.1.21943-1945

5.2Stalin & WW2

5.2.1Stalin's Popularity

5.2.2Post-War Consolidation

5.3Post-War Recovery

5.3.1Economic Recovery

5.3.2The USSR by 1953

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