Seventy-Five Years After Stalin's Great "Operation Kulak" Reign of Terror

The New American ^ | August 5, 2012 | Bruce Walker

[ReformationFan]

Seventy-five years ago, on August 5, 1937, one of the most horrific — and most ignored — episodes in human history began. “Operation Kulak” ("kulak" meaning rich peasants) was the Soviet Union’s effort to repress those farmers who had a little more than other farmers (according, at least, to the definitions of the Communist Party), and who resisted collectivization. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin (pictured) had begun the development of “Operation Kulak” the previous month, when he contacted all the regional Party leaders as well as the NKVD (roughly the Soviet equivalent of the Gestapo and SS in Nazi Germany), asking each person for an estimate of the number of kulaks in their area. The NKVD issued Order 00447, which required that all kulaks and other "criminals" — members of the clergy, former officials of the Tsarist government, former party members, and former members of opposing political parties in Tsarist Russia — be either liquidated or sent to the Gulag.

The already-oppressed Russian Orthodox Church lost 85 percent of its clergy in this action. Russians who attended church services were also arrested en masse. Countless numbers of individuals not in any specific category, but who were deemed “wreckers” of the Soviet economy — engineers, railway workers, and factory managers — were also arrested. Stalin did not rely upon the NKVD or the local Communist Party leaders to find these notional culprits by themselves; instead, he told each of them how many of these anti-Soviet people were in their region and ordered that they be arrested. In October of that year, for example, Stalin directed the arrest of 120,000 of these enemies of the state.

[ReformationFan]

More history that today's students are probably almost never taught.

[353FMG]

Wow, was Stalin not afraid that they would vote him out of office?

[Argus]

The kulaks - really the middle class of the peasantry, to be exact - had already been largely wiped out in the 1929-32 collectivization drive, well before the Great Purge year of 1937. Those who hadn’t been killed outright or sent to the Gulag were further devastated by the Russo/Ukrainian terror famine of the early 30’s. By 1937 the peasantry had already been broken and returned to serfdom in the collective farm system, and the purge was expanded to the urban population, the military and the middle management echelons of the Party, including many of Stalin’s most ardent supporters.

[Mrs. Don-o]

ABSOLUTELY not taught.

"He who controls the present, controls the past; and he who controls the past, controls the future."

George Orwell

[jmacusa]

This was a period in Russian history called “The Great Terror’’. I think this single event has had a profound and lasting and damaging impact on the Russian psyche.

[cardinal4]

1937 also saw the purge of the Military. An action with far reaching consequences; it allowed the Nazi's to march all the way to the Volga. After Barbarossa, some of these purged military were released to lead troops. It also served notice that the Party and not military hierarchy would always control the Rodina's forces..

[heye2monn]

“Kulak” meant rich peasant in Soviet Russia. They were demonized, property confiscated, arrested, tortured, executed, and ultimately driven into extinction.

In America today, kulak means insurance companies. It means entrepreneurs and executives making more than $250,000 per year. They are demonized by the party of the unionized proletariat. The property of the modern day kulak is ruthlessly confiscated (thank you Justice Roberts) and socialism takes over.

The modern day kulak will become extinct and so will our once great country.

[jmacusa]

Today, to this crowd in The White House ‘’kulak’’ is anyone with a job.

[ReformationFan]

Well put. I agree(sadly).

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks ReformationFan. The "liquidation of the Kulaks as a class" was a public campaign of mass murder, not Stalin's first, not his last. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[JOAT]

The modern day kulak will become extinct and so will our once great country.

The modern day American 'kulak' will not be rounded up and purged.

Why?

We are heavily armed and we are going to kill any enforcer who fancies that they will 'round us up.'

The "Let's Roll" attitude isn't just for the Islamofascist, it's for domestic terrorists in Big Sis Blue outfits too.

[MuttTheHoople]

1937 also saw the purge of the Military. An action with far reaching consequences; it allowed the Nazi's to march all the way to the Volga. After Barbarossa, some of these purged military were released to lead troops. It also served notice that the Party and not military hierarchy would always control the Rodina's forces..

This is why the USSR lost 20 million people in World War 2. Stalin was such a paranoid tyrant, even the appearance of competency was a Death Sentence. Top generals and other high-ranking officers (many of whom fought in the Russian Civil War) were liquidated and replaced by toadies who were too terrified to speak out, even if it meant warning Stalin about Operation Barbarrosa. The Generals who DID win the war were either anonymous low-ranking officers in the 1930's, released from a Gulag after the National Socialists invaded, and/or didn't give a crap about his men because he knew he outnumbered the National Socialists and would simply overwhelm them (Zhukov).

And, finally, don't give me this crap about how the Soviet Union was the better country than the US because of all its sacrifices. The USSR lost 20 million people because of incompetency. Josef Stalin blackmailed the US and Britain with constant threats of dropping out of the war, and we sacrificed thousands of sailors and merchant Marines just to get trucks and planes to Murmansk. America only lost 400,000 men fighting on two fronts (including a nasty race war with Japan that rivaled the National Socialists' hatred of the Slavs)

An anecdote from the war: when the Russians and Americans met on the Elbe River, the Soviets were astonished at the Americans- an American Lieutenant had as much authority over his men, as a Russian Colonel....that shows me that a free people will always fight better than slaves.

[Talisker]

Seventy-Five Years After Stalin's Great "Operation Kulak" Reign of Terror

You might say "it can't happen here" because of the 2nd Amendment.

Perhaps.

But a more pertinant question is: will it be tried anyway?

Because, you see, there are some people who don't take "no" for an answer.

[Bigg Red]

Mark

[PeterPrinciple]

Wow, was Stalin not afraid that they would vote him out of office?

---

I have had discussion with libs who hate big business and when I counter that big govt is just as bad, they counter with their ability to vote....................

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Nazi's

With an apostrophe? In all your reading about WWII history, the plural word Nazis has an apostrophe?

[cardinal4]

Nazis..

[fishtank]

A parade under the banners "We will liquidate the kulaks as a class" and "All to the struggle against the wreckers of agriculture."

[heye2monn]

thanks for the compliment. (sadly)