Who Were the Kulaks and Why Does It Matter

The term 'Kulaks' got brought up today and there is a bit of history to the term, and why it fits into the shape of the 2020 Presidential race.

Around 1900 in Russia (while still a Czarist monarchy).....there was some agreement that agricultural grumbling was reaching a stage where 'something' needed to occur.  So a reform 'period' was started up and the chief goal was to create something that somewhat a copy of the US 'share-cropper' system where actual farm land was dispensed out to a family and they produced x-amount of food for themselves and the rest was destined to be sold.  The idea was to give people some independence.

Between improved agricultural education, cooperatives, and various avenues to commerce....the system was a step up.

Those who took advantage of the program?  In rural areas....they moved ahead.  Those with no motivation or lacking competence for the program?  They got behind.  Over the next twenty years, there grew to be a lot more of the 'slackers' than the 'advancers'.  The 'slackers' eventually invented a term for the 'avancers' in this farm endeavor.....'Kulaks'.

By 1918 (the war has ended)....the Czar is out, and Communism is the controlling force.  Armed groups have now attached themselves to a major target....Kulaks.  They start to show up on individual farms and hunt for stashes of wheat.  Their perception is that those who advanced.....have screwed the those who were 'slackers'.

For a decade, the Soviet government tried to avoid serious confrontations with the Kulak folks, who were still producing significant amounts of agricultural products, and selling via the cooperative markets.

Things changed in 1929, the Soviet government decided to change.  The Soviets invented an artificial and high production cycle.  If you failed to produce and deliver to them.....you were in a serious mess.  The Kulak-folks?  They couldn't possibly meet the goal.

Arrest, deportations and confiscation of farms started up in 1930.  As you can imagine....it only takes two to three years for a massive starvation and famine period to start up in the Soviet Union.  The Kulak-farmers?  They were sitting in Siberia for the most part and unable to produce products.  The nation starved. 

The slackers?  They were basically given confiscated farms which were consolidated into large operations where intense pressure was put on each manager to take whatever actions were necessary to force his slacker-manpower to do the work required.  Those who didn't cooperate?  They were sent off to Siberia as well.

Some people are looking at commentary at billionaires in the US and the idea of taking their 'money' and 'assets'.  This will work its way into the 2020 election.  Billionaires aren't really Kulak-types but the idea here works along the same lines.  You'd have some political thug invent a fake goal and find yourself taking money, but unable to turn that into anything meaningful to the general public.  In some ways, you'd invent a Venezuela-like atmosphere. 

So when you hear Kulaks....remember that they were driven by commerce and capitalism....achieving results, and were destroyed by those opposing commerce and capitalism.