1
: a prosperous or wealthy peasant farmer in 19th century Russia
2
: a farmer characterized by Communists as having excessive wealth
Examples of kulak in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Stepan was given land and became village chief and a kulak, or rich peasant farmer.
—
Washington Post, 9 May 2021
Relatively affluent farmers, known as kulaks, were among the groups targeted.
—NBC News, 6 Nov. 2019
There could be no future until shamans and kulaks, with their un-collectivized reindeer, were liquidated and their souls transformed.
—Bathsheba Demuth, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2019
Grossman could embrace any number of contradictions: loyal Soviet citizen and dissident, kulak and commissar, Stalin worshipper and Stalin hater, in-group and out.
—Aaron Lake Smith, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
Aiming to feed a growing urban work force and increase exports, Stalin’s henchmen forced peasants onto collective farms and eliminated relatively well-off peasants known as kulaks.
—Mark Atwood Lawrence, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2017
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Washington Post, 9 May 2021
Relatively affluent farmers, known as kulaks, were among the groups targeted.
—NBC News, 6 Nov. 2019
There could be no future until shamans and kulaks, with their un-collectivized reindeer, were liquidated and their souls transformed.
—Bathsheba Demuth, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2019
Grossman could embrace any number of contradictions: loyal Soviet citizen and dissident, kulak and commissar, Stalin worshipper and Stalin hater, in-group and out.
—Aaron Lake Smith, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
Aiming to feed a growing urban work force and increase exports, Stalin’s henchmen forced peasants onto collective farms and eliminated relatively well-off peasants known as kulaks.
—Mark Atwood Lawrence, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Kulak.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kulak. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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