kulak

noun

ku·​lak ˈkü-ˌlak How to pronounce kulak (audio)
-ˌläk;
kü-ˈlak,
-ˈläk
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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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 According to the Party’s official account, Gemav’e had refused to pay taxes on his herd, making him a kulak. Bathsheba Demuth, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 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 Both were homicidal paranoiacs, determined to deport, enslave and exterminate entire categories of human beings: in Stalin’s case, the kulaks during the collectivization campaign; in Hitler’s, not just Jews but Slavs, Romani and numerous others. Strobe Talbott, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2017 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 Her father, Apollon, an artist, was the son of a church official, and her mother, Anna, was the daughter of a kulak, or well-to-do peasant. William Grimes, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2016

Word History

Etymology

Russian, literally, fist

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of kulak was in 1877

Dictionary Entries Near kulak

Cite this Entry

“Kulak.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kulak. Accessed 14 Dec. 2024.

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