English

Noun

kurkul ‎(plural kurkuls or kurkuli)

1. (historical) A rich or supposedly rich peasant, targeted during Soviet collectivization, especially in the context of Ukraine or Ukrainians; kulak.
   • 1985, Miron Dolot, Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust, New York: W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-30416-7:

     “Kurkuls are our enemy,” he shouted, “and we must exterminate them as a social class. There should be no place for the sharks among the harmless fish,” he added. Then he described the kurkuls as an evil tool of capitalists who were preparing an attack on the Soviet Union.

   • 2000, Pasha Angelina, “The Most Important Thing,” in Sheila Fritzpatrick and Yuri Slezkine eds., In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01948-7, p

     [p 308] The kulaks (in Ukraine we called them “kurkuls”) had been beaten and kicked out.

     [p 310] We were not afraid, however. We went after the “kurkuls,” who were strong and ruthless in their hatred of everything new.

   • 2011, Mila Komarnisky, Wretched Land, Honolulu: Savant Books, ISBN 0-982-99877-5, p 120:

     “I know. But you still have grain hidden from when you were a kurkul,” Fedir insisted.

   • 2013, George Tkachyk, Dream to Reality, Trafford, ISBN 1-466-97395-1, p 33:

     His collectivization of the farms was intended to eliminate the “Kurkuli” as a class (Kurkul means rich peasant). The Kurkuli or Kulaks were the target when Stalin implement The Great Famine of Ukraine, or the “Holodomor” (Death by Starvation), which would kill in excess of 10 million Ukrainians.