Kulak
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A prosperous peasant in the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, who owned land and could hire workers. historical
"The “internal organs,” as the CHEKA and the GPU and the KGB used to style themselves, were asked to police the mind for heresy as much as to torture kulaks to relinquish the food they withheld from the cities."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"The “internal organs,” as the CHEKA and the GPU and the KGB used to style themselves, were asked to police the mind for heresy as much as to torture kulaks to relinquish the food they withheld from the cities."
Etymology
1877. From Russian кула́к (kulák, “wealthy peasant; fist; tight-fisted person”), plural кулаки́ (kulakí). Compare also Russian раскула́чивание (raskuláčivanije, “dekulakization”), подкула́чник (podkuláčnik, “subkulak”).
Related phrases
More for "kulak"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.