Zinovievsk Okrug. There have been acts of criminal hooliganism and provocative mischief here by the brigades that have been collecting seed in Novo-Ukrainka Raion of wholesale collectivization.

The Malaia Pomoshnaia headquarters called in a 28-year-old middle peasant and instructed him to immediately sign a statement pledging to fulfill the plan for the sowing campaign. When the peasant refused to sign, he was forced to dance to the sounds of a string orchestra until he fainted, after which he was placed in a cold room and kept there for an hour and a half.

The same brigade has raped two kulak women and has beaten up a 65-year-old man, whom they forced to dance and sing, poured water on him, put a dirty papirosa [a crudely rolled cigarette] between his teeth, and so forth.

At the Perchunovo headquarters, all the work is set up so as to allow for clandestine beatings of peasants. When the public learned on 14 February of the beating of a poor peasant, the poor peasants declared outright that “they would get even with these representatives of the government.”

In the village of Novo-Alekseevka, the brigade ordered a 65-year-old man who had refused to turn in seed to undress and remove his boots, then forced him to march around the room for about 30 minutes and began to fling him from one side to another until the old man collapsed from exhaustion. Right after that a crate was placed on top of the old man and the whole brigade sat on it, then he was forced to dance and ordered to drink 40 small glasses of wine. Some turpentine was added to the third glass. Then a belt was thrown around his neck, and one of the brigade members began to hang him. The old man lost consciousness, and the next day the brigade ordered him to keep quiet, or else [it threatened] next time would be worse.

In the village of Novo-Aleksandrovka, secretary Yerokhin from the Komsomol cell forced a middle peasant to pull the end of a noose that had been thrown around his neck. The peasant was gasping for breath, the secretary mocked him, saying “Here's some water, drink it.”

Poltava Okrug. In Shishaki Raion 500 farms have been dekulakized, whereas the raion has 340 experts' farms

Experts' farms was another term for kulak farms in Ukraine.

altogether and it is not a raion of wholesale collectivization.

In Belotserkovka Raion, the property of two middle peasants was confiscated on the basis of dekulakization for a refusal to join an association for joint land cultivation.

In Sakhnov[shchina] Raion, during dekulakization in the village of Kolomiitsevo, all warm clothing was removed from kulaks. In one case several women were forcibly undressed. The raion executive committee's plenipotentiary in the village of Nadezhdino, Shapoval, dekulakized a middle peasant, who left the very next day for three days of territorial military training.

Middle peasants have been arrested and exiled in a number of villages in Rublyovka Raion.

Uman Okrug. Middle peasants have been dekulakized in a number of villages. Certain officials of village soviets and village activists “didn't have clear-cut instructions as to whether middle peasants could be dekulakized.” The worst situation is in Buki and Oratovo raions.

In the village of Yankovka in Buki Raion, 45 farms have been dekulakized, including 35 belonging to middle peasants. Dekulakization was carried out by Lysenko, who is in charge of agitprop [agitation and propaganda] for the raion committee of the KP(b)U [Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine], and Levazhdovsky, plenipotentiary and member of the raion executive committee. During dekulakization activists beat up a woman with a rifle butt. A portion of her belongings were appropriated. Some middle peasants were evicted and ended up on the street.

In the village of Sologubovka in Oratovo Raion, a decree was adopted to evict 25 farms, including some belonging to middle peasants. A middle peasant named Nazarchuk, who landed on the list of those being evicted, hanged himself. The dekulakization work in the village was carried out with the approval of the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary.

Middle peasants were listed for dekulakization in Talnoe, Zvenigorod, and other raions.

Kherson Okrug. Extremely flagrant distortions are being recorded in Bereznegovatskoe, Kachkarovka, Golaia Pristan, and Tsiurupinsk raions. Distortions, malfeasance, and abuses in Bereznegovatskoe Raion merit especially serious attention.

In the settlement of Bereznegovatskoe, during dekulakization the property was not inventoried. A portion of the confiscated property was stolen. A brigade led by Butenko, secretary of the local KP(b)U cell, undressed the daughter of one kulak and began to strangle the father. The property of two middle peasants was also taken without an inventory. One of them was stripped, and his 12-year-old daughter was left wearing nothing but a shirt. Brigade members led by the chairman of the Committee of the Village Poor

KNS, or Komitet nezamozhnykh selian, or the Committee of Poor Peasants, active in Ukraine from 1920 to 1933. See TSD , vol. 2, p. 834, n105, for further information.

(a member of the KP[b]U), removed the pantaloons from the 17-year-old daughter of a kulak. One kulak was chucked out onto the street barefoot, without his hat, in his underwear. One middle-peasant woman and her child were stripped and thrown out onto the street. When the mother asked to have her sacking back, a brigade member and a party member refused.

The secretary of the Bereznegovatoe Raion committee of the KP(b)U and the chairman of the raion executive committee were promptly informed of what was happening in the raion, but, after repeated warnings, the raion party committee confined itself to delivering only a reprimand to certain officials. Several participants in the outrages that were perpetrated during dekulakization went into hiding from Bereznegovatoe Raion in other okrugs.

Kharkov Okrug. In the village of Sukhiny in Bogodukhov Raion, Komsomol members beat up a kulak for refusing to give up his gold and money. The raion executive committee's plenipotentiary took an active part in the beating. After the beating the Komsomol members, along with the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary, tied a rope around the kulak's neck, bound him to a horse's shafts, and dragged him this way through the whole village to the raion center. The kulak's screams brought out a large crowd of peasants, who voiced great outrage over this abuse.

Melitopol Okrug. The Novo-Savelievka village soviet listed a middle peasant for dekulakization and ordered him “to get out of his house in five minutes.”

Similar incidents have been recorded in Kremenchug, Tulchin, Kupiansk, Lubensk, Artyomovsk, Zaporozhie, Kharkov, Mogilev-Podolsk, and a number of other okrugs. (Measures have been taken in regard to all of the incidents. The guilty persons are being held accountable.)

Moldavian ASSR. In the village of Slobodzeia, the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary expropriated up to 150 farms, most of them belonging to middle peasants. In the village of Shershintsy, a middle peasant who was a landless laborer before the revolution and was a member of the Committee of Poor Peasants until recently was listed for dekulakization.

Proskurov Okrug. In the village of Kopchevka in Volochisk Raion, two middle peasants were added to the dekulakization lists. In the village of Knishkovtsy, 10 farms belonging to middle peasants were included among the 13 farms scheduled for dekulakization. Similar incidents were recorded everywhere.

The Proskurov Okrug committee of the KP(b)U made copies of the theses of the CC of the KP(b)U on the liquidation of the kulak as a class and sent them out to raion party committees for immediate implementation. The secretary of the okrug committee telegraphed an order from Kharkov that the liquidation of the kulak as a class commence within 24 hours.

Upon receiving the directive, the raion party committees began to implement it. About 40 farms were dekulakized in Chorny Ostrov Raion. Similar results took place in Medzhibozh and Volkovintsy raions. A total of 60 farms were dekulakized in Derazhnia Raion. All dekulakized persons were evicted from their houses.

On the basis of a directive from the okrug party committee, the property of all persons subject to dekulakization was inventoried. In some places middle and poor peasants were listed for dekulakization on the justification that they were “loudmouths.” The rush to carry out the operations without any mass work led to a total slaughter of livestock and other property not only by kulaks but by other [peasant] strata as well. In raions where dekulakization has been carried out, a mass exodus of kulaks has begun. Many of the kulaks who fled had been designated for arrest.

Raion party committees continued this spontaneous dekulakization for eight days.

Yelets Okrug. In the village of Bratovshchina in Dolgorukovo Raion, a deacon was dekulakized in the presence of the chairman of the village soviet; the deacon's last pair of boots was taken away, and a pair of warm felt boots was removed from his wife's feet.

Borisoglebsk Okrug. In the village of Kalmyk, kulak property was expropriated by a militiaman with the help of two disfranchised hooligans who were serving a term of forced labor at the village soviet. The belongings of kulaks and middle peasants were taken away at home and on the street, bribes were collected for leaving property, and so forth.

In the village of Kurlak in Shchuchinsk Raion, the chairman of the village soviet, the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary, and three members of the village soviet came to the apartment of the village correspondent of the newspaper Novaia derevnia [New Countryside] and announced, “[your] property is to be inventoried and confiscated as kulak property.” In the correspondent's absence, his wife and half-undressed, small children were kicked out onto the street, their belongings inventoried, gathered and locked in a trunk, and the keys taken.

Similar incidents occurred in a number of other villages in Borisoglebsk, Yelets, Rossosh, Lgov, and Kozlov okrugs.

Yelets Okrug. In the village of Pady in Lipetsk Raion, during dekulakization a kulak's mentally ill daughter had her fur coat and skirt removed, and, wearing just a shirt, she was placed in the stove.

Lgov Okrug. In the village of Tetkino in Glushkovo Raion, during dekulakization, a kulak's sick wife had her felt boots removed and the linen she had been lying on was removed from the bed.

Rossosh Okrug. In the village of Novoselovka, shockwork brigades comprised of poor-peasant activists and Komsomol members were set up. The “brigade members” entered kulaks' huts and ordered, “Hands up,” conducted searches, indiscriminately took away all property, and kicked out the kulaks themselves with their families onto the street. The evictees are walking around the village, evoking the sympathy of the public.

Yelets Okrug. In the village of Butyrki, a group of 30 young people led by the secretary of the Komsomol cell came to the house of a middle peasant, took all of his belongings, beat up the peasant's wife, locked her in a room, and pocketed small items.

In the village of Lenino in Lipetsk Raion, brigade members took 150 rubles from a middle peasant's wife.

In the village of Pady in Lipetsk Raion, during the dekulakization of a middle peasant, the person carrying out the dekulakization removed a new pair of felt boots from the peasant's feet and put them on, and left his own old pair.

Ostrogozhsk Okrug. In the village [khutor] of Sergeevka, a member of the village soviet organized a group of Komsomol members and activists, armed them with hunting shotguns, and began to carry out dekulakization. The group arrested a poor peasant. Property was confiscated from another poor peasant. Various property was taken from many citizens and not turned in anywhere. The group calls itself “the organization of poor peasants.”

Ostrogozhsk Okrug. In the village of Sadki in Budyonny Raion, the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary arrested 11 people, including 6 men and 6 women [sic] (all poor peasant women). The arrested men included only 1 kulak; the others were economically weak middle peasants.

In the village of Martynovka, a pleni[potentiary] brigade arrested the wife of a Red Army soldier.

In the village of Selivanovo in Valuiki Raion, several people were arrested; they turned out to be poor peasants.

At the Alekseevka Raion administrative department [raiadminotdel], 100 poor and middle peasants were arrested for a disturbance opposing collectivization.

Borisoglebsk Okrug. In the village of Zherdevka in Zherdevka Raion, a landless laborer who is a member of the village soviet was arrested on the orders of the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary. The action was taken because the laborer had replied to an inquiry from peasants about whether they could be members of a collective farm by saying, “Whoever doesn't want to belong to a collective farm can submit a request to the board of the collective farm.”

Similar incidents have occurred in the village of Pichaevo in Zherdevka Raion, where two middle peasants were arrested on the orders of the secretary of the VKP(b) cell. Three middle peasants were arrested in the village of Rybkino in Zherdevka Raion.

Oryol Okrug. In the village of Vetchinkino in Verkhovie Raion, the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary struck a poor peasant woman (an illiterate one) in the face for saying, “What do we need a collective farm for, we already have a poor life.” There was an uproar at the meeting, and it broke up. The okrug executive committee's plenipotentiary arrested the peasant woman.

In the village of Mavrino in Droskovo Raion, a poor peasant, speaking in response to a report delivered by the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary, voiced his opinion that he was unwilling to join the collective farm. The peasant was arrested on the spot by the raion executive committee's plenipotentiary and sent to the raion administrative department.

Rossosh Okrug. In the village of Solonetskoe in Vorontsovka Raion, when the chairman of a meeting saw that few people were voting for the establishment of a collective farm, he decided to cast a second vote, while proposing a resolution as follows: “We, citizens of cooperative no. 2 in the village of Solonetskoe, oppose collectivization and in general are against the measures being implemented by Soviet power and the VKP(b).” This resolution was actually adopted by a majority of the vote.

Lgov Okrug. In the village of Shchekino in Rylsk Raion, the chairman of the village soviet, while speaking at a general meeting before a vote, said, “Whoever is against collectivization is against Soviet power—raise your hands.” After this statement, despite the fact that the groundwork for establishing a collective farm had been fully prepared, the peasants cried, “You're a counterrevolutionary yourself if you put it that way. That's a threat.”—and they broke up the meeting.

Lgov Okrug. The Lgov Raion committee of the VKP(b) sent the Lgov Okrug committee of the VKP(b) a list of the kulak households to be exiled. The lists include poor and middle peasants. As many as 100 such “kulaks” in the raion have been targeted for exile.

Rossosh Okrug. In the village of Vorontsovka in Vorontsovka Raion, a farm belonging to Petliakov, who served as a volunteer in the Red Army from 1918 to 1923 and worked at a consumers' cooperative for six years, was dekulakized. His father was police commissar in 1918 and afterward, until 1924, served as a people's judge. His brother was murdered by bandits.

The Kantemirovka village soviet in Kantemirovka Raion dekulakized the family of Red Army soldier Stepanenko. His farm is that of a middle peasant.

In the village of Krasnoselie in Petropavlovka Raion, the village soviet resolved to exile a former Red Army soldier who has a testimonial from the Revolutionary Military Council of the Separate Caucasus RKKA [Workers' and Peasants' Red Army].

In the village of [Novaia] Kalitva in Novaia Kalitva Raion, the village listed a middle peasant for exile.

Yelets Okrug. In the village of Berikopets in Bolshaia Poliana Raion, the father of a former Red Army soldier was dekulakized. His second son works in the city and has an Order of the Red Banner medal.

The Troitskoe village soviet in Borinsky [Zavod] Raion dekulakized a middle peasant because his father had a tearoom 20 years ago.

In the village of Kazki in Yelets Raion, a former Red Army soldier was dekulakized. He had taken away from him 20 poods [330 kilograms] of spring straw, a horse's collar, a double-blade plow, and a winnowing machine.

A middle-peasant farm belonging to a Red Army soldier's family was also dekulakized in the same location. The Kazeevo village soviet in Yelets Raion dekulakized the family of a Red Army commander. When his sister came to the chairman of the village soviet to complain, he responded, “I don't know who your brother is serving—the Reds or the Whites.”

Lgov Okrug. In the village of Kevino in Rylsk Raion, a poor peasant was added to the list of persons to be dekulakized.

In the village of Suchkino in Rylsk Raion, at the conclusion of dekulakization work it was discovered that the list of those dekulakized included three poor peasants and one landless laborer who was the son of a former trader.

Donetsk Okrug. The Makeevka, Novo-Pavlovka, Marievka, Gemodaevka [Gemodaevsky], and Kashary village soviets in Kashary Raion carried out, in certain communities, total dekulakization and exile of kulaks from villages [stanitsy] and hamlets [khutory]. Everything was taken away from kulaks, even clothing. Some kulaks left their children with the village soviets, since an order was issued that kulaks' relatives could not take them into their apartments.

Shakty-Donetsk Okrug. The Morozovsky Raion committee of the VKP(b) and the raion executive committee issued a directive to the localities that boiled down to imposing on all kulaks special purpose assessments and down payments for tractors with a view to selling and liquidating all property by the beginning of February. As a result, a total sell-off of all the property from kulak farms got under way throughout the raion. Everything was taken away from kulaks, priests, and former traders, up to and including crosses and chasubles. In the settlement of Morozovsky, one priest and the members of his family were forced to change into tattered clothing.

The most varied, provocative rumors circulated throughout the raion.

Donetsk Okrug. In the village of Kamyshinskoe, the chairman of the village soviet arrested four middle peasants. The Leonov-Kalitvenskaia Raion administrative department arrested middle peasants and even middle-peasant women.

In the village of Kraskovo, two middle peasants were arrested for refusing to join a collective farm.

At the Anno-Rebrikovo village soviet, the chairman of a meeting on collectivization and the chairman of the village soviet arrested eight people, including three female landless laborers, merely for saying that the chairman of the meeting could not clearly explain issues of collectivization.

Kuban Okrug. In the village of Tikhoretskaia, the VKP(b) cell and the village soviet sought to increase the inflow of seed into the seed fund by summoning grain growers to the village soviet at night to “work on them,” demanding that they sign a pledge to preserve their sowing grain. If the reply was in the negative, a report was drawn up, specifying that “such-and-such a grain grower categorically refused to sign a pledge, that he is conducting systematic agitation against the sowing campaign, supports the tsar, does not recognize Soviet power, and is prepared to oppose Soviet power by force of arms.” Those summoned included many middle and poor peasants.

Armavir Okrug. In the village of Novo-Bekeshinskaia, when a Komsomol member learned of an [dekulakization] operation that was being prepared, he warned two kulaks whose property was to be confiscated. The kulaks managed to go into hiding before they were arrested.

Maikop Okrug. In the village of Sukhaia Balka, a candidate member of the party and five Komsomol members categorically refused to take part in an operation to remove kulaks.

Tersky Okrug. In Kuma Raion, those subject to dekulakization included a large number of civil war veterans who have revolutionary services to their credit.

In the village of Arkhipovskoe, a former commander of a partisan detachment (Red), later a battalion commander in the Red Army and a political activist, had all his property taken away and was exiled with his family.

In the village of Praskoveia, all the property belonging to a civil war veteran, who had served in the Red Army for four years, was confiscated.

The liquidation of kulak farms in the raion was accompanied by numerous instances of abuse of the people being dekulakized and by the confiscation of all their property, up to and including dirty laundry, and so forth. This has generated a negative mood among the masses of poor and middle peasants in many villages of the raion. […]