Kulaks were “wealthy” only relative to the very poorest other farmers. For example, owning a single cow could get you labeled a Kulak and shipped off to a camp.
One reason the terror famine affected the south so strongly was that was where restive non-Russian ethnic minorities (Ukrainians. Tartars, Volga Germans, Kazakhs, etc.) lived, and the terror famine was used as a policy tool to crush the will to resist communism among those minorities.
Conquest’s estimates of the death toll for the Holodomor and related repression was 5 million in the Ukraine, and 14.5 million for the entire collectivization/dekulakization period (The Harvest of Sorrow, page 306).
About Lawrence Person
Lawrence Person is a political commentator and science fiction writer living in Austin, Texas.
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Anne Applebaum’s Red Famine is also a good overview on the subject. Mom’s side of the family escaped the Ukraine in the 30’s, reading that book made me realize how desperate they must have been, and how close a call they had. I know of no family left there.
Haven’t read The Harvest of Sorrow, but I’ll fix that anon. I did read The Great Terror: A Reassessment, which was excellent.
Anne Applebaum’s Red Famine is also a good overview on the subject. Mom’s side of the family escaped the Ukraine in the 30’s, reading that book made me realize how desperate they must have been, and how close a call they had. I know of no family left there.
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