"Kulak: First Category"

by Michael Boss

Casein on Rag Board

14" X 18"

From the Collection of Carol Hobbs, Hill City, Kansas

Because of shortfalls in state procurements, i.e. grain, and along with a rising tide of working class protests, Stalin and his supporters abandoned the market system and turned to collectivization. The farmers did not accept the idea and resisted the government. Consequently, the Volga-Germans were deported, jailed, or in the First Category: Executed.

Most were taken to a nearby town for a trial and subsequently disappeared. Some accounts did relate that Kulaks, land-owning peasants who resisted, were taken outside of their village and executed.