1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793452503321

Autore

Kõll Anu Mai

Titolo

The village and the class war : anti-kulak campaign in Estonia / / Anu Mai Kõll

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Budapest ; ; New York : , : Central European University Press, , 2013

ISBN

615-5225-51-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (298 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Historical studies in Eastern Europe and Eurasia ; ; volume 2

Disciplina

338.1/8479809044

Soggetti

Collectivization of agriculture - Estonia - History

Collectivization of agriculture - Soviet Union - History

State-sponsored terrorism - Estonia - History

Communism - Estonia - History - 20th century

Peasants - Estonia - History - 20th century

Collective farms - Estonia - History

Land tenure - Estonia - History

Estonia Rural conditions 20th century

Estonia History 1940-1991

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Published in 2013 by Central European University Press.

Printed in Hungary by Prime Rate Kft., Budapest.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The land question in Estonia -- Soviet repression as a special case of state violence -- The anti-kulak campaign -- Inventing kulaks -- Participation at the local level -- Epilogue of March 1949 -- The grammar of terror.

Sommario/riassunto

Before collectivization of agriculture in Estonia, “kulaks” (better-off farmers) were persecuted and many of them were finally deported in March 1949. This book is situated on the local level; the aim is to understand what these processes meant from the perspective of the Estonian rural population, a kind of study that has been missing so far. Analyzes the mechanisms of repression, applying new aspects. Repression was mainly conducted through a bureaucratic process where individual denunciations were not even necessary. The main tool of persecution was a screening of the rural population with the help of



records, censuses and local knowledge, in order to identify, or invent, “kulak families”. Moreover, in the Estonian sources, the World War II history of each individual was a crucial part of screenings. The prisoners of war of the Red Army, held in camps in Estonia, played an unexpected part in this campaign. Another result is a so far neglected wave of peaceful resistance as the kulak identifications were challenged in 1947-48. This has not been addressed in the existing literature. The results mainly answer the question “how” this process worked, whereas the question ”why” finds hypothetical responses in the life trajectories of actors.