Etymology:
< Russian kulák fist, tight-fisted person, plural kulaki, < Turki ḳul hand.
In pre-Revolution Russia, a
well-to-do farmer or trader; in the Soviet Union, a peasant-proprietor
working for his own profit. Also transf. (OED)
"But my grandfather's big nose and wary drinker's eyes keep breaking through
the mask and posing an alternative enigma: what if his surplus value
led him not to solidarity with the worker but instead made him into a kulak
who must be killed?"
- Thomas Sleigh, "A short history of communism and the enigma of surplus value", 8 October 2012 The New Yorker
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