dekulakize

Syllables: de·ku·lak·ize/dɪˈkuːlækaɪz/US/dɪˈkulæˌkaɪz/

dekulakize verb: usually with reference to the Soviet Union and communist Eastern Europe: to dispossess a kulak (that is, a prosperous peasant) of his or her property and/or rights.

Image: Иванова и Мирзаянц, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

dekulakize (third-person singular simple present dekulakizes, present participle dekulakizing, simple past and past participle dekulakized)

(historical, transitive) Usually with reference to the Soviet Union and communist Eastern Europe: to dispossess a kulak (that is, a prosperous peasant) of his or her property and/or rights.
- [W]hen, in their eagerness to achieve a higher percentage of collectivisation, they began to employ force against the middle peasants, to deprive them of the right to vote, by "dekulakising" and expropriating them, the united front with the middle peasants began to be undermined and the kulak...1930, J[oseph] Stalin, “Collective Farms”, in International Press Correspondence, volume 10, Berlin: Richard Neumann, →OCLC, page 341, column 2
- [page 122] Ivan ‘dekulakises’ a peasant’s pig, and delivers it to the police. […] [page 124] [A]ll this [rotting] meat had originated with pigs ‘dekulakised’ from the peasants, and slaughtered by the Activists. About a month after this fragrant event, half of the local Activists were themselves...1938, Ivan Solonevich, “The Soviet ‘Active’”, in Warren Harrow, transl., Russia in Chains: A Record of Unspeakable Suffering, London: Williams and Norgate Ltd […], →OCLC, pages 122 and 124

dekulakize meaning in Indonesian

dekulakize in Indonesian

to dispossess a kulak (wealthy peasant): mendekulakisasi

Examples of dekulakize in a sentence

Or admit the kulak who dekulakizes himself.1969, E[dward] H[allett] Carr, R[obert] W[illiam] Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy: 1926–1929 (A History of Soviet Russia; 4)...
More than one million peasant families—five million people, at least—were dekulakized during collectivization.1996, Lynne Viola, “‘We Have No Kulaks Here’: Peasant Luddism, Evasion, and Self-help”, in Peasant Rebels Under Stalin: Collectivization...

Forms of dekulakize

third-person singular present	dekulakizes
present participle	dekulakizing
past participle	dekulakized
past	dekulakized
alternative form	dekulakise
alternative form	de-kulakize

Origin of dekulakize

From de- + kulak + -ize, a calque of Russian раскула́чить (raskuláčitʹ), from рас- (ras-) (a variant of раз- (raz-, “prefix meaning ‘removing, undoing’”)) + кула́к (kulák, “wealthy peasant”, literally “fist”) + -и (-i) + -ть (-tʹ, “suffix indicating infinitives of verbs”).

Words formed from dekulakize

dekulakization

Questions about dekulakize

What does dekulakize mean?: Dekulakize means usually with reference to the Soviet Union and communist Eastern Europe: to dispossess a kulak (that is, a prosperous peasant) of his or her property and/or rights.
What is dekulakize in Indonesian?: Dekulakize in Indonesian is mendekulakisasi. See Dekulakize meaning in Indonesian.
How do you use dekulakize in a sentence?: Or admit the kulak who dekulakizes himself.
What part of speech is dekulakize?: Dekulakize is a verb.
How do you pronounce dekulakize?: Dekulakize is pronounced /dɪˈkuːlækaɪz/ (UK).
What is the past tense of dekulakize?: The past tense of dekulakize is dekulakized.

Words near dekulakize in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dekulakize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dekulakize.wav.

Cite this entry: “dekulakize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dekulakize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.