One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Day 2 Group Presentation

Full credit

Tiurin’s discharge from the Soviet Army because his father was a kulak was a severe crime in the Soviet Union. Just as Tiurin’s discharge was unfair because it was unpreventable, so was the massacre of the kulaks. The kulaks were wealthy landowners who symbolized capitalism. They were also defined as hiring labor, owning a kind of processing equipment, renting out agricul-tural equipment, or involving in trade, money-lending, or commercial brokerage. In his attempt to strengthen the Soviet Union’s agriculture and rid these class enemies, Stalin had the farms collectivized into kolkhozes, but the kulaks rebelled against his orders. Many kulaks smashed implements and killed their livestock, while others attacked members and government officials. As a result, Stalin initiated dekulakization, or the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, on Decem-ber 27, 1929. All kulaks were divided into three categories: those who were shot or imprisoned as decided by the local secret political police, those who were sent to Siberia, North, the Urals, or Kazakhstan after confiscation of their property, and those who were to be evicted from their houses and used in labor colonies within their own districts. As many as 1.8 million peasants were deported in 1930 to 1931. However, with dekulakization (in addition to other policies), there was mass starvation in many parts of the Soviet Union and the death of at least 14.5 mil-lion peasants in 1930 to 1937. Another wave of persecution began in 1937.

Tiurin’s illogical discharge is similar to the other members of the Gulag. For instance, Shukhov was sentenced because he was forced to admit he was a spy even though he fought for the So-viets in World War II. Gopchik was sentenced because he was giving milk to Bendera’s men.