Miron Dolot - Execution by Hunger

Kolhosp is the Ukrainian acronym for collective economy or collective farm ( kolkhoz in Russian). According to the statutes, a kolhosp was supposed to be a voluntary cooperative undertaking of a group of farmers who collectivized their land and agricultural implements and were paid in kind and money according to their labor days. But in reality, the kilhosp was forcibly imposed upon the farmers and came under complete control of the Communist Party and the government. It became nothing less than a state agricultural enterprise. The members of the kolhosp had no say in farm policy or in the distribution of income.

GPU is the abbreviation for Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie, or State Political Administration. It is the name of the Soviet secret police which replaced the Cheka in February 1922. See also Chekist (note 2). In 1923, the GPU was renamed OGPU, which meant United State Political Administration. But the acronym GPU continued to be used popularly even after 1923. OGPU remained a separate institution until 1934 when it was absorbed into the NKVD, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs. In 1941, the People’s Commissariat for State Security (in Russian, Narodnyi kommissariat gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti) was created, known under the acronym NKGB. Thus state security was divorced from the NKVD, but not for long. With the beginning of the war with Germany in June 1941, state security was returned to the NKVD until 1943. It existed as a separate agency until 1946. When the people’s commissariats were redesignated as ministries, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs became the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del, or MVD as its abbreviation). The People’s Commissariat for State Security became the Ministry of State Security (Ministerstvo gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti, or MGB). Thus the NKVD and NKGB became the MVD and MGB. During the power struggle that followed Stalin’s death, the MVD absorbed the MGB, but then the security service was once more divorced from the MVD. In March 1954, the state security agency emerged as the KGB, which is an acronym for Komitet gosudarstvennoi bezopasnosti, meaning the Committee for State Security.

Commissariat was the name given to central government departments, corresponding to ministries, during 1917–1946. In 1946, these People’s Commissariats were renamed ministries.

A Party representative was the one who represented the Communist Party. But this designation does not express the true meaning of this title. It should be understood as “Party Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Representative,” one with unlimited and arbitrary power to command, control, and demand.

Commissar was the designation for high-ranking government officials in the USSR. The most important of these were the people’s commissars, who in 1946 were renamed ministers. The title “commissar” was also widely used by high-ranking county officials.

MTS is an abbreviation for Machine and Tractor Stations, a state enterprise which, until 1958, supplied all machine works for collective farms. For their services, MTS received payments in kind. Since January 1933, when the political sections were established, MTS became the main force behind the expropriation of agricultural products from farmers.

Kolhosp court was one of the irregular courts set up in Ukrainian villages during the collectivization. At first they acted as comradely courts, and their jurisdiction never exceeded petty offenses. The kolhosp court was supervised by the village soviet. But during the peak of collectivization, the kolhosp courts acted as regular courts of law with the reservation that cases of political nature, or serious crimes, were referred to higher courts of law or to the security organs. Often, if not all the time, the entire kolhosp court proceeding was conducted by the secretary of the village Party organization.

Baltic Sea-White Sea Canal is a canal connecting the White Sea with the Baltic. It was built in 1931–1933, mainly by Ukrainian farmers who were branded kurkuls and banished to the forced labor camps situated along the building sites of the canal. The majority of those farmers died from exposure, starvation, and hard labor.

Muzhichka is a derogatory Russian word meaning a poor, ignorant peasant woman.

People’s assessors—instead of a jury, Soviet courts of law have so-called people’s assessors, usually three in number. They are elected by a universal vote for two years, but the elections are usually fictitious. The candidates are approved by the appropriate Party organization. Although these assessors have equal rights with the judge in passing a verdict, in reality they are nothing but mute witnesses to the court procedures. The kolhosp court, although not a regular court of law, had at that time two people’s assessors.

A Red Partisan was a participant in the Communist partisan (guerrilla) warfare during the Civil War of 1918–1921. This title became synonymous with being a Soviet patriot, and, as such, it secured all kinds of privileges for its bearer.

Janissary (or Janizary ) was a soldier of an elite Ottoman (Turkish) army unit. The Janissaries were exclusively recruited by forced levy of Christian children. They were known for their implicit obedience. In Ukrainian, this word is synonymous with henchman.