Podkulachnik was a political label used in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 in the 1920s and 1930s to brand people considered traitors to the Soviet Government

Government of the Soviet Union

The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991....

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History

Podkulachnik is considered by many to be a Stalinist neologism from the late 1920s. After the Russian Revolution, the Kulaks - relatively affluent and well-endowed peasants - were persecuted by the Soviet Government

Dekulakization

Dekulakization was the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families in 1929-1932. The richer peasants were labeled kulaks and considered class enemies...

 as class enemies of the poor, and hence enemies of the Revolution itself.

In every village, there were people who in one way or another had gotten in the way of local activists. [Following the revolution, it] was the perfect time to settle accounts with them of jealousy, envy, insult. A new word was needed for these new victims as a class- and it was born. By this time it had no 'social' or 'economic' context whatsoever, but it had a marvelous sound: Podkulachnik - 'a person aiding the kulaks.' In other words, I consider you an accomplice of the enemy. And that finishes you. The most tattered laborer in the countryside could quite easily be labeled a podkulachnik.

In other countries

In Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 under Mátyás Rákosi

Mátyás Rákosi

Mátyás Rákosi was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born as Mátyás Rosenfeld, in present-day Serbia...

, a Podkulachnik was called Kulákbérenc, meaning Kulak Hessian