The Kula Events

The Kula Events were a series of revolts in Bulgarian villages, particularly in the Kula and Vidin regions, protesting against collectivisation imposed by the totalitarian communist regime.

In the autumn of 1950 and winter of 1951, a campaign began to make collectivisation a mass movement in these areas. Previously, the number of agricultural labour cooperatives had been limited, and they included only a small proportion of the rural population. To accelerate the process, numerous communist officials were sent to the region. They used violence, including beatings and forced confinement in labour camps, to compel peasants to join the cooperatives.

On 19 January 1951, party leader Valko Chervenkov met Joseph Stalin, who expressed disapproval of the “dekulakisation” campaign. This meeting temporarily slowed collectivisation. In March, a commission of party officials and State Security officers was sent to the Kula region. It criticised the local authorities and recommended halting the drive for mass collectivisation. Despite these measures, tensions in the villages continued to rise. Many peasants interpreted the policy change as an opportunity to leave the cooperatives. Withdrawals became widespread in various parts of the country, particularly around Kula and Vidin. These developments, known as the Kula Events, are frequently discussed in historical writing because of their significance and extent.

The totalitarian regime responded swiftly to the village revolts, immediately confiscating property that people had recovered during attacks on the agricultural cooperatives. Pressure then resumed to withdraw applications to leave the farms. Mass arrests of hundreds of peasants led to prisoners crowding into Vidin. So many were detained that local residents said repression on this scale had not been seen since the suppression of the September Uprising in 1923.

State Security blockaded numerous villages. Thousands of civilians were loaded onto trucks and either resettled in other villages, convicted or killed. All property belonging to those convicted, internally exiled or fleeing to Yugoslavia was confiscated, often appropriated by local agricultural cooperatives. The seized property became the basis of the state farms in Kula and Gramada. The regime also took measures against members of its own administration. Boris Kalchev, director of Vidin Prison, was sentenced to three years in prison for repeatedly raping female prisoners and attempting sexual assaults on prisoners' wives. Lazar Udrev, secretary of the district committee in Vidin, was sentenced to four years for warning his father-in-law of impending resettlement, after which he fled to Yugoslavia. Mladen Sirenyakov, first secretary of the same committee, was removed for “failure to perform his duties” and became chairman of the labour cooperatives in Gurkovo. An entire group of officials from Kula also received light sentences.

Political responsibility was placed on Titko Chernokolev, a Politburo member and minister of agriculture. In June, he was removed from all his posts, blamed for every problem associated with collectivisation and arrested.