Blacklisting (Soviet policy)

Blacklisting, or the system of the chorna doshka (Ukrainian: чорна дошка, lit. 'black board') synonymous with a "board of infamy", was one of the elements of agitation-propaganda in the Soviet Union, and especially Ukraine and the Kuban region in the 1930s, and is considered as one of the instruments of the Holodomor. Blacklisting was also used in Soviet Kazakhstan. Eventually it transformed into a means of repression of peasants.

A blacklisted collective farm, village, or raion (district) had its monetary loans and grain advances called in, stores closed, grain supplies, livestock, and food confiscated as a "penalty", and was cut off from trade. Its Communist Party and collective farm committees were purged and subject to arrest, and their territory was forcibly cordoned off by the OGPU secret police. Although nominally targeting collective farms failing to meet grain quotas and independent farmers with outstanding tax-in-kind, in practice the punishment was applied to all residents of affected villages and raions, including teachers, tradespeople, and children.

Origin of the term

The term "black board" was in use in schools of the Russian Empire: the names of exceptionally bad students were listed on a Black Board, and the names of exceptionally good students were listed on the Red Board.

History

The blacklist system was formalized in 1932 by the November 20 decree "The Struggle against Kurkul Influence in Collective Farms", and supplemented in January 1933 by Stalin's "Preventing the Mass Exodus of Peasants who are Starving," banning travel by peasants from affected regions in Ukraine and the Kuban. The blacklist policy was part of the collectivization process and the fight with kulaks (kurkuls). The "black boards" were installed at entrances to a settlement and identified the residents that were accused of counter-revolutionary activity and who were labelled enemies of the people, allegedly trying to undermine the process of collectivization.