Why this word is great
KULAK — [Noun] A prosperous peasant farmer in late Imperial Russia and the early Soviet Union, characterized by ownership of land, livestock, and the employment of hired labor. From Russian кула́к (kulák), meaning "fist; tight-fisted person," used metaphorically for a wealthy peasant; the Russian term is ultimately of Turkic origin, compare Turkish kol ("arm"). Unlike a "serf," bound to the land and lord, or a "proletarian," a propertyless industrial laborer, the kulak was defined by a brittle, hard-won autonomy. He is the scent of fresh-turned earth on a larger strip than his neighbor’s, the worn warmth of a banknote knotted in a cloth beneath the hearth, the uneasy glance from a village window at the first truck of officials arriving down the muddy road—the tragic proof that in some eras, to possess a little is to risk everything.