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. The fact of nominating of such settlements was published in the
oblast newspapers listing the names of
collective farms that resisted collectivization and the Soviet regime. However some of the archives reflect that "black boards" were used precisely as a repressive element in the fight not only against the collectivization resistance, but also against the nationality factor of the local population. For example, in 1932 the
Vinnytsia Oblast Communist Party Committee suggested the local village of Mazurivka to be nominated to "black boards", because there was born one of
Symon Petliura's generals Khmara, while the village of Karpivtsi (Chudniv Raion) in Volyn was known as one of the Petliura's. The village of Turbiv (Lypovets Raion), for example, deserved such a penalty for its "high infestation of the Petlyura element and participation in the Plyskiv affair in spring". Each settlement or an administrative unit with black boards was encircled by armed squads and was subjected to complete food requisitioning. In the end 37 out of 392 districts along with at least 400 collective farms where put on the "black board" in Ukraine, more than half of the blacklisted farms being in
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast alone. Every single raion in Dnipropetrovsk had at least one blacklisted village, and in Vinnytsia oblast five entire raions were blacklisted. while in other areas such as
Vinnytsia blacklisting had no particular effect on mortality. The only blacklisted district in the
Stalino oblast had a mortality rate that was roughly 2 to 3 times higher than most of the oblast with only 2 districts in the oblast having a comparable death rate. ==See also==