Abstract: For an agricultural country like Bulgaria, the collectivisation of agriculture was the most significant social change brought about by the socialist regime. A change that undoubtedly modernized the predominantly small-scale Bulgarian agriculture, changed centuries-old social systems, and altered the demographic and occupational structure of the country. The communists’ modernization paradigm clashed with the peasants’ traditional attachment to the land, which, especially in Bulgaria, has been repeatedly noted. Accordingly, the liquidation of both large and small went through stages of outright violence and led to social trauma, changing the life trajectories of millions of Bulgarians. The present text attempts to clarify the process of liquidation of large-scale landholding in Dobrudja,t he so-called chifliks. The paper will attempt to trace these processes through the personal fate of the chiflikci family Holevich, which shows the complex nuances of the era: between state pressure, resistance, adaptation and reconciliation.

Keywords: chifliks, kulaks, Dobrudja, Bulgarian history, collectivization, agrarian history, dekulakization

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