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.