Stalin's policies led to mass repression and famine from "summary" of A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes
Stalin's policies in the Soviet Union during the 1930s resulted in mass repression and famine on an unprecedented scale. The forced collectivization of agriculture, carried out as part of the First Five-Year Plan, led to the destruction of the traditional peasant way of life. Peasants were forced off their land and herded into collective farms, where they were subjected to strict quotas and controls. Those who resisted were labeled "kulaks" and punished with arrest, deportation, or even execution. The violent campaign to collectivize agriculture caused widespread suffering and death. Peasants who had lived off the land for generations were ill-equipped to work on collective farms, leading to a sharp decline in agricultural productivity. Famine struck the countryside, as food shortages became widespread. The Soviet government exacerbated the crisis by exporting grain to fund industrialization, leaving peasants without enough to eat. Stalin's policies extended beyond the countryside to the cities, where a campaign of mass repression targeted perceived enemies of the state. The purges of the late 1930s saw millions of people a...
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