Collectivization (from 1928)

Stalin forcibly consolidated peasant farms into collective state-controlled farms (kolkhozy). Wealthier peasants (kulaks) were targeted as class enemies; millions were killed or deported to Siberia. The disruption of agriculture, combined with state requisitioning of grain to feed industrial workers and to fund industrialization through exports, produced massive famines. The Ukrainian famine (Holodomor) of 1932-1933 killed perhaps 3.5 to 7 million people. Many historians consider it a deliberate genocide aimed at Ukrainian nationalism.