Editing Soviet famine of 1931–1933

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==Background==
==Background==
During the years of the [[New Economic Policy]] (NEP), while the USSR was achieving outstanding economic success,<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=4|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=Between 1922 and 1926, the New Economic Policy, by and large, was a brilliant success. Industrial and agricultural production regained their pre-war level more rapidly than anyone had anticipated. The production of the peasant economy in 1926 was equal to that of the whole of agriculture, including the landowners' estates, before the revolution. Grain production reached approximately the pre-war level, 9 and the production of potatoes apparently exceeded that level by as much as 45 per cent. The number of livestock, which fell drastically during the world war and the Civil War, almost regained the 1914 level by 1926, and in 1928 exceeded it by 7-10 per cent in the case of cattle and pigs, and by a considerably higher percentage in the case of sheep.|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref> it was also facing contradictions between the party policies and the peasants, especially the wealthy rural [[bourgeoisie]], the kulaks.<ref>{{Citation|author=Charles Bettelheim|year=1978|title=Class struggles in the USSR, second period: 1923–1930|quote=During the years 1923–1929 an important role was played by the contradiction which opposed—more or less sharply at different times—the peasantry to the Soviet government. In 1929 this contradiction became a decisive one, owing to the way with which it was dealt. It became interwoven with other contradictions, principally that which made the peasantry a contradictory unity, divided into kulaki (rich peasants), bednyaki (poor peasants), and serednyaki (middle peasants).|city=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|isbn=085345437X|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=932848D665E89389337C75F53E7BC516|page=33}}</ref> In the mid-1920s, the socialized sector of Soviet agriculture, including the [[Sovkhoz|sovkhozy]] (state farms) and [[Kolkhoz|kolkhozy]] (collective farms) accounted to only 2.2% of gross farm production, the rest was produced by 25 million individual peasant households, mostly belonging to peasant communes (''mirs)''.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=6|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref> Although the level of agricultural production in the USSR in the 1920s was more advanced than Asian countries such as [[Republic of India|India]] and [[People's Republic of China|China]] at the time, it was still far behind [[Europe|European]] countries.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=9-11|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref>
During the years of the [[New Economic Policy]], while the USSR was achieving outstanding economic success,<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=4|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=Between 1922 and 1926, the New Economic Policy, by and large, was a brilliant success. Industrial and agricultural production regained their pre-war level more rapidly than anyone had anticipated. The production of the peasant economy in 1926 was equal to that of the whole of agriculture, including the landowners' estates, before the revolution. Grain production reached approximately the pre-war level, 9 and the production of potatoes apparently exceeded that level by as much as 45 per cent. The number of livestock, which fell drastically during the world war and the Civil War, almost regained the 1914 level by 1926, and in 1928 exceeded it by 7-10 per cent in the case of cattle and pigs, and by a considerably higher percentage in the case of sheep.|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref> it was also facing contradictions between the party policies and the peasants, especially the wealthy rural [[bourgeoisie]], the kulaks.<ref>{{Citation|author=Charles Bettelheim|year=1978|title=Class struggles in the USSR, second period: 1923–1930|quote=During the years 1923–1929 an important role was played by the contradiction which opposed—more or less sharply at different times—the peasantry to the Soviet government. In 1929 this contradiction became a decisive one, owing to the way with which it was dealt. It became interwoven with other contradictions, principally that which made the peasantry a contradictory unity, divided into kulaki (rich peasants), bednyaki (poor peasants), and serednyaki (middle peasants).|city=New York|publisher=Monthly Review Press|isbn=085345437X|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=932848D665E89389337C75F53E7BC516|page=33}}</ref> In the mid-1920s, the socialized sector of Soviet agriculture, including the [[Sovkhoz|sovkhozy]] (state farms) and [[Kolkhoz|kolkhozy]] (collective farms) accounted to only 2.2% of gross farm production, the rest was produced by 25 million individual peasant households, mostly belonging to peasant communes (''mirs)''.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=6|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref> Although the level of agricultural production in the USSR in the 1920s was more advanced than Asian countries such as [[Republic of India|India]] and [[People's Republic of China|China]] at the time, it was still far behind [[Europe|European]] countries.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=9-11|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref>
 
The buying of grain products through the tax in kind proved unstable over time. Among the nine harvests of the 1920s, only two harvests proceeded without a major revision of the economic policy.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=28|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=The New Economic Policy presumed that the link between the state and the peasantry through the market would provide a stable basis for the development of both state industry and the peasant economy. In practice, stability on the market was extremely difficult to achieve. Only two of the nine harvests of the 1920s – those of 1922 and 1926 – proceeded without a major crisis in economic policy.|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref> For instance, the 1924 harvest was poor and the state failed to purchase grain at established prices, which prompted kulaks, well-to-do peasants and private traders to buy grain expecting to sell them at higher prices later. The state tried to enact restrictions on private trade, but eventually had to give in to buying grain at twice the previously set prices in 1925. Since 1924, the kulaks and well-to-do peasants were able to coerce the state in purchasing grain at increasingly higher prices.<ref>{{Citation|author=R. W. Davies|title=The socialist offensive: the collectivisation of Soviet agriculture, 1929–1930|page=29-30|year=1980|chapter=The peasant economy and the soviet system|section=|volume=1|series=The industrialisation of Soviet Russia|quote=After the 1924 harvest, the relation between industry and the peasant was reversed. The harvest was poor, attempts by the state to purchase grain at relatively low 'maximum prices (limitnye tseny)' failed, and the private market in grain expanded (kulaks, well-to-do peasants and private traders purchased grain at free market prices in the autumn of 1924 in the expectation of price increases in the following spring and summer). Some restrictions on grain sales were introduced, primarily directed against private traders. Eventually the crisis was resolved only by abandoning the maximum prices; in May 1925 the prices offered by the state for grain were double those of December 1924. While the state had managed to bring down the prices of industrial goods after the 1923 harvest, after the 1924 harvest the peasants, particularly the well-to-do and kulak peasants in the grain-surplus areas, proved able to insist on a higher price for grain than the state was willing to pay.|isbn=978-0-333-26171-2|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=930E008B68B4E1A1D0A0590EA3625305}}</ref>


== Nazi propaganda and anticommunist literature ==
== Nazi propaganda and anticommunist literature ==
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