In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin deliberately caused a famine in the Soviet Union to force peasants onto collective farms. Farming families suffered greatly, and millions died of starvation, primarily in Ukraine and southern Russia.

    In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin deliberately caused a great famine in the Soviet Union to force peasants onto collective farms. Farming families suffered greatly, with millions dying of starvation, primarily in Ukraine and southern Russia. In the early 1930s, Stalin forcibly pushed through radical socialist policies in the Soviet Union. Central to this was the collectivization of agriculture. 

   Land and livestock owned by individual farmers were consolidated into state-managed collective farms (kolkhozes), placing agricultural production under state control. This policy was coercive, ignoring the will of the peasants. Many farmers were persecuted as “kulaks” (wealthy peasants), had their property confiscated, and faced exile or execution. In Soviet society at the time, peasants were the group most directly and severely abused by state policy.

    This process triggered the Great Famine. Agricultural products were excessively requisitioned by the state, leaving almost no food in the villages. Freedom of movement and trade was also restricted, preventing people from even escaping starvation. This famine was a man-made disaster caused by policy.

   The family of the late President Mikhail Gorbachev also suffered its effects directly. From his childhood, he personally experienced the violence of state power and the reality where ideals were prioritized over human lives and dignity. His later pursuit of “socialism with a human face” and reform policies, along with his critical stance toward the authoritarian regime, was deeply influenced by these childhood experiences.