The thirteen Five Year Plans were methods centered on electricity, goods, and agriculture. Namely in Ukraine, Stalin pursued the practice of collectivization, or the decimation of private ownership of lands and property. Collective farms or kolkhazes, dubbed to be various agricultural production of farmers to form a joint enterprise, were then established. It simply called for the transformation of Soviet agriculture from dominantly individual farms, into a large state of collective farms. This was implemented in the hopes of improved agricultural efficiency. It was also expected that this surplus of food would contribute to the costs of industrialization. Furthermore, it was believed that collectivization initiated many peasants into industrial work within the cities.
Stalin also pursued the destruction of the kulaks clan, a practice known as dekulakization. Kulaks were a branch of affluent farmers. The word kulak often referred to independent farmers in the Russian Empire who originally came from peasantry; they became wealthy in the beginning of 1906. In 1918, the policies of dekulakization extended to peasants resisting from handing their grain over to those who separated from Moscow. Stalin considered their level of influence to be an integral threat to his own authority and branded them as hostile threats to the Soviet regime.
"The TsK VKP(b) stresses that only enemies of the kolkhozes would permit forced collectivization of livestock from individual kolkhozniks. The TsK emphasizes that forced requisition of kolkhozniks' cattle and smaller livestock is contrary to the party's political program. The goal of the party is that every member of the kolkhoz have a cow, some smaller livestock and poultry..... |
This "harassment" of the kulaks increased as time progressed. They were forced off their property, rendered homeless and starving--numerous individuals died from such dreary conditions. The farmers, agitated by Stalin's oppressive rule, began to rebel.
They burned down their own farms instead of surrendering it over to the Soviet Union. They also blatantly disregarded their crops and harvests, insuring that the grains that Stalin sought, would rot and decay.
In response, Stalin ordered the Soviet government to eliminate food rations for peasants and all that opposed his economic policies. This eventually led to the famine of 1932-33, Ukraine's Genocide, which resulted in the deaths of millions of people.