ABSTRACT
In an effort to nip incipient resistance to collectivization in the bud, Soviets began the collectivization process by expropriating the wealthier peasants first and deporting most of them to labor camps. The purpose of collectivization was to undermine the economic foundation of clan and tribal loyalty. The terror of collectivization broke the Kazakhs' resistance and increased their willingness to live under the existing conditions and to use them to their own advantage. The non-Russian peoples, the number of victims was considerably higher than among Russians because the famine was centered in the Ukraine, the Northern Caucasus, the Middle and Lower Volga River areas, and Kazakhstan. The famine affected primarily the rural population because the Soviets had forcibly requisitioned their harvests to feed the population in the cities and industrial centers. However, the intent of collectivization was to promote the spreading homogenization of society and to integrate agriculture into an all-Soviet economic cooperative that assigned particular production tasks to individual regions.
