21. Peasant Protests Morphed Into Violence That Led to Disaster
Soviet peasants protested collectivization peacefully at first, writing letters to the authorities. When their pleas were ignored, violence broke out, with some villagers lynching collectivization’s local enforcers. Others turned to sabotage, including the burning of crops, or slaughtering the livestock that was about to get seized from them and handed over to the collective farms.
While the peasant’s grievances and responses were understandable, their open defiance of Stalin brought disaster down upon their heads. The Soviet dictator responded with typical brutality, and deployed the machinery of state to crush and bring them to heel. The authorities’ wrath fell most heavily on the better-off kulak peasants, who were seen as collectivization’s most intransigent opponents.