Peasant revolts in response to forced collectivization

http://mruniversity.com/courses/economic-history-soviet-union/peasant-revolts-response-forced-collectivization

The response from the peasants
to all of this was riots and revolts.

Again, the revolts were particularly bad
because the peasants could see

that after their grain was seized
and brutally confiscated from them,

it was sitting there rotting away

in the railway wagons, in churches,
in schools, and so forth,

for lack of a better storage space.

After the revolts, the state responded
with use of tanks and bayonets,

and collectivization, which was often
used as a punitive measure

or to ensure that the peasants were
unable to destroy or hoard the food

because they were collectivized

although then the collective farms
also did engage in hoarding.

It was not so much
that the state was insistent

upon spreading collectivization
fast across the country

as it was a response

to the problem of trying to ensure
procurement of the grain.

Transcriber: Michel Smits
Reviewer: Maurício Kakuei Tanaka