Joseph Stalin

====Famine====
{{Further|Soviet famine of 1930–1933|Holodomor|Kazakh famine of 1930–1933}}

[[File:Famine en URSS 1933.jpg|thumb|right|[[Soviet famine of 1930–1933|Soviet famine of 1930–33]]. Areas of most disastrous famine marked with black.]]
Within the Soviet Union, there was widespread civic disgruntlement against Stalin's government.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=316}} Social unrest, previously restricted largely to the countryside, was increasingly evident in urban areas, prompting Stalin to ease on some of his economic policies in 1932.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=310}} In May 1932, he introduced a system of kolkhoz markets where peasants could trade their surplus produce.{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=310|2a1=Davies|2a2=Wheatcroft|2y=2006|2p=627}} At the same time, penal sanctions became more severe; at Stalin's instigation, in August 1932 a decree was introduced wherein the theft of even a handful of grain could be a capital offence.{{sfnm|1a1=Davies|1a2=Wheatcroft|1y=2006|1p=628}} The second five-year plan had its production quotas reduced from that of the first, with the main emphasis now being on improving living conditions.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=310}} It therefore emphasised the expansion of housing space and the production of consumer goods.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=310}} Like its predecessor, this plan was repeatedly amended to meet changing situations; there was for instance an increasing emphasis placed on armament production after [[Adolf Hitler]] became [[German chancellor]] in 1933.{{sfn|Service|2004|p=318}}

The Soviet Union experienced a [[Soviet famine of 1930–1933|major famine which peaked in the winter of 1932–33]];{{sfnm|1a1=Service|1y=2004|1p=312|2a1=Conquest|2y=2008|2pp=19–20|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=117}} between five and seven million people died.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=117}} The worst affected areas were Ukraine and the North Caucasus, although the famine also affected Kazakhstan and several Russian provinces.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=119}} Historians have long debated whether Stalin's government had intended the famine to occur or not;{{sfn|Ellman|2005|p=823}} there are no known documents in which Stalin or his government explicitly called for starvation to be used against the population.{{sfnm|1a1=Ellman|1y=2005|1p=824|2a1=Davies|2a2=Wheatcroft|2y=2006|2pp=628, 631}} The 1931 and 1932 harvests had been poor ones because of weather conditions{{sfnm|1a1=Ellman|1y=2005|1pp=823–824|2a1=Davies|2a2=Wheatcroft|2y=2006|2p=626|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=117}} and had followed several years in which lower productivity had resulted in a gradual decline in output.{{sfn|Khlevniuk|2015|p=117}} Government policies—including the focus on rapid industrialisation, the socialisation of livestock, and the emphasis on sown areas over [[crop rotation]]—exacerbated the problem;{{sfn|Ellman|2005|p=834}} the state had also failed to build reserve grain stocks for such an emergency.{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2006|p=626}} Stalin blamed the famine on hostile elements and sabotage within the peasantry;{{sfnm|1a1=Ellman|1y=2005|1p=824|2a1=Davies|2a2=Wheatcroft|2y=2006|2pp=627–628|3a1=Khlevniuk|3y=2015|3p=120}} his government provided small amounts of food to famine-struck rural areas, although this was wholly insufficient to deal with the levels of starvation.{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2006|p=627}} The Soviet government believed that food supplies should be prioritised for the urban workforce;{{sfnm|1a1=Ellman|1y=2005|1p=833|2a1=Kuromiya|2y=2008|2p=665}} for Stalin, the fate of Soviet industrialisation was far more important than the lives of the peasantry.{{sfnm|1a1=Davies|1a2=Wheatcroft|1y=2006|1p=628|2a1=Ellman|2y=2007|2p=664}} Grain exports, which were a major means of Soviet payment for machinery, declined heavily.{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2006|p=627}} Stalin would not acknowledge that his policies had contributed to the famine,{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2006|p=628}} the existence of which was kept secret from foreign observers.{{sfnm|1a1=Conquest|1y=1991|1p=164|2a1=Kotkin|2y=2014|2p=724}}