2-379-139 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

A kolkhoz brigade taking a break, USSR, 1931. A kolkhoz was a form of collective farm introduced under the policy of collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s. The workforce was organised into units known as brigades. The collectivization programme led to a fall in production and severe famines (exacerbated by droughts) between 1929 and 1932. As many as 12 million peasants lost their lives during the period. Found in the collection of the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, Moscow.