2-548-165 - © Fine Art Images/Heritage Images

Communist collectivization of agriculture, USSR, early 1930s. The collectivization of agriculture was a policy of taking the ownership of farms and agricultural production out of the hands of individual peasants or families and consolidating it into large collective farms. The programme was widely unpopular with peasants, who saw it as a revival of serfdom. Collectivization resulted in 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. From a private collection.