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Collectivisation was Stalin's answer to his belief that Russia's agriculture was in a terrible state. Stalin believed that Russia had to be able to feed itself - hence collectivisation - and that at the very least the peasant farmers should be providing food for the workers in the factories if the Five Year Plans were going to succeed. There was barely any mechanisation, the use of scientific measures was minimal and peasant farmers produced usually …

…are included or died of diseases induced by malnutrition. The worst area was in what is now Kazakstan where more than 80% of animals and grain were destroyed. Young people went to the towns and cities to get jobs as they felt that these were better than working on the farms. Therefore, collectivisation lead to a reduced population in the countryside. Those who were left had to work harder on the collective farms for little reward.