We can get a good idea of how the process of collectivization worked from looking at the province of Smolensk. Smolensk on the eve of collectivization was an overwhelmingly agricultural province. More than 90 per cent of the population lived in the countryside. Less than l per cent of the land was collectivized. The private sector accounted for 98.7 per cent of the gross agricultural output. Out of a total of 393,523 peasant households registered in 1927, 5 per cent …showed first 75 words of 3215 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3215 total…all peasant households were collectivized in the Smolensk district. By July 1, 1934, the collectivization ratio had increased to 66.2 per cent; by December 15, 1934, it mounted to 77.8 per cent. As the economic pressure on the individual peasants intensified, more and more of them were forced to seek refuge in the collectives. How they felt we may guess, but so far as the Party records go, they become mere digits recording the steady triumph of collectivization in percentage terms.