Dizzy from Success

In his article "Dizzy from Success," Joseph Stalin addressed the intense collectivization policy in the Soviet Union. This policy, pursued vigorously between 1929 and 1933, forced peasants to abandon individual farms and join large collective farms (kolkhozy). The goal was to transform agriculture and reduce the power of prosperous peasants, known as kulaks.

Stalin's article, published in March 1930, shifted blame for the harshness of collectivization onto overzealous local officials. This led to many peasants leaving the collective farms. While the policy ultimately succeeded in integrating agriculture into the state-controlled economy and providing capital for industrialization, it resulted in widespread resistance, a major famine in 1932-33, and millions of peasant deaths.12