Originally Posted by jwb

The initial cause of the famine was natural. Famines had been happening in that region periodically since long before 1917. It was the scale of the famine which was caused by policy.

You don't think collectivization leads to a lack of resources.... Well first of all the collectivization efforts were largely a failure. They expected to increase the crop u yields drastically and that didn't happen. They were going to use the surplus from the increased yields to export and use that money to buy machinery necessary for industrialization. Due to mitigating factors like the droughts as well as peasant resistance they actually saw a marked decrease in the crop yields. That didn't stop them from seizing said crops and exporting them any way in order to buy industrial machinery. If you don't see why that leads to more people starving then I dunno what to tell you pal. Additionally china had the largest famine in human history when they tried to mimick the soviet 5 year plan. Just a coincidence, I'm sure...