If Stalin's plans for rapid industrialisation in the Soviet Union were to materialise, then his policy for agriculture would have to be a parallel success. Collectivisation, as it came to be known, aimed to revolutionise the farming industry within the Soviet Union and remove all traces of capitalism, which had surfaced under Lenin's NEP. The harsh implementation of Collectivisation, which began in 1929, made it difficult for peasants to produce enough food surpluses, which led to widespread famine, anarchy and homelessness throughout the communist state. Because of the severe consequences, many historians have labelled collectivisation, an `economic disaster'. Isaac Deutscher described the domestic policy as the world's `first, man - made famine'. If we are to accuse Stalin of Machiavellism, suggesting that he chose collectivisation as a solution to Soviet economic problems several years before 1929, then he too would have viewed the policy as an economic disaster. However, his...