1928 Stalin, who has driven the leftist opposition from most party posts, now, whether for political or economic reasons, adopts a number of leftist programs such as agricultural collectivization and rapid industrialization. He then smashes the party's right, led by the popular Nikolai Bukharin, for opposing measures that Stalin himself had recently attacked.

Under Stalin approximately 10 million peasants were tortured and murdered between the late 1920's and early 1930's, killed when Russia proceeded to collectivize its agriculture and prohibit family farms, an operation that also exiled or transported millions more. Collectivization has been called the most warlike operation ever carried out by a state against it own people. (Weber)