attempts at famine relief were seen to be shoddy and slow” so there is uncertainty about how much aid was given to the peasantry and how quickly it was received. Nonetheless, it is clear that Alexander gave more relief than both Lenin and Stalin as the famine affected between 14,000,000 to 20,000,000 people, of which 375,000 to 400,000 died. When compared to the famine of 1921 which killed an estimated 6,000,000 and the famine of 1932 in which 6,000,000 people died within a period of seven months. Consequently, it is clear that Alexander III’s treatment of the peasantry was substantially better than that of Lenin and Stalin.
Lenin's policies can be seen as the main cause of the 1921 famine as Hutchinson claims it was the “economic reforms of the …show more content…
Weissman seems to accord with Hutchinson as he states “Again, as in 1891, the peasant was helpless against the onslaught of famine, partly because of government policy”, this shows the initial cause of the famine was due to government policies implemented by Lenin which had requisitioned supplies from the peasantry in 1918. As a result peasants refused to grow crops and the little food they did have was confiscated and taken away. This shows how oblivious the government under Lenin was to the plight of the peasantry. Arguably the famine of 1921 was not due to a conscious decision that the peasants should starve. Yet to attribute it simply to drought would be untrue, the weather though bad was not at disastrous level, Conquest claims “the factor which turned the scale was, in fact, the Soviet Government’s methods of crop requisitioning”. The Government took food that the peasants had grown this removed any incentive they had to produce, naturally famine followed, which led to the death of around five million people, which shows
Lenin's policies can be seen as the main cause of the 1921 famine as Hutchinson claims it was the “economic reforms of the …show more content…
Weissman seems to accord with Hutchinson as he states “Again, as in 1891, the peasant was helpless against the onslaught of famine, partly because of government policy”, this shows the initial cause of the famine was due to government policies implemented by Lenin which had requisitioned supplies from the peasantry in 1918. As a result peasants refused to grow crops and the little food they did have was confiscated and taken away. This shows how oblivious the government under Lenin was to the plight of the peasantry. Arguably the famine of 1921 was not due to a conscious decision that the peasants should starve. Yet to attribute it simply to drought would be untrue, the weather though bad was not at disastrous level, Conquest claims “the factor which turned the scale was, in fact, the Soviet Government’s methods of crop requisitioning”. The Government took food that the peasants had grown this removed any incentive they had to produce, naturally famine followed, which led to the death of around five million people, which shows