Planned as a number of independent volumes, this work covers the years 1929-1937, the crucial period of the first two five-year plans. The focus of this history is the relation between economic policy, economic and political institutions and the economic and social environment. By the summer of 1929, Soviet agriculture was in a profound crisis. In the autumn the Soviet Politburo, led by Stalin, launched its desperate effort to win the battle for agriculture by forcible collectivization and by large-scale mechanization. Thousands of "kulaks" (richer peasants) were expelled from their villages. The book deals with these events, as momentous in their impact on Russian history as the Bolshevik Revolutions of October 1917, and with the temporary retreat from collectivization in the spring of 1930 in the face of peasant resistance. R.W.Davies is author of "The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929-1930" and He collaborated with E.H.Carr on volumes nine and ten of "A History of Soviet Russia".