Over drinks in his Kremlin apartment one night in 1942, Joseph Stalin told Winston Churchill about the forced collectivization of the Russian peasants in the early '30's, in which some 5,000,000 died of starvation. "It was fearful ... It was absolutely necessary for Russia . . . We took the greatest trouble to explain it to the peasants. It was no use. After you have said all you can to a peasant, he says he must go home and consult his wife and his herder. After he has talked it over with them, he always answers that he does...
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