What I mean is, I read that Stalin's collectivization of farmland in post WWI soviet union led to almost 15 million deaths. I am EXTREMELY skeptical of this number because it seems high. Like, way too high. Am I right in my belief of number inflation of deaths, or am I completely wrong and Stalin did in fact lead to more deaths than WWII did?
Stalin created what he called 5 year plans to industrialize and modernize Russia after WWI. He did this through a command style economy, where the government makes all economic decisions (including forced famines). The goal of the 5 year plans was to catch up to the economic production levels of England and America (in part) and to do this he needed to focus all the resources he had at his disposal to industrializing.
He set impossibly high quotas to produce things like oil, steel, coal, etc. which no one could realistically meet. This also meant that the economic energy spent on industry took resources way from agriculture.
The 5 year plans failed, production dropped, but Stalin kept pushing.
In 1928, the government annexed roughly 25 million private acres of farmland and created collective farms, where people worked to produce food for the state, and not for themselves privately. This resulted in a diminished work ethic, as there was no reward for hard work (communism= all get paid/rewarded equally) and thus, production faltered.
Peasants at times rebelled, many were killed, but the huge numbers you are referring to are, in fact, correct and could even be higher. Many farmers from Ukraine (Kulaks) resisted as they didn't want their large homes and farms taken from them, and were sent to the Gulags (prison camps) in Siberia. Roughly 3 million of these Kulaks were shot or imprisoned. Between 5-10 million peasants died as a result of Stalin's 5 year plans, and collectivization of Ag.
6 million of these deaths can be attributed to the planned and orchestrated famines in Ukraine to eliminate these Kulaks.
The reason (I think) we consider Hitler and WWII so much worse was the way in which people we killed (Holocaust). Stalin starved people both on purpose and through his poor decisions. Hitler however, exterminated the Jews and others.
Secondly, since we were allied with Stalin during WWII we downplay his evil acts prior to WWII to not make the US look bad for allying with such an evil man, who was arguably just a bad a Hitler.
*I am Mennonite (family moved to Russia during the time of Catherine the Great), and my ancestors left Russia before the communist revolution in 1917 because they saw the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan. Also Teach World History to zit faced, booger eating sophomores.