The famine of 1933 in Penza region

Background. The theme of famine in the USSR and the regions of the country in the early 1930s is relevant in connection with the need to study the sources of the Stalinist modernization of Russia, which created a powerful military-industrial complex during the first five-year plans, which ensured the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Its creation became possible due to the use of internal sources by the Stalinist regime, the main of which was the Soviet village, including Penza. Bread and raw materials were taken from the countryside with the help of the forcible creation of a collective farm system and forced procurement of agricultural products. This led to a crisis in the agriculture of the USSR and famine in its main grain-producing regions, including Penza region. Materials and methods. Published documents, documents of the Penza State Archive and the central archives of Russia are the sources used in this work. The historical-comparative method was used. Results. In the course of the study, the causes of the famine, its scale and consequences in the regions of the Middle Volga and Lower Volga regions, which later became part of Penza region, were identified. Conclusions. In 1933, famine struck most of the southeastern regions of the region, food difficulties were experienced by all of its rural and urban population. The famine came as a result of collectivization and forced grain procurements in 1932. The victims of the famine in Penza region were mainly rural residents: collective farmers and individual farmers.