ad been the most productive agricultural area of the Soviet Union. Stalin was determined to crush all vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism. Thus, the famine was accompanied by a devastating purge of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and the Ukrainian Communist party itself. The famine broke the peasants' will to resist collectivization and left Ukraine politically, socially, and psychologically traumatized. This is proof of how Stalin’s purges not only affected the specifically targeted peasants of Russia, but also the peasants of other regions. Stalin’s purge disillusioned many devoted Communists, and rocked Western faith in the Socialist system used by the Soviets. The purge liquidated many faithful Communists and struck fear into the hearts of Stalin s opponents. This fear prevented challenges to his rule of the Soviet Union, but to prevent further challenges Stalin initiated atrocities that were wider ranging than the Nazi’s World War II Holocaust. The Great Purge is a bleak spot in Soviet history that many of the Soviet Union s leaders and citizens would like to put behind them. In the face of the growing threats from Nazi Germany and Japan, Stalin reverted increasingly to traditional forms of foreign policy, seeking diplomatic alliances with the European powers. Finally in August 1939, he concluded a bilateral non-aggression treaty with Hitler. He led Russia to victory over one of the largest armies ever to invade a foreign land. Although Stalin’s policy in the mid-1930s was to support the Communist International (Comintern) in forming a popular front against the rise of fascism in Europe, he gave up the idea of collective security with the West and in August 1939 decided upon an alliance with Nazi Germany. The "Secret Protocols" of the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact carved up Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence; the Soviets allowed Germany to invade Poland in exchange for Hitler’...
