There is no doubt that Stalin knew, by this point, that 5.8 million tonnes was an unrealistic figure. On 25 July he told Kaganovich that he intended to allow the “suffering” collective farms in Ukraine to get by with reduced quotas. He had, he wrote, avoided speaking of a reduction in grain collection before, because he wanted to avoid “demoralizing” the Ukrainians further or disrupting the harvest. He intended instead to wait until later to make the announcement, hoping to “stimulate” the peasants during the harvest season—and to appear benevolent—by offering a small reduction of 30 million
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