In the first half of the 20th century, Bolshevik Filipp Goloshchyokin was brought in to head the second-most expansive country in in the Soviet Union at the behest of Stalin.

 

Goloshchyokin, who was appointed as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, began implementing a policy known as the "Little October" social revolution immediately after assuming the post.

 

Under the policy, the Soviet state seized livestock that a large part of the local population relied upon for sustenance, in a bid to push Kazakhs toward a sedentary lifestyle though what has become known as "collectivization".

 

The number of cattle in Kazakhstan, which was estimated to be about 45 million before collectivization, fell to 4 million in just a few years, historical data shows. This led to the "Great Famine" of 1930-1933. About 2.5 million of the country's total population of 6 million died during this period.