This can then  be directly cross-referenced to Jack Heinz II's 'Experiences in Russia in 1931 - A Diary'. On this page one can read first-hand evidence of an impending famine: "It is terrible in the Kolhoz,” he whispered.  “They took my cows and my horse. We are starving. Look what they give us - nothing! nothing!  How can we live with nothing in our dvor?  And we can’t say anything or they’ll send us away as they did the others.  All are weeping in the villages today, little brother.