In 1928-29 the drive for rapid industrialization exacerbated economic hardships in the Soviet Union and forced the adoption of food rationing in the major cities.1 Social discontent and social tensions grew more acute. Workers pressed for a tougher line against the educated and privileged classes, and the Stalin leadership responded by promoting a "proletarianization" of the party, government, and educational institutions. In this way the leadership hoped to win working-class support for the revolutionary path on which it was preparing to embark. But the economic hardships provoked by the industrialization drive caused the Stalin leadership to doubt whether it could indeed rely on uniform support. It feared that certain strata of the proletariat would resist the accelerated drive for industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture.