One of the largest internal human migrations in history (dwarfed by China's development since the 1970s) occurred in late 1920s and early 30s Russia, as dispossessed peasants voted with their feet and escaped the violent collectivisation of agricultural land, control over relative social freedoms and then famine, journeying to the towns and cities in search of work and a roof over their heads.
The urban areas could not cope with the vast numbers from peasant in-migration (towns capable of sustaining a population of approx 10 thousand very quickly having three or four times that to deal with. The beginnings of Stalin's industrialisation drive to build a socialist society (as they understood it) involved industrial enterprises surrounded by sprawling, filthy and unsanitary shanty town-like settlements built by the peasant migrants themselves. Moshe Lewin vividly described the upheaval at this time as not just proletarianisation of the peasantry but peasantisation of the proletariat. These former bumpkins would build the needed infrastructure but sanitation, reliable food and even electricity was not a given.
Stalinism was coercive but also participatory. Out of the chaos and lower living standards Stalinism deemed temporarily necessary were invitations to actively join it for those able to. Yes, times are hard now, we know, but bear up and help build a brighter future for you and your children. You work in a factory now so your sons and daughters can be engineers.
