Millions of peasants suffered deportation, imprisonment, and finally death by starvation as the forced collectivization of farms led to a massive famine. Interviews with peasants, old Communist Party activists, and survivors of the famine provide an eloquent and moving testament to the abuse of power enacted by Stalin in his iron-willed determination to make collectivization a success.

Five survivors, both victims and perpetrators, recount their stories of Leningrad in the 1930s, of 'the Great Terror'. They remember the shame of confessing to crimes that they never committed. Secret police interrogators remember that time when they controlled people's lives.