Chapter 1 sets the stage by exploring the impact of pre-war Stalinism in northwest Russia, showing how collectivization and repression left the mostly peasant population disaffected, alienated, and open to the possibility of a radical change in the political order. The chapter challenges arguments by some scholars of Stalinism to the effect that Soviet ideology and language had an integrative effect leading to widespread popular identification with the regime. Instead, it is argued that pre-war Stalinism failed to produce robust bonds of loyalty that would firmly pull citizens into the orbit of the Stalinist political order.