On 22 January 1933, a secret directive, composed and signed by Stalin, forbade peasants from Ukraine to travel in search of provisions to Belarus or Russia, where food was more readily available.

On 22 January 1933, a secret directive, composed and signed by Stalin, forbade peasants from Ukraine to travel in search of provisions to Belarus or Russia, where food was more readily available. The same provisions applied to the Kuban, even though that region was part of the RSFSR. Railways and water transportation facilities were instructed not to sell tickets to farmers from these regions and the GPU received orders to arrest all farmers trying to leave their villages without permission from tke authorities. As a result of that order, a quarter of a million people were arrested within the first six weeks, 85 % of them were sent back to the village to starve and the rest were punished in other ways.