The article is devoted to the study of the grain procurement campaign in the city of Almaty and its suburban collective farms in the late 1920s and 1930s. The article, based on the unique sources of the State Archives of Almaty, introduced in a scientific turn for the first time, examines the internal economic life, the structure and order of organizing the life of the city. Particular emphasis is placed on the activities of the Commission for the Promotion of Grain Procurement, which began to operate in Almaty in 1929. On the basis of new sources and research, the formation of state policy in relation to the peasantry and the essence of the repressive measures of the party leadership during the period of grain procurement campaigns in Almaty are comprehended. in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Conclusions are drawn about the main victims of these campaigns, the so-called "kulaks", who they really were. Methodological approaches to the study of their fate are proposed.