The orthodox Kyrgyz way of life, which was based on nomadic farm animal-herding, was abolished in the course of land reforms during the 1920s and 1930s. The Soviet government consolidated all arable and grazing lands into large state-owned farms, and by the mid-1930s the majority of Kyrgyz had been forcibly settled to work on these farms. Other Kyrgyz fled to the mountains, and even into China, to escape this fate. The collectivization of agriculture eradicated longstanding Kyrgyz landholding patterns, which were based on family and kinship ties.