Stalin wanted the USSR or Russia to become more powerful than other countries. To do this he had to modernise the USSR's economy by a programme of rapid industrialisation. This means developing industry to such an extent that a country that mainly depends on agriculture or farming is changed into one which mostly depends on industry. Stalin said that the USSR was 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries. He aimed to catch up with and surpass them within ten years. Russia's industry was recovering from the effects of war, but even then, production from heavy industry was low compared with other countries. Stalin felt it was necessary to catch up with the West because the West that hated Communism threatened the USSR. To survive an attack from the West, the USSR had to rapidly expand its heavy industries: coal, iron, steel and power. This would allow the USSR...