Production from heavy industry was still surprisingly low despite its due course of recovery from the devastation of war. In 1929 for example, France, not a major industrial power, produced more coal and steel than Russia, while Germany, Britain and especially the USA were streets ahead. Stalin believed that a rapid expansion of heavy industry was essential so that Russia would be able to survive the attack which he was convinced would come sooner or later from the Western capitalist powers who hated communism. Industrialisation would have the added advantage of increasing support for the government, because it was the industrial workers who were the communists greatest allies. The more industrial workers, the more secure the communist state would be. One serious obstacle to overcome, though, was lack of capital to finance expansion, since foreigners were unwilling to invest in a communist state.

More food would have to be produced, both to feed the growing industrial population and to provide a surplus for export which would bring in foreign capital and profits for investment in industry. Yet the primitive agricultural system was incapable of providing such increases.