(1) Stalin set about achieving modernization of the Soviet economy through a series of Five-Year Plans. These plans were drawn up by GOSPLAN, the state planning organization that Lenin had set up in 1921. It set ambitious targets for production in the important heavy industries (coal, iron, oil, electricity). (2) The first Five-Year Plan focused on the major industries and although most targets were not met, the achievements were still amazing. The USSR increased production and created a foundation on which to build the next Five-Year Plans. The USSR was rich in natural resources, but many of them were in remote places such as Siberia. So whole cities were built from nothing and workers taken out to the new industrial centers. Foreign observers marveled as huge new steel mills appeared at Magnitogorsk in the Urals and Sverdlovsk in central Siberia (3) The second Five-Year Plan (1933-37) built on the achievements of the first. Mining for lead, tin, zinc and other minerals increased as Stalin further exploited Siberia's rich mineral resources. Transport and communications were also boosted, and new railways and canals were built. The most spectacular showpiece project was the Moscow underground railway. (4) Stalin also wanted industrialization to help improve Russia's agriculture. The production of tractors and other farm machinery increased dramatically. In the third Five-Year Plan, which was begun in 1938. some factories were to switch to the production of consumer goods. However, this plan was disrupted by the Second World War.
What does the passage say about Stalin?