Stalin only entered the non-aggression pact with Hitler after being unable to make an alliance with Britain

and France. Many of Stalin's "victims" died of famine, they were not deliberately killed. ["Many" is fuzzy, of course, this may only be 10 million of his 60 million victims.]

From Wikipedia's Stalin page

Social services
Under the Soviet government people benefited from some social liberalization. Girls were given an adequate, equal education and women had equal rights in employment,[22][page needed] improving lives for women and families. Stalinist development also contributed to advances in health care, which significantly increased the lifespan and quality of life of the typical Soviet citizen.[22] [ page needed] Stalin's policies granted the Soviet people universal access to healthcare and education, effectively creating the first generation free from the fear of typhus, cholera, and malaria.[82][page needed] The occurrences of these diseases dropped to record low numbers, increasing life spans by decades.[82]
[

page needed]

Soviet women under Stalin were the first generation of women able to give birth in the safety of a hospital, with access to prenatal care.[82][page needed] Education was also an example of an increase in standard of living after economic development. The generation born during Stalin's rule was the first nearuniversally literate generation. Millions benefitted from mass literacy campaigns in the 1930s, and from workers training schemes.[83][page needed] Engineers were sent abroad to learn industrial technology, and hundreds of foreign engineers were brought to Russia on contract.[82][page needed] Transport links were improved and many new railways built. Workers who exceeded their quotas, Stakhanovites, received many incentives for their work;[83][page needed] they could afford to buy the goods that were mass-produced by the rapidly expanding Soviet economy.

The increase in demand due to industrialization and the decrease in the workforce due to World War II and repressions generated a major expansion in job opportunities for the survivors, especially for women.[83][page needed]
After the revolution against the Czar Russia was a backward, agrarian nation. Stalin consolidated his power between 1922 and 1927 and modernized the economy. In 1927 Russia had one of the largest populations but smallest industrial outputs of European countries.

"We are 100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this lag in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us!" Josef Stalin, speech to the Fourth Plenum of Industrial Managers, Feb. 4, 1931.
He did this without foreign investment or technical help. From: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm

1927 Coal Oil Iron Ore Pig Iron Steel

35 million tons 12 million tons 5 million tons 3 million tons 4 million tons

1932 64 mt (75 mt target)

1937 128 mt (152 mt target)

21 mt (22 29 mt (47 mt target) mt target) 12 mt (19 mt target) unknown

6 mt (10 15 mt (16 mt target) mt target) 6 mt (10 18 mt (17 mt target) mt target)

From http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/STALIN.html

If one examines the period of the two five year plans of 1928 to 1937 Russian national income rose from 24.4 to

96.3 billion rubles, coal output increased from 35.4 to 128 million tons, steel production from 4 to 17.7 million tons, electricity output rose 700%, machine-tool production 20,000% and tractor production (factories that could be easily converted in tank production) rose 40,000%. He quadrupled GNP in nine years, a feat never equalled. Without this Hitler would have rolled over Russia and by the time the allies invaded Normandy in 1944 Hitler would have had all of Russia's resources and not have had to fight a two-front war.