Why did Stalin want so much power over Europe? It started off when all of the countries in Europe were basically in a war. Stalin idea was to take over Europe because he thought that all those countries coming out of war would be financially and politically exhausted. Russia wasn't in the war yet so they were at peace at that time. Hitler went ahead to try take over the USSR and the other parts of Europe that was in the war. Hitler and set up the Nazi plan to try to intimidate Stalin and try to make him fall away from taking over Europe. That's when Russian entered the war. After that war once Russia was exhausted Stalin successfully took over Russia. Later during his dictatorship Stalin set up a 5 year plan to raise Russia's economy. The 5 year plan consisted of a 111% rise in coal production, a 200% rise in iron production, and a 335% rise in electricity power.