The Following Is an Excerpt from Joseph Stalin's Address to the First

The following is an excerpt from Joseph Stalin's address to the First Conference of Soviet Industrial Managers (Evaluating the Evidence 27.1) : "In the past we had no fatherland, nor could we have had one. But now that we have overthrown capitalism and power is in our hands, in the hands of the people, we have a fatherland, and we will uphold its independence. Do you want our socialist fatherland to be beaten and to lose its independence?
If you do not want this, you must put an end to its backwardness in the shortest possible time and develop a genuine Bolshevik tempo in building up its socialist economy. There is no other way. That is why Lenin said on the eve of the October Revolution: 'Either perish, or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries.'"
In Stalin's view, if the people of the Soviet Union wanted to maintain their independence, they needed to

A) turn away from industrialization and toward collectivization.
B) protect individual civil rights and eliminate racial prejudice.
C) catch up with and surpass the West in terms of technology and industry as quickly as possible.
D) return to traditional agricultural practices.