Stalin was trying to avoid an provocations until 1943, when he felt the Red Army was ready to launch an attack on Germany, but Hitler beat him to the punch. Stalin wanted a war in the West to make it easy for the Red Army, but France's quick fall ruined those plans.
Yeah, it took a long time for the Red Army to recover after nearly all of its generals & most of its officer corps were taken out & shot during the 1937 purges ordered by the paranoic Stalin.
His forced industrialization of Russia off in terms of tank & heavy weapons production, but he still needed tons of aid from the U.S.