When everyone is paying attention to the situation in Ukraine, many people will wonder why Russia wants to fight Ukraine, and where Ukraine has offended Russia.
If you go online to search for these questions, the answers that appear in them, there is a high probability that the "NATO" organization will appear! What the hell is this organization.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia repeatedly warned the West not to expand NATO eastward! Why is Russia so sensitive to this organization, and what does it represent behind it?
As the driver of this train, I will restore the significance of this organization as fully as possible, as well as the impact on the Soviet Union and Russia!
Seat up, pull up the armrests, and we're on!
Warsaw Pact
After the end of World War II, two of the most powerful nations on Earth were born, and two camps were created, led by these two countries.
Among them, the Western camp led by the United States, except for the United States, other countries have basically been beaten very badly, in this case, the United States is in full swing to provide economic assistance to European countries, through the Marshall Plan, to revive Europe.
But this is not enough, the United States is very wary of the Soviet Union, the Soviet concept has been exported to all parts of the world, communism has been recognized by many countries, especially in developing countries. Poland, Albania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia joined the socialist camp.
In Europe, the Communist Party is also increasingly active in the political arena of countries such as France and Italy.
Although the Soviet Union suffered heavy losses during World War II, the war activated the Soviet Union's human resources and material production. By 1945, the Red Army was 11.36 million, compared with 4.65 million in Britain and 3.1 million in France, and only 12.12 million in the United States, which had never been attacked on its own, only a little more than the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was powerful not only in national strength, but also in the ideology it exported. The goal of socialism advocated by the Soviet Union was to eliminate the capitalist system that the United States and other countries were proud of, and to transition to communism, the Soviet Union and the United States were naturally antagonistic, and the United States regarded the Soviet Union as a flood beast.
At this moment, your Churchill is also online. Churchill came to the United States and delivered the famous Iron Curtain Address in the small missouri town of Fulton, which opened the prelude to the Cold War.
The United States and Britain agreed that in order to curb the Soviet Union's export of influence to the world, the United States must control the entire Western European countries, bring Western Europe into the strategic orbit of the United States, and form a transatlantic anti-Soviet alliance led by the United States.
But this matter can not let the Americans take the lead, first of all, this will make the United States and the Soviet Union contradictions aggravated, secondly, the United States is not willing to continue to expand abroad, isolationism is on the rise, even the Marshall Plan for economic assistance to Europe, but also met with strong opposition from Congress, marshall plan can be passed, is already thankful.
So the Atlantic organization is best led by the Europeans themselves.
On 28 January 1948, British Foreign Secretary Bell laid out a new plan for European policy in the House of Commons, proposing a defence alliance, which was endorsed by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
After amending and deliberating on the treaty, Britain, France and the Benelux signed the treaty in Brussels, Belgium. The Treaty of Brussels obliges States parties to provide all military and other assistance within their means when They are targeted in Europe.
Upon learning of this, the Soviet Union lodged a strong protest, and on March 6 the Soviet government issued a warning to Britain, which would lead to a serious confrontation between Eastern and Western Europe and lead to the division of Europe.
The Brussels Treaty just mentioned was actually revised and negotiated before it was signed.
Britain and France proposed a European-wide defense alliance that would not include the United States, while the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium wanted to build on the Western Hemisphere Joint Defense Treaty, including the United States.
In the end, the idea of small states was adopted at the behest of the American Marshall, and thus the illusions of the Europeans themselves establishing a system of alliances and the United States of Europe were shattered.
The time has finally come for the Americans to organize the party themselves!
On March 22, 1948, the United States, britain, and Canada held talks at the Pentagon. Loyal friend Britain advocated the conclusion of an Atlantic pact, invited the United States, Canada and the countries bordering the Atlantic to participate, and even considered greece, Turkey, and Iran, and the United States was very satisfied with this proposal, so on April 1, the Pentagon Document was adopted, which was the blueprint for NATO.
On July 6, the United States, Canada and the states members of the Brussels Treaty held a treaty-signing meeting in Washington to discuss the nature, scope, obligations of the contracting states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, etc., all of which were summarized as the Washington Document.
Since then, countries have prepared to join NATO, such as Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal and Italy are all within the consideration of the members of the United States, and successfully persuaded Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, and Italy to join the United States.
On April 4, 1949, 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Portugal, and Italy, formally signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C., and on August 24, NATO officially entered into force.
The United States was full of spirit and determined its leadership position in Western Europe, and Europe gradually became the little brother of the United States, and the behemoth was full of confidence and looked directly to the East.
NATO's purpose is "peace and security," and the whole world knows that the Warsaw Pact is an enemy of the Soviet Union, effectively containing it and threatening the Soviet Union.
Article 5 in particular: The High Contracting Parties agree that an armed attack on one or more of the Contracting Parties in Europe or North America shall be regarded as an attack on all the Contracting Parties.
That is to say, if any bold country attacks Belgium, a member country, then it is equivalent to attacking the United States, then the United States will naturally send troops, hard and hard, and clear-eyed people know who this rule is dealing with.
This regulation was clearly laid out before the Soviet Union, and Stalin was restless.
In fact, as early as 1947, Stalin set up an organization called the "Intelligence Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties". This intelligence bureau is a bit like the Comintern, designed to maintain contact with the Communist Parties of the world and to support the Communist Parties of all countries to come to power.
Therefore, the Communist Party in Europe is firmly surrounded by the Soviet Union, and a hard stubble like Tito, although it belongs to the big socialist family, if it does not recognize the boss of the Soviet Union and engages in independent development on its own, it will also be particularly cared for by the loving father. For example, tito was furious when he discovered that the intelligence agencies had openly recruited spies in Yugoslavia, and the two sides blamed each other in letters, and even slammed the door at the meeting.
The Soviet Union revoked industrial technical support for industrial raw materials in Yugoslavia, and armed conflict broke out on the border.
In order to oust Tito from power, Stalin even ordered his men to assassinate his former good brothers.
Stalin had such a handy organization to manipulate the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe, so he did not need any "Warsaw Pact".
This control of eastern European countries did not end until Stalin's death.
After Stalin's death, nato's threat remained, and his successor, Khrushchev, needed a new model to unite Eastern European countries against the U.S. offensive.
Khrushchev did not have stalin's desire for control, nor did he have as much prestige and centralized power as his father.
So Khrushchev decided to give the countries of Eastern Europe a limited degree of "independence" and to prepare to dissolve the "Intelligence Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Party". But the dissolution of the "Communist and Workers' Party Intelligence Bureau" would not be tantamount to abandoning the countries of Eastern Europe; Khrushchev still had to create an international system to control Eastern Europe.
In particular, on October 23, 1954, the United States, Britain, France and other countries signed the Paris Agreement, allowing West Germany to join NATO, and after the Soviet Protests were fruitless, Khrushchev's backbone was even cooler.
In November 1954, the Soviet Union and eight Eastern European countries held the "Conference of European Countries to Ensure Peace and Security in Europe" in Moscow, announcing that if West Germany joined NATO, these countries would take the same measures and form an alliance of armed forces.
On May 14, 1954, after the Paris Agreement officially entered into force, the heads of governments of the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia met in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, and formally signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, or Warsaw Pact for short. At the same time, a decision was adopted on the establishment of a command of the joint armed forces of the States parties to the Warsaw Pact. On June 4, the Warsaw Pact came into force.
Since then, two major confrontational military blocs have emerged in Europe - NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Two major groups
During the Khrushchev era, the Warsaw Pact was more symbolic and gave the member states full freedom, although Khrushchev also appeared to urge other member states to follow the Soviet Union's disarmament instructions.
But Khrushchev always took the Warsaw Pact as the bottom card,
Then in the 1960s, the contradictions between the Soviet Union and the West over Berlin intensified, and the Soviet Union tightened its military control over the Warsaw Pact. First of all, he stationed a large number of troops in the Warsaw Pact member states.
By 1958, the Soviet Union had stationed 30 divisions in Eastern Europe, including 19 in the GDR, 5 in Czechoslovakia, 2 in Poland, and 4 in Hungary. These garrisons play a direct role in controlling the countries of Eastern Europe.
The leaders of the main departments of the Warsaw Pact organization were also Soviet generals, and even in 1968, the Soviet Union directly used the name of the Warsaw Pact organization to send troops to Czechoslovakia.
When the key to the Soviet Union was handed over to Xunzong, the Stalinist control gene in Xunzong's body awakened, but Xunzong did not have Stalin's wisdom, and during the Period of Xunzong, the Warsaw Pact was completely reduced to the private property of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet army even enjoyed immunity in many Warsaw Pact countries, and the practice of sending troops to other countries and regions in the name of the Warsaw Pact, especially Czechoslovakia, a member of the Warsaw Pact, deeply hurt other member states.
Looking back at NATO, the newly established NATO also decided to invest a large number of ground troops in Europe, planning to build 96 divisions and 4,000 aircraft in 1954.
Within 5 years of nato's establishment, it absorbed Greece and Turkey, increased its defense in the southeast direction, and also accepted West Germany, allowing it to have 12 divisions, that is, 500,000 troops, which greatly enriched NATO's central defense line and indirectly led to the establishment of the Warsaw Pact.
In the fierce NATO, internal contradictions are also prominent. France and Germany, Europe's retired big brothers, demanded that the Monopoly of the United States on NATO's military command be broken.
Even Britain could not bear to look at it, advocating equal relations between Europe and the United States.
France's last hero, President charles de Gaulle, announced his withdrawal from NATO outright in 1966. NATO's internal struggle has put U.S. leadership in jeopardy and alienated countries. NATO's military power has been severely weakened.
In the 1960s, NATO had only 23 divisions left, while the Warsaw Prcupé had about 120 divisions.
NATO lost its advantage over the Warsaw Pact. This is true even in the case of nuclear weapons.
Under such circumstances, the United States had no choice but to pull the Warsaw Pact together and sit down and have a good talk. In 1968, the Warsaw Pact and NATO held a conference on European security cooperation together, proposing "balanced disarmament." After that, the OSCE also held three phases of meetings to reach agreement on the border between the two sides, security and trust, economy, science and technology.
After settling relations with the Warsaw Pact, President Richard Nixon, whose diplomatic capabilities were at the top of U.S. history, signed the Declaration on Atlantic Relations in June 1974, along with nato heads of state, recognizing Western European countries as equal partners of the United States. It has eased the contradictions between NATO's member states.
Of course, because the United States launched wars all over the world, such as the middle East war, etc., other member countries are very embarrassed, Greece withdrew from NATO, Turkey is also far away from NATO, play alone.
In 1979, after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, NATO smiled and resumed its offensive against the Soviet Union. The first is to significantly increase military spending, put forward the "Star Wars plan", and forcibly drag the Soviet Union into the military competition; the second is to carry out diplomatic strategies, such as sanctioning Poland and Solidarity, dividing the members of the Warsaw Pact, and at the same time winning over third world countries, pulling people in, China is one of them.
Later, through economic assistance, relations with Greece and Turkey were repaired and NATO's military and economic strength was strengthened.
NATO curbed the offensive momentum of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact around the world, weakening the military power of the Warsaw Pact through negotiations, agreements on joint disarmament and strategic arms reductions.
NATO's strong suppression of the Warsaw Pact left the Soviet Union completely breathless until the Soviet Union disintegrated!
Don't come near me!"
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and NATO, theoretically, as a military tool during the Cold War, also lost its significance. However, for the United States, NATO is an important tool for maintaining the influence of the United States in Europe, and it is the closest link between the United States and European countries.
Therefore, in order to adapt to the new era, NATO has also expanded from military functions to political functions, and put forward the military value of "prevention and crisis management".
Backed by the military, we rely on political, economic, diplomatic, scientific and technological means to protect the interests of member states.
If that were the case, it would be nothing, but NATO has opened its own way to eastward expansion.
In March 1999, the former Warsaw Pact members Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined NATO. NATO's sphere of influence enters the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Baltic Sea region.
What was Russia's attitude at this time? Yeltsin, the Russian god of wine, expressed relief because the United States had signed a document promising to include Russia in the Western-dominated security system.
Less than half a month after the realization of eastward expansion, the Western countries led by NATO brazenly launched bombing and air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Our embassy was also blown up by NATO.
Just a dozen days after the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, NATO announced the next round of eastward expansion plans, including 9 Eastern European countries as candidate countries for the second round of eastward expansion.
Yeltsin, the god of wine, finally woke up drunk and immediately announced his resignation. On television, he constantly asked for forgiveness from the Russian people.
After Putin came to power, he tried to maintain good relations with the United States, and putin did not say much about the upcoming second NATO eastward expansion, but from Putin's personality, he still needs time to revive Russia's strength.
In 2004, the United States achieved its second eastward expansion, which is also the largest eastward expansion in history, absorbing 7 countries into NATO in one go.
By this time NATO membership had expanded to 26.
After this eastward expansion, NATO has basically completed its "encirclement" of Russia.
In order to defuse NATO's offensive, Russia has applied to join NATO four times in 1991, 2000, 2003 and 2008, all of which were rejected
How to stop eastward expansion through other more effective means has been haunting Putin's mind.
It wasn't until the 2005 color revolution in Ukraine that the pro-American yushchenko was propped up by the United States as president of Ukraine until the pro-Russian faction Yanukovych was ousted in 2014. Ukraine has completely turned to the West. It was not until March 2014 that crimea was passed in a referendum and incorporated into Russia.
In May of the same year, Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine held an independence referendum and declared the establishment of the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic".
The Ukrainian government and rebels turned into a large-scale war.
Russia personally went down and sent troops into Ukrainian territory.
Why is Ukraine so important to Putin?
Putin once said "Who created Ukraine?" ”
"It's Vladimir Ilyich Lenin!"
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