The situation in Russia and Ukraine is confusing, but the cause of this matter has always been very clear: Ukraine's small strength is declining, but it wants to make discord with its powerful neighbors, and resolutely chooses to be a licking dog in Europe and the United States. Not to mention the United States, in the face of such a large country as Britain, France and Germany, Ukraine can almost be regarded as "nothing". In general, it is not a loss to join the EU, and it is even more bloody to be able to blend into NATO.
Although this time it is the Western countries that bully to the doorstep of Russia, from another point of view, for a country like Ukraine, clinging to a mountain is not a way of thinking for the survival of small countries.
Ukraine's careful thinking is well known, in fact, the European Union or NATO, these organizations were founded with a very complex era and political background, the water has gone deep, but Ukraine can not easily toss and understand. In the process of discussing this issue, many friends mentioned that the Soviet Union also applied to join NATO in the last century.
Yes, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union did make such a request, but unlike the current urgent need for shelter in Ukraine, the former was simply aimed at "making trouble".
The Soviet Union's entry into NATO is very funny to say. Although Churchill declared in March 1946 that "the Iron Curtain has fallen", the Soviet Union at that time did not intend to engage in confrontation with the Western countries, on the contrary, Stalin had the foresight to believe that in the context of the new era, the Soviet Union wanted to achieve greater development, it must lose some "face" and find ways to establish cooperation with the West. To this end, they even once expressed their willingness to accept the price offered by the Western countries, to give the Soviet people more freedom at the political and cultural levels, to sacrifice some of the economic interests appropriately, and to slow down or even suspend expansion around the world.
The "big gift package" sent by the Soviets with both hands can be described as sincere, which also made the atmosphere of the international community in the late 1940s very relaxed. At that time, the countries of the world adhered to the principle of "peaceful coexistence, peaceful competition and peaceful transition" in their exchanges, and in any case, the author has not yet figured out what kind of realm it is to achieve the so-called "peaceful competition" and the blossoming of friendship and competition under the circumstance that national interests and ideologies are fundamentally opposed.
All in all, the atmosphere of the international community in those years was still quite strange, knowing that everyone could not play together at all, but they had to show a harmonious and hippie smile at the negotiating table. However, after reading a lot of literature, the author believes that the Soviets' attempts to live in peace with western countries are sincere, even if there are sources that confirm that the United States, Britain, and France hid millions of German prisoners of war after the end of World War II to prepare for the possible outbreak of "World War III", but this did not affect the Enthusiasm of the Soviet Union to talk about cooperation until the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In April 1949, representatives of the United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and other countries met in Washington and signed a decision to establish an international military bloc of common progress and retreat.
As everyone knows, NATO appeared to oppress the international living space of the Soviet camp, but in fact, from the perspective of the United States, the establishment of NATO is to use the military defense system to shroud the possible "European Community" in its shadow and prevent it from challenging the hegemonic system dominated by the United States. So from a certain point of view, we can even think of the EU and NATO as two mutually exclusive systems.
Having said that, one of the great purposes of NATO's birth was to disgust the Soviet Union, and throughout history, in terms of provoking trouble, I am afraid that no country has achieved more than the United States. Only five years after the establishment of NATO, that is, on October 23, 1954, the United States, Britain, France and other countries concluded the Paris Agreement, and even boldly invited the Federal Republic of Germany to join NATO.
As we all know, Germany was a defeated country in World War II, and the Yalta Agreement clearly stipulated that in order to prevent the resurgence of fascism, Germany should not have an army after the war. Obviously, such a ridiculous and bottom-line decision was clearly made for the Soviet Union, which immediately protested strongly and demanded that the United States, together with 23 European countries, reject West Germany's decision to join NATO. As a result, there was no doubt that the Soviet protests were like a sea of stones.
We can imagine that in this situation, if the Soviet Union, like Ukraine today, cries and cries in the image of a "victim country", this is probably what the Western countries are happy to see. Hooligans are not afraid of you playing with him, and serious people can't play hooligans. Who would have expected that at this juncture, the Soviet side would be unusual, and instead of taking the usual tough posture to discuss the argument, it would "whisper" and demand that it also join NATO.
In fact, long before the Federal Republic of Germany was incorporated into NATO, the Soviet Union had made a vague statement of what it wanted to join. Moscow stressed that since both world wars broke out as a result of the emergence of opposing military alliances in Europe, why didn't all of Europe first put themselves together in one organization and "replace the establishment of military alliances with joint consultation and cooperation"? Implication: If the Soviet Union is also put into NATO or the European Community, everyone is a family, then isn't all problems solved from the root cause?
Obviously, joining NATO is probably not the fundamental goal of the Soviet Union, and this statement is to condemn the behavior of the European and American gangs in provoking trouble. Who expected that after the defeated West Germany joined NATO, the Soviet Union, instead of being angry, once again submitted its application to join NATO "more formally". The Soviets first showed their "sincerity": Moscow said that if the United States, Britain, and France gave the green light, then the Soviet Union would immediately stop expanding and would never interfere in the development of other countries; not only that, they would also carry out economic reforms and political changes in accordance with the demands of Western countries, and even be willing to take the initiative to reduce military strength until the European countries were satisfied. In exchange, the Soviets offered only one condition, which was to immediately expel West Germany from NATO.
This set of operations of the Soviet Union is very subtle: the Western countries engaged in NATO, which is obviously aimed at the Soviet Union, and it is absolutely impossible for the latter to join. The Soviet Union took this for granted, offering conditions that were difficult for the Western countries to refuse, and at the same time making demands that were not excessive, and the other side had no reason to refuse. Moreover, on the question of accepting West Germany, the United States, Britain, and France were indeed at a loss. But there was only one outcome – the Soviet Union's application to join NATO would certainly be rejected. The Soviet Union's move of "retreating to advancing" fully exposed the sinister intentions of the United States, Britain, and France, which were in cahoots, and the latter immediately fell into a very embarrassing situation.
From the above, it is not difficult to see that the "attempt" of the Soviet Union to join NATO is actually a means of counterattack. Sure enough, only half a year later, the Warsaw Pact came into being, and the GDR was prominently listed. It is worth mentioning that unlike the United States, Britain, and France, which used the cover of "cooperative development" and "security guarantees" as a cover, on the day of the establishment of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet Union made a harsh statement: If the provisions of the Paris Agreement are implemented, then the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries will take joint measures in organizing armed forces and joint commands.
Looking at this history now, in the process of confronting the Western countries' wild entanglements, the toughness shown by the Soviet Union is really admirable. For a truly powerful country, spiritual strength is more of a deterrent. But looking closely at the Lineup of the Warsaw Pact, these "allies" of the Soviet Union were clearly not as strong as the Western European countries. We can't help but ask: How much can these brothers help? In other words, the Warsaw Pact may be just a existence that "exists for the sake of existence", and its symbolic significance may be greater than its actual significance.
It is worth mentioning that decades later, the Soviet Union also had an informal application to join NATO.
In June 1990, during a visit to the United States, Gorbachev proposed that a reunified Germany could not remain in NATO. As soon as the words fell out, he said with a bit of joke that he might as well let the Soviet Union join NATO. President Bush did not immediately give an answer to these two questions. Gordish's second "request" is obviously just a joke, but in the face of the stormy situation, the exhausted Gorbachev joke is probably more or less sincere.