We all know that during the Cold War, the world was divided into two camps: the capitalist partners led by the United States and the socialist brotherhood led by the Soviet Union. Why did the countries that were originally in the arms of the Soviet Union later throw themselves into the arms of NATO?
In 1945, just after the end of World War II, Europe was like a hollowed-out eggshell full of ruins. The United States has come up with a "Marshall Plan" and spent a lot of money to support European countries to rebuild their homes. It didn't take long for Europe to rise from the ashes, and the economy recovered, and people's living standards were getting better and better.
Looking at the brothers who led the Soviet Union, the situation is not so optimistic. Except for the Soviet Union itself, which was slightly better, life in other member states such as Ukraine and Belarus can be described as miserable.
The Soviet Union, nominally a union, has in fact been a centralized state dominated by Russia since the time of Stalin. The status of the other union republics is almost like that of the provinces, and they have to listen to the central government, and all major policies have to be turned according to the baton of Moscow.
From 1948 to 1956, the Soviet Union's iron-fisted policy kept everyone away. The countries of Eastern Europe were ostensibly allies of the Soviet Union, but in fact satellite states were closely monitored. In particular, Poland, an old adversary of the Soviet Union, is known to everyone to have the Soviet Union in its heart.
These countries tried to carry out reforms in the hope of finding their own path of development under the Soviet system, but the Soviet Union had zero tolerance for these "small actions".
In 1956, workers in Poland were living in misery and protested massively to demand higher wages and reduced taxes. The result? The Soviet Union directly sent troops to suppress these workers, who were deemed "treasonous", and either exiled or executed.
In the same year, when the Hungarian government tried to take a socialist road more in line with its national conditions, the Soviet Union sent troops to directly suppress it, and thousands of people were killed in the conflict.
In Czechoslovakia in 1968, they tried to introduce some more open reforms, and on the night of August 20, the Soviets sent 200,000 troops and 5,000 tanks, which was a terrifying scene under the Iron Curtain. After this incident, the reformers in Eastern Europe were completely discouraged knowing that the Soviet Union would never allow them to escape their control.
All this harsh control and repression suffocated the countries of Eastern Europe, especially the three "brothers" of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Although their economy has been initially industrialized,
However, the standard of living is still lagging behind, and the quality of life of the people is far from being comparable with that of Western European countries. The Red education and cultural repression imposed by the Soviet Union in these countries made the people's desire for freedom even stronger.
In 1980 the situation changed subtly. The economic problems of the Soviet Union erupted, and the global landscape was quietly changing. When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, he put forward a policy of "openness" and "reconstruction", hoping to build a more open and moderate model of socialism. This reform caused a certain positive response in the Soviet Union, but it was too late for the Eastern European countries, which aspired to completely break away from Soviet control.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, Eastern European countries saw an opportunity to break through the Soviet yoke. Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and other countries quickly held free elections that overthrew communist governments in favor of democratic institutions and market economies. This series of actions is known as the "Eastern European Upheaval".
In the years that followed, these countries went through a painful but hopeful period of transition. Economic restructuring, privatization and the overhaul of the political system were fraught with challenges, but they also brought new life to those countries.
They seek a more stable and secure international environment, and NATO, as a powerful military alliance, is naturally their first choice.
The formal accession of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia to NATO in 1999 marked their complete departure from the shadow of the Soviet Union and acceptance of the Western umbrella.
Why did these former Soviet satellites choose to join NATO? The reason is simple: they want security, they want development, and they want freedom. Under the rule of the Soviet Union, they experienced too much repression and bondage, and when history gave them the opportunity to choose, they did not hesitate to choose a future that would guarantee their national security and political freedom.