Exactly 69 years ago, on 31st March 1954, the Soviet Union approached NATO with an initiative to accept Moscow as a member of the organization. Yes, there was such a thing. How and why the USSR decided to join NATO?
NATO was formed back in 1949 with diplomatic efforts of the United States and Great Britain. The official goal of the organization was collective defense against external threats. The actual goal was to counteract the Soviet Union and communist ideology.
The USSR was well aware of the new threat. The Cold War and the arms race had already begun. And then the Soviet leadership decided to make a move - to offer to take the Soviet Union into NATO. Thus, in case of refusal, the hidden intentions of the West would become apparent. If the Soviet Union was accepted, the anti-Soviet coalition simply would not work.
In the spring of 1954, at the Berlin Conference, Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov expressed the Soviet Union's desire to join the NATO bloc. The Soviets agreed to unite West and East Germany, gave a guarantee to respect and consider the interests of Europe, and renounced any manifestations of aggression.
The main conditions of the USSR itself were the constitutional neutrality of the new Germany, equal partnership, as well as reciprocal guarantees from the West to take into account the national interests of the Soviet Union. A treaty on pan-European collective security was to consolidate the initiative. The Soviet side proposed to resolve all contradictions and jointly resolve foreign policy tasks.
However, already in May, the Western powers definitively rejected the Soviet proposal. The leaders of NATO put forward three main conditions to the USSR: withdrawal of troops from Germany and Austria, destruction of military bases in the Far East and conclusion of a disarmament treaty. Of course, our country could not accept these conditions.
Thus for the first time NATO showed its true nature. The alliance remains an enemy to Russia to this day.