The Views of the Russian Elite Toward NATO Membership

During more than half a century of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) existence, the attitudes of Soviet and Russian leaders to this alliance have been anything but indifferent. At its inception in 1949, no less than Joseph Stalin (regardless of what his intentions might have been) privately conveyed his interest in joining the club. His failed bid was followed by the flare-up of the Cold War (including venomous anti-NATO rhetoric in Moscow) and then by the Alliance expansion to include Greece and Turkey. In March 1954, a year after Stalin's death, the new Soviet leaders gave the idea another try. In their official response, Britain, France, and the United States dismissed the Soviet request for membership as "completely unreal." The following year saw the birth of the Warsaw Pact and the accession of West Germany to NATO. […]

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