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{{Short description|International military alliance of Eastern European states (1955–1991)}}{{distinguish|Warsaw Convention|Treaty of Warsaw (disambiguation){{!}}Treaty of Warsaw}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}{{Use Oxford spelling|date=May 2020}}

factoids

| image = Warsaw Pact Logo.svg| image_size = 150| map = Warsaw Pact in 1990 (orthographic projection).svg| map_size = 200| map_caption = The Warsaw Pact in 1990| abbreviation = TFCMA, WP, WTOCollective Security Treaty OrganizationWarsaw, Polish People's Republic>PolandMoscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic>Russian SFSR, Soviet Union| num_members_year =

• {{flagcountry|size=22px|People's Socialist Republic of Albania{edih}{{efn|Independent permanent non-Soviet member since 1961, because of the Albanian–Soviet split, formally withdrew in 1968.}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|People's Republic of Bulgaria}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|East Germany}}{{efn|Formally withdrew in September 1990.}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|Hungarian People's Republic}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|Polish People's Republic}}
• {{flagcountry|size=22px|Socialist Republic of Romania}}{{efn|Independent permanent non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, having freed itself from its Soviet satellite status by the early 1960s.BOOK,weblink Romania Confronts Its Communist Past: Democracy, Memory, and Moral Justice, 132, 978-1107025929, Tismaneanu, Vladimir, Vladimir Tismăneanu

first2 = Mariuspublisher=Cambridge University Press, HTTPS://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/BOOKS?ID=HAFLHZGZTT4C&PG=PA1075>PUBLISHER=TAYLOR & FRANCISPAGE=1075 LAST1 = COOK LAST2 = COOK YEAR = 2001, }}

• {{flagcountry|size=22px|Soviet Union}}}}

Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization>Supreme commanderIvan Konev (first)|Pyotr Lushev (last)}}Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization>Chief of combined staffclass=nowrapAleksei Antonov (first)>Vladimir Lobov (last)}}Comecon>Council for Mutual Economic Assistance}}The Warsaw Pact (WP),{{efn|,WEB,weblink Протокольная запись заседания Президиума ЦК КПCC (к пункту I протокола â„– 49), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,WEB,weblink Slovenské pohl'ady, 1997, Matica slovenská, Google Books, }} formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA),{{efn|, , , , , , , , , , , }} was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The term "Warsaw Pact" commonly refers to both the treaty itself and its resultant (wikt:defensive alliance|defensive alliance), the Warsaw Treaty OrganizationWEB, Milestones: 1953–1960 – Office of the Historian,weblink history.state.gov, (WTO).{{efn| (ОВД), (VMT), (АВД), (ОВД), (VLO), (ВКҰ, VKU), (VSO), (ВКУ), (OVZ), (ОВД), (ВШТ, VShT)}} The Warsaw Pact was the military and economic complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the regional economic organization for the Eastern Bloc states of Central and Eastern Europe."In reaction to West Germany's NATO accession, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European client states formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955." Citation from: WEB, NATO website, A short history of NATO,weblink nato.int, 24 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20170326231233weblink">weblink 26 March 2017, live, Laurien Crump (2015). The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969. Routledge, pp. 21–22.Debra J. Allen. The Oder-Neisse Line: The United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War. p. 158. "Treaties approving Bonn's participation in NATO were ratified in May 1955...shortly thereafter Soviet Union...created the Warsaw Pact to counter the perceived threat of NATO"WEB, Introduction,weblink www.php.isn.ethz.ch, WEB, Text of Warsaw Pact,weblink live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131002102140weblink">weblink 2 October 2013, 22 August 2013, United Nations Treaty Collection, Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western Bloc.BOOK, Amos Yoder, Communism in Transition: The End of the Soviet Empires,weblink registration, 1993, Taylor & Francis, 978-0-8448-1738-5, 58, 1 January 2016, BOOK, Bob Reinalda, Routledge History of International Organizations: From 1815 to the Present Day,weblink 2009, Routledge, 978-1-134-02405-6, 369, 1 January 2016,weblink 1 January 2016, live, There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, its own member state, in August 1968 (with the participation of all pact nations except Albania and Romania), which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from the pact less than one month later. The pact began to unravel with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland,weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223090949weblink|date=23 December 2015}} Cover Story: The Holy Alliance By Carl Bernstein Sunday, 24 June 2001 its electoral success in June 1989 and the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989.NEWS, Thomas, Roser, DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln, de, Mass Exodus of the GDR: A Picnic Clears the World, Die Presse, 16 August 2018, East Germany withdrew from the pact following German reunification in 1990. On 25 February 1991, at a meeting in Hungary, the pact was declared at an end by the defense and foreign ministers of the six remaining member states. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. In the following 20 years, the Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the Baltic states.

History

Beginnings

File:Pałac Prezydencki w Warszawie korpus główny 2019.jpg|thumb|right|The Presidential Palace in WarsawWarsaw(File:Warsaw Pact 1955.jpg|thumb|right|Conference during which the Pact was established and signed.)Before the creation of the Warsaw Pact, the Czechoslovak leadership, fearful of a rearmed Germany, sought to create a security pact with East Germany and Poland. These states protested strongly against the re-militarization of West Germany.Europa Antoni Czubiński Wydawn. Poznańskie, 1998, p. 298 The Warsaw Pact was put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO. Soviet leaders, like many European leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain, feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The consequences of German militarism remained a fresh memory among the Soviets and Eastern Europeans.World Politics: The Menu for Choice p. 87Bruce Russett, Harvey Starr, David Kinsella – 2009 The Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 as a response to West Germany's entry into NATO; German militarism was still a recent memory among the Soviets and East Europeans."When the Federal Republic of Germany entered NATO in early May 1955, the Soviets feared the consequences of a strengthened NATO and a rearmed West Germany". Citation from:WEB, United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, The Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955,weblink Office of the Historian, history.state.gov, 24 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151128050302weblink">weblink 28 November 2015, live, United States Department of State, "1955: After objecting to Germany's admission into NATO, the Soviet Union joins Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania in forming the Warsaw Pact.". See chronology in:NEWS,weblink 6 April 2009, Fast facts about NATO, CBC News, 16 July 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120504110549weblink">weblink 4 May 2012, live, As the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states by 1955, the pact has been long considered "superfluous",Laurien Crump (2015). The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969. Routledge. p. 17 and because of the rushed way in which it was conceived, NATO officials labeled it a "cardboard castle".Laurien Crump (2015). The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969. Routledge. p. 1.File:Iron Curtain map.svg|thumb|left|The Iron Curtain (black line){{legend|#FF8282|Warsaw Pact countries}}{{legend|#004990|NATO countries (May 1982 to October 1990)}}{{legend|#C0C0C0|Militarily neutral countries}}{{legend|#57D557|Yugoslavia, member of the Non-Aligned Movement}}The black dot represents West Berlin, an enclave aligned with West Germany. Albania withheld its support to the Warsaw Pact in 1961 due to the Soviet–Albanian splitSoviet–Albanian splitThe USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, had suggested in 1954 that it join NATO, but this was rejected by the US."1954: Soviet Union suggests it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe. U.S. and U.K. reject this". See chronology in:NEWS,weblink 6 April 2009, Fast facts about NATO, CBC News, 16 July 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120504110549weblink">weblink 4 May 2012, live, The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister Molotov made proposals to have Germany reunified{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=197, 201}} and elections for a pan-German government,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=202}} under conditions of withdrawal of the four powers' armies and German neutrality,{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=197–198, 203, 212}} but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, Dulles (USA), Eden (UK), and Bidault (France).{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|pp=211–212, 216}} Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier on 20 March 1952, talks about a German reunification, initiated by the so-called 'Stalin Note', ended after the United Kingdom, France, and the United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the European Defence Community (EDC) and rearm. James Dunn (USA), who met in Paris with Eden, Konrad Adenauer, and Robert Schuman (France), affirmed that "the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians and to press on the European Defense Community".BOOK, Steininger, Rolf, Rolf Steininger, 1991, The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification, Columbia University Press, 56, According to John Gaddis, "there was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer" from the USSR,BOOK, Gaddis, John, John Lewis Gaddis, 1997, We Know Now: Rethinking Cold War History, Clarendon Press, 126, while historian Rolf Steininger asserts that Adenauer's conviction that "neutralization means sovietization", referring to the Soviet Union's policies towards Finland known as finlandization, was the main factor in the rejection of the Soviet proposals.BOOK, Steininger, Rolf, 1991, The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification, Columbia University Press, 80, Adenauer also feared that German unification might have resulted in the end of the CDU's leading political role in the West German Bundestag.BOOK, Steininger, Rolf, 1991, The German Question: The Stalin Note of 1952 and the Problem of Reunification, Columbia University Press, 103, Consequently, Molotov, fearing that the EDC would be directed in the future against the USSR and "seeking to prevent the formation of groups of European States directed against the other European States", made a proposal for a General European Treaty on Collective Security in Europe "open to all European States without regard to their social systems", which would have included the unified Germany (thus rendering the EDC obsolete). But Eden, Dulles, and Bidault opposed the proposal.{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=214}}One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the EDC, but also by Western opponents of the European Defence Community (like French Gaullist leader Gaston Palewski) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in the collective security system in Europe". The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the US, UK, and France to accept the participation of the US in the proposed General European Agreement. As another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by Western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation",{{sfn|Molotov|1954a|p=216}} the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties the question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three Western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact".(File:Soviet big 7.jpg|thumb|right|A 1981 "Soviet Big Seven" threats poster, displaying the equipment of the militaries of the Warsaw Pact)Again, all proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by the UK, US, and French governments shortly after. Emblematic was the position of British General Hastings Ismay, a fierce supporter of NATO expansion. He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954WEB,weblink Soviets tried to join Nato in 1954, Ian Traynor, the Guardian, 17 June 2001, 18 December 2016,weblink 16 February 2017, live, saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force".In April 1954, Adenauer made his first visit to the United States, meeting Nixon, Eisenhower, and Dulles. Ratification of the EDC was delayed but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that the EDC would have to become a part of NATO.{{sfn|Adenauer|1966a|p=662}}Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too.WEB,weblink The Warsaw Pact is formed, History (U.S. TV channel), History Channel, 22 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151223050529weblink">weblink 23 December 2015, live, On 30 August 1954, the French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate West Germany militarily with the West. The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: West Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain German rearmament outside NATO.File:ParkPatriot2015part4-12.jpg|thumb|left|A typical Soviet military jeep UAZ-469UAZ-469On 23 October 1954, the admission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the North Atlantic Pact was finally decided. The incorporation of West Germany into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange, Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway at the time.NEWS,weblink West Germany accepted into Nato, BBC News, 9 May 1955, 17 January 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120106185539weblink">weblink 6 January 2012, live, In November 1954, the USSR requested a new European Security Treaty,BOOK, Indivisible Germany: Illusion or Reality?, James H., Wolfe, Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, 73, in order to make a final attempt to not have a remilitarized West Germany potentially opposed to the Soviet Union, with no success.On 14 May 1955, the USSR and seven other Eastern European countries "reaffirming their desire for the establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems" established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO,WEB,weblink Formation of Nato and Warsaw Pact, History (U.S. TV channel), History Channel, 22 December 2015,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20151223045828weblink">weblink 23 December 2015, live, declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security".One of the founding members, East Germany, was allowed to re-arm by the Soviet Union and the National People's Army was established as the armed forces of the country to counter the rearmament of West Germany.NEWS,weblink No shooting please, we're German, The Economist, 13 October 2012, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from East Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour the country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $15 billion to $20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under the Marshall Plan."BOOK, Mark, Kramer, Mark Kramer (journalist), The Soviet Bloc and the Cold War in Europe, Klaus, Larres, Klaus Larres,weblink A Companion to Europe Since 1945, Wiley (publisher), Wiley, 2014, 978-1-118-89024-0, 79, In November 1956, Soviet forces invaded Hungary, a Warsaw Pact member state, and violently put down the Hungarian Revolution. After that, the USSR made bilateral 20-year-treaties with Poland (17 December 1956),spiegel.de: Warum steht in Polen eine Sowjet-Garnison? (Der Spiegel 20/1983) the GDR (12 March 1957),see also Group of Soviet Forces in Germany Romania (15 April 1957; Soviet forces were later removed as part of Romania's de-satellization),see also History of Romania#Communist period (1947–1989) and Hungary (27 May 1957),JOURNAL,weblink 2195705, 10.2307/2195705, 1, 1958, The American Journal of International Law, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--Hungarian People's Republic: Agreement on the Legal Status of the Soviet Forces Temporarily Present on the Territory of the Hungarian People's Republic, 52, 215–221, 246005881, ensuring that Soviet troops were deployed in these countries.

Members

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0529-029, Berlin, Tagung Warschauer Pakt, Gruppenfoto.jpg|thumb|right|Meeting of the seven representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries in East Berlin in May 1987. From left to right: Gustáv Husák (Czechoslovakia), Todor Zhivkov (Bulgaria), Erich Honecker (East Germany), Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union), Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romania), Wojciech Jaruzelski (Poland), and János KádárJános KádárThe founding signatories of the Pact consisted of the following communist governments:

• {{flagicon|Albania|1946}} People's Socialist Republic of Albania (withheld support in 1961 because of the Albanian–Soviet split, but formally withdrew on 13 September 1968)
• {{flagicon|People's Republic of Bulgaria}} People's Republic of BulgariaWEB,weblink The Warsaw Pact is formed – May 14, 1955, History.com, 23 August 2018,weblink 18 August 2018, live,
• {{flagicon|Czechoslovakia}} Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
• {{flag|East Germany}} (German Democratic Republic; officially withdrew on 24 September 1990 in preparation for German reunification, with Soviet consent and a "remarkable yet hardly noticed" ceremony, ceasing to exist altogether at midnight on 3 October)BOOK,weblink Routledge, Longman Companion to Germany Since 1945, 59, 978-1317884248, Webb, Adrian, Adrian Webb, 2014, BOOK,weblink Berghahn Books, Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification, 297, 978-1845457877, Bozo, Édéric, 2009, BOOK,weblink Oxford University Press, Germany: 1933–1990, 537, 978-0-19-926598-5, Winkler, Heinrich August, Heinrich August Winkler, 2006, BOOK,weblink Routledge, Germany in the Twentieth Century, 261, 978-1317542285, Childs, David, David Childs (academic), 2014, BOOK,weblink University of Washington Press, German Unification and Its Discontents, 54, 978-0295974910, Gray, Richard T., Wilke, Sabine, 1996,
• {{flagicon|HPR}} Hungarian People's Republic (temporarily withdrew from 1–4 November 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution)
• {{flagicon|PPR}} Polish People's Republic
• {{flagicon|RSR}} Socialist Republic of Romania (the only independent permanent non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, having freed itself from its Soviet satellite status by the early 1960s)
• {{flag|Soviet Union}}

Observers

{{flagcountry|MPR}}: In July 1963, the Mongolian People's Republic asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty.BOOK,weblink A Cardboard Castle?: An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991, Vojtech, Mastny, Vojtech Mastny (historian), Malcolm, Byrne, 2005, Central European University Press, 23 August 2018, Google Books,weblink 23 August 2018, live, 978-9637326080, Due to the emerging Sino-Soviet split, Mongolia remained in an observer status. In what was the first instance of a Soviet initiative being blocked by a non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, Romania blocked Mongolia's accession to the Warsaw Pact.BOOK, Laurien, Crump, 2015, The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969, Routledge,weblink 77, 978-1317555308, BOOK,weblink Cambridge University Press, Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe, 398, 978-1108418331, Lüthi, Lorenz M., 19 March 2020, The Soviet government agreed to station troops in Mongolia in 1966.WEB,weblink Soviet Troops to Leave Mongolia in 2 Years, Reuters, 3 March 1990, 23 August 2018, LA Times,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20181010153559weblink">weblink 10 October 2018, live, At first, China, North Korea, and North Vietnam had observer status,WEB,weblink Warsaw Treaty Organization, ABC-CLIO, 3 March 1990, 29 August 2020, 16 August 2021,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20210816182114weblink">weblink dead, but China withdrew in 1961 as a consequence of the Albanian-Soviet split, in which China backed Albania against the USSR as part of the larger Sino-Soviet split of the early 1960s.JOURNAL, Lüthi, Lorenz M., 8 October 2007, The People's Republic of China and the Warsaw Pact Organization, 1955–63,weblink Cold War History (journal), Cold War History, 7, 4, 479–494, 10.1080/14682740701621762, 153463433, 17 February 2023,

During the Cold War

File:Praga 11.jpg|thumb|left|Soviet tanks, marked with white crosses to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks,WEB,weblink 1968 – The Prague Spring, Austria 1989 – Year of Miracles, en-US,weblink 8 July 2019, live, 8 July 2019, In the morning hours of August 21, 1968, Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks roll in the streets of Prague; to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks, they are marked with white crosses., on the streets of Prague during the Warsaw Pact invasion of CzechoslovakiaWarsaw Pact invasion of CzechoslovakiaFor 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage. These included the Korean War, Vietnam War, Bay of Pigs invasion, Dirty War, Cambodian–Vietnamese War, and others.WEB,weblink America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War, 2 October 2013, 23 August 2018,weblink 12 June 2018, live, WEB,weblink Crisis Points of the Cold War, Boundless World History, courses.lumenlearning.com, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, File:Overzicht op Museumplein met spandoek The Dutch disease is better for peace o, Bestanddeelnr 253-8627.jpg|thumb|Protest in Amsterdam against the nuclear arms racenuclear arms raceIn 1956, following the declaration of the Imre Nagy government of the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government.WEB,weblink The Hungarian Uprising of 1956, History Learning Site, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, Soviet forces crushed the nationwide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens.WEB,weblink Recalling the Hungarian revolution, 60 years on, Matthew, Percival, 23 October 2016, CNN, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, another Warsaw Pact member state, in August 1968.WEB,weblink Soviets Invade Czechoslovakia – Aug 20, 1968, History.com, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, All member countries, with the exception of the Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania, participated in the invasion.WEB,weblink Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Agnieszka, Nosowska, www.enrs.eu, 23 August 2018,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180823174239weblink">weblink 23 August 2018, dead, The German Democratic Republic provided only minimal support. (Albania withdrew from the pact one month after this intervention.)

End of the Cold War

File:00 Páneurópai Piknik emlékhely.jpg|thumb|150px|The Pan-European PicnicPan-European PicnicIn 1989, popular civil and political public discontent toppled the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries. The beginning of the end of the Warsaw Pact, regardless of military power, was the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. The event, which goes back to an idea by Otto von Habsburg, caused the mass exodus of GDR citizens and the media-informed population of Eastern Europe felt the loss of power of their rulers and the Iron Curtain broke down completely. Though Poland's new Solidarity government under Lech Wałęsa initially assured the Soviets that it would remain in the Pact,NEWS,weblink Polish Army: Enigma in the Soviet Alliance, The New York Times, 22 August 1989, 29 May 2021,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171220112328weblink">weblink 20 December 2017, live, Trainor, Bernard E., Bernard E. Trainor, this broke the brackets of Eastern Europe, which could no longer be held together militarily by the Warsaw Pact.Miklós Németh in Interview with Peter Bognar, Grenzöffnung 1989: „Es gab keinen Protest aus Moskau“ (German – Border opening in 1989: There was no protest from Moscow), in: Die Presse 18 August 2014.„Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows“ (German – 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 17 May 2010. Independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika and liberal glasnost policies revealed shortcomings and failures (i.e. of the soviet-type economic planning model) and induced institutional collapse of the Communist government in the USSR in 1991.{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ().|date=May 2022}} From 1989 to 1991, Communist governments were overthrown in Albania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union.As the last acts of the Cold War were playing out, several Warsaw Pact states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary) participated in the US-led coalition effort to liberate Kuwait in the Gulf War.On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from remaining Pact countries meeting in Hungary. On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President Václav HavelNEWS,weblink Death Knell for Warsaw Pact, Steven, Greenhouse, Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, 2 July 1991, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.

Structure

The Warsaw Treaty's organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland.{{multiple image| total_width = 320| image1 = Ivan Stepanovich Konev.jpg| image2 = Aleksei Antonov 3.jpgMarshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev (left) served as the first Supreme Commander of the Pact (1955–1960) while Army General (Soviet rank)>Army General Aleksei Antonov served as the first Chief of Combined Staff of the Pact (1955–1962).}}Although an apparently similar collective security alliance, the Warsaw Pact differed substantially from NATO. De jure, the eight-member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence.WEB,weblink How the Russians Used the Warsaw Pact, 23 August 2018,weblink 23 August 2018, live, However, de facto, the Pact was a direct reflection of the USSR's authoritarianism and undisputed domination over the Eastern Bloc, in the context of the so-called Soviet Empire, which was not comparable to that of the United States over the Western Bloc.JOURNAL,weblink Atlantische Tijdingen, 57, 1967, 45343492, 9 January 2022, Differences Between Nato and the Warsaw Pact, 1–16, All Warsaw Pact commanders had to be, and have been, senior officers of the Soviet Union at the same time and appointed for an unspecified term length: the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, which commanded and controlled all the military forces of the member countries, was also a First Deputy Minister of Defence of the USSR, and the Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces. On the contrary, the Secretary General of NATO and Chair of the NATO Military Committee are positions with fixed term of office held on a random rotating basis by officials from all member countries through consensus.Despite the American hegemony (mainly military and economic) over NATO, all decisions of the North Atlantic Alliance required unanimous consensus in the North Atlantic Council and the entry of countries into the alliance was not subject to domination but rather a natural democratic process. In the Warsaw Pact, decisions were ultimately taken by the Soviet Union alone; the countries of the Warsaw Pact were not equally able to negotiate their entry in the Pact nor the decisions taken.Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away.WEB,weblink Warsaw Pact ends, History.com,

Romania and Albania

(File:Eastern bloc.png|thumb|The Warsaw Pact before its 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, showing the Soviet Union and its satellites (red) and the two independent non-Soviet members: Romania and Albania (pink))Romania and, until 1968, Albania – were exceptions. Together with Yugoslavia, which broke with the Soviet Union before the Warsaw Pact was created, these three countries completely rejected the Soviet doctrine formulated for the Pact. Albania officially left the organization in 1968, in protest of its invasion of Czechoslovakia. Romania had its own reasons for remaining a formal member of the Warsaw Pact, such as Nicolae Ceaușescu's interest of preserving the threat of a Pact invasion so he could sell himself as a nationalist, as well as privileged access to NATO counterparts and a seat at various European forums which otherwise he would not have had (for instance, Romania and the Soviet-led remainder of the Warsaw Pact formed two distinct groups in the elaboration of the Helsinki Final Act).BOOK,weblink Lexington Books, Conflict Management in the Middle East, 242, 978-0669141733, Ben-Dor, Gabriel, Dewitt, David Brian, 1987, When Andrei Grechko assumed command of the Warsaw Pact, both Romania and Albania had for all practical purposes defected from the Pact. In the early 1960s, Grechko initiated programs meant to preempt Romanian doctrinal heresies from spreading to other Pact members. Romania's doctrine of territorial defense threatened the Pact's unity and cohesion. No other country succeeded in escaping from the Warsaw Pact like Romania and Albania did. For example, the mainstays of Romania's tank forces were locally developed models. Soviet troops were deployed to Romania for the last time in 1963, as part of a Warsaw Pact exercise. After 1964, the Soviet Army was barred from returning to Romania, as the country refused to take part in joint Pact exercises.BOOK,weblink Stanford University Press, The Diffusion of Military Technology and Ideas, 140–143, 978-0804745352, Goldman, Emily O., Eliason, Leslie C., 2003, File:TR-85tankRomanianRevolution1989.jpg|thumb|left|A Romanian TR-85 tank in December 1989 (Romania's TR-85 and TR-580 tanks were the only non-Soviet tanks in the Warsaw Pact on which restrictions were placed under the 1990 CFE TreatyWEB,weblink Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Affairs, 1991, US Department of State Dispatch, Volume 2, p. 13, 1991, )]]Even before the advent of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania was in fact an independent country, as opposed to the rest of the Warsaw Pact. To some extent, it was even more independent than Cuba (a communist Soviet-aligned state that was not a member of the Warsaw Pact). The Romanian regime was largely impervious to Soviet political influence, and Ceaușescu was the only declared opponent of glasnost and perestroika. On account of the contentious relationship between Bucharest and Moscow, the West did not hold the Soviet Union responsible for the policies pursued by Bucharest. This was not the case for the other countries in the region, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland.BOOK,weblink Jacques Lévesque, University of California Press, May 28, 2021, The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe, pp. 192–193, 978-0520364981, Lévesque, Jacques, 28 May 2021, Univ of California Press, At the start of 1990, the Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, implicitly confirmed the lack of Soviet influence over Ceaușescu's Romania. When asked whether it made sense for him to visit Romania less than two weeks after its revolution, Shevardnadze insisted that only by going in person to Romania could he figure out how to "restore Soviet influence".BOOK,weblink Pan Macmillan, The End of the Cold War: 1985–1991, 429, 978-1447287285, Service, Robert, Robert Service (historian), 2015, Romania requested and obtained the complete withdrawal of the Soviet Army from its territory in 1958. The Romanian campaign for independence culminated on 22 April 1964 when the Romanian Communist Party issued a declaration proclaiming that: "Every Marxist–Leninist Party has a sovereign right...to elaborate, choose or change the forms and methods of socialist construction." and "There exists no "parent" party and "offspring" party, no "superior" and "subordinated" parties, but only the large family of communist and workers' parties having equal rights." and also "there are not and there can be no unique patterns and recipes". This amounted to a declaration of political and ideological independence from Moscow.BOOK,weblink Springer, Eastern Europe in 1968: Responses to the Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact Invasion, 195, 978-3319770697, McDermott, Kevin, Stibbe, Matthew, 2018, BOOK,weblink Jonathan Eyal, Springer, Warsaw Pact and the Balkans: Moscow's Southern Flank, p. 68, 978-1349099412, Eyal, Jonathan, 1989, Springer, BOOK,weblink Cambridge University Press, Internationalism and the Ideology of Soviet Influence in Eastern Europe, 51, 978-0521414388, Valdez, Jonathan C., 1993, BOOK,weblink Princeton University Press, Dynamics of Communism in Eastern Europe, XVI, 978-1400877225, Burks, Richard Voyles, 2015, File:IAR-93SC aircraft.jpg|thumb|The Romanian IAR-93 Vultur was not the only combat jet designed and built by a non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact.WEB,weblink Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Incorporated, 1994, RFE/RL Research Report: Weekly Analyses from the RFE/RL Research Institute, Volume 3, p. 3, 1994, See also Czechoslovak jet Aero L-39 AlbatrosAero L-39 AlbatrosFollowing Albania's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, Romania remained the only Pact member with an independent military doctrine which denied the Soviet Union use of its armed forces and avoided absolute dependence on Soviet sources of military equipment.BOOK,weblink Cambridge University Press, Soviet Strategy and the New Military Thinking, 102, 110 and 113–114, 978-0521407694, Leebaert, Derek, Derek Leebaert, Dickinson, Timothy, 1992, Romania was the only non-Soviet Warsaw Pact member which was not obliged to militarily defend the Soviet Union in case of an armed attack.BOOK,weblink Springer, Warsaw Pact and the Balkans: Moscow's Southern Flank, 74, 978-1349099412, Eyal, Jonathan, 1989, Bulgaria and Romania were the only Warsaw Pact members that did not have Soviet troops stationed on their soil.BOOK,weblink Nelson Canada, An Introduction to Government and Politics: A Conceptual Approach, 75, 978-0176034856, Dickerson, M. O., Flanagan, Thomas, Thomas Flanagan (political scientist), 1990, In December 1964, Romania became the only Warsaw Pact member (save Albania, which would leave the Pact altogether within 4 years) from which all Soviet advisors were withdrawn, including those in the intelligence and security services.BOOK,weblink R. J. Crampton, Routledge, 2014, The Balkans Since the Second World War, p. 189, 978-1317891178, Crampton, R. J., R. J. Crampton, 2014, Routledge, Not only did Romania not participate in joint operations with the KGB, but it also set up "departments specialized in anti-KGB counterespionage".BOOK,weblink Lexington Books, Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics, and Society, 536, 978-0739105924, Carey, Henry F., 2004, Romania was neutral in the Sino-Soviet split.BOOK,weblink Prentice-Hall, Civilization in the West, 683, 978-0131350120, Brinton, Crane, Crane Brinton, Christopher, John B., Wolff, Robert Lee, Robert Lee Wolff, 1973, BOOK,weblink Prentice-Hall, Today's Isms: Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, Socialism, 68, 978-0139243998, Ebenstein, William, Fogelman, Edwin, 1980, BOOK,weblink Pinter Publishers, Pinter, Romania: Politics, Economics and Society : Political Stagnation and Simulated Change, 177, 978-0861874385, Shafir, Michael, Michael Shafir, 1985, Its neutrality in the Sino-Soviet dispute along with being the small Communist country with the most influence in global affairs enabled Romania to be recognized by the world as the "third force" of the Communist world. Romania's independence – achieved in the early 1960s through its freeing from its Soviet satellite status – was tolerated by Moscow because Romania was not bordering the Iron Curtain – being surrounded by socialist states – and because its ruling party was not going to abandon communism.WEB,weblink Max Ascoli, Reporter Magazine, Company, The Reporter, Volume 33, p. 32, Ascoli, Max, Max Ascoli, 1965, WEB,weblink Yong Liu, Institutul Național pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2006, Sino-Romanian Relations: 1950's–1960's, p. 199, {{Dead link|date=July 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}Although certain historians such as Robert King and Dennis Deletant argue against the usage of the term "independent" to describe Romania's relations with the Soviet Union, favoring "autonomy" instead on account of the country's continued membership within both the Comecon and the Warsaw Pact along with its commitment to socialism, this approach fails to explain why in July 1963 Romania blocked Mongolia's accession to the Warsaw Pact, why in November 1963 Romania voted in favor of a UN resolution to establish a nuclear-free zone in Latin America when the other Soviet-aligned countries abstained, or why in 1964 Romania opposed the Soviet-proposed "strong collective riposte" against China (and these are examples solely from the 1963–1964 period).BOOK,weblink Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cold War Perceptions: Romania's Policy Change towards the Soviet Union, 1960–1964, 14, 978-1443873031, Dragomir, Elena, 2015, Soviet disinformation tried to convince the West that Ceaușescu's empowerment was a dissimulation in connivance with Moscow.BOOK,weblink Bloomsbury Publishing, Romania since the Second World War: A Political, Social and Economic History, 61, 978-1472529923, Abraham, Florin, 2016, To an extent this worked, as some historians came to see the hand of Moscow behind every Romanian initiative. For instance, when Romania became the only Eastern European country to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, some historians have speculated that this was at Moscow's whim. However, this theory fails upon closer inspection.BOOK,weblink University of Nebraska Press, The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel, 307, 978-0827618602, Navon, Emmanuel, Emmanuel Navon, 2020, Even during the Cold War, some thought that Romanian actions were done at the behest of the Soviets, but Soviet anger at said actions was "persuasively genuine". In truth, the Soviets were not beyond publicly aligning themselves with the West against the Romanians at times.BOOK,weblink Royal United Services Institute, Managing the Cold War: A View from the Front Line, 85–86, 978-0855161910, Alexander, Michael, Michael Alexander (diplomat), 2005,

Strategy

The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to prevent Central and Eastern Europe being used as a base for its enemies. Its policy was also driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement. A corollary to this was the necessity of military intervention if a country appeared to be "violating" core socialist ideas, i.e. breaking away from the Soviet sphere of influence, explicitly stated in the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Notable military exercises

{{external media|float=right|width=250px|video1=Czechoslovak Military Parade "Shield-84" – Vojenská přehlídka ČSLA "Štít-84}}

• "Szczecin" (Poland, 1962)
• "Vltava" (Czechoslovakia, 1966)
• Operation "Rhodope" (Bulgaria, 1967)
• "Oder-Neisse" (East Germany, 1969)
• Przyjaźń 84 (Poland, 1984)
• Shield 84 (Czechoslovakia, 1984)WEB, NATO and Warsaw Pact begin exercises,weblink UPI,

NATO and Warsaw Pact: comparison of the two forces

NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in Europe{| class"wikitable"

weblink 11 May 2021, Microfiche, !center}} colspan="2" |NATO estimatescenter}} colspan="2" |Warsaw PactestimatesType >NATO >Warsaw Pact >NATO >| Warsaw Pact| 3,573,100| 7,876| 2,783| 2,785| 1,608| 59,470| 11,465| 70,330| 71,560|||| 228| 80| 102| 2| 23| 24

Post–Warsaw Pact

File:History_of_NATO_enlargement.svg|thumb|right|Expansion of NATONATOOn 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Croatia and Albania joined on 1 April 2009.WEB,weblink Archived copy, 23 August 2018,weblink 12 April 2019, live, WEB,weblink NATO Update: Seven new members join NATO, 29 March 2004, 23 August 2018,weblink 12 March 2018, live, The USSR's successor Russia and some other post-Soviet states joined the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in 1992, and the Shanghai Five in 1996, which was renamed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) after Uzbekistan's addition in 2001.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}In November 2005, the Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the Institute of National Remembrance, which published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006, yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. Eventually, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70 remained secret and unpublished. Among the documents published was the Warsaw Treaty's nuclear war plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine – a short, swift invasion and capture of Austria, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands east of the Rhine, using nuclear weapons after a supposed NATO first strike.NEWS, Nicholas, Watt, Nicholas Watt,weblink Poland risks Russia's wrath with Soviet nuclear attack map, The Guardian, 26 November 2005, 14 June 2013, WEB,weblink Poland reveals Warsaw Pact war plans, International Relations and Security Network, 23 December 2014,

See also

• Eastern Bloc
• Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 – treaty that defined Finland's level of neutrality towards Soviet Union
  • Finlandization – the USSR's influence on Finland following the treaty
• Russosphere
• Soviet Empire
• Sovietization
• Treaty of friendship – any treaty establishing close ties between countries

Explanatory notes

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

References

Citations

Works cited

• BOOK, Adenauer, Konrad, Memorie 1945–1953, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1966a,weblinkweblink" title="archive.today/20130801233525weblink">weblink dead, 1 August 2013, it,
• BOOK, Molotov, Vyacheslav, 1954a, La conferenza di Berlino, Ed. di cultura sociale,weblink it,
• {{Country study}}

Further reading

• Faringdon, Hugh. Confrontation: The Strategic Geography of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
• JOURNAL, Heuser, Beatrice, Victory in a Nuclear War? A Comparison of NATO and WTO War Aims and Strategies, Contemporary European History, 1998, 7, 3, 311–327, 10.1017/S0960777300004264, 159502812, Beatrice Heuser,
• Kramer, Mark N. "Civil-military relations in the Warsaw Pact: The East European component". International Affairs. Vol. 61, No. 1, Winter 1984–85. {{JSTOR|2619779}}.
• BOOK, Lewis, William Julian, The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine, and Strategy, 1982, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, Cambridge, Mass., 978-0-07-031746-8, This book presents an overview of all the Warsaw Pact armed forces as well as a section on Soviet strategy, a model land campaign which the Soviet Union could have conducted against NATO.. and a full-color section on the uniforms, nations badges and rank-insignia of the Warsaw Pact. (Later CWIHP, Heuser, and CIA FOIA documents present a much better picture of Soviet plans.)
• Mackintosh, Malcolm. The Evolution of the Warsaw Pact (International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1969)
• BOOK, Mastny, Vojtech, Vojtech Mastny (historian), Byrne, Malcolm, 2005, A Cardboard Castle?: An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991,weblink Central European University Press, Budapest, 978-963-7326-07-3,
• McAdams, A. James. East Germany and Détente. Cambridge University Press, 1985.
• McAdams, A. James. Germany Divided: From the Wall to Reunification. Princeton University Press, 1992 and 1993.

Other languages

• {{ill|lt=Umbach, Frank|Frank Umbach|de}}. BOOK, Das rote Bündnis: Entwicklung und Zerfall des Warschauer Paktes 1955 bis 1991, The Red Alliance: Development and Collapse of the Warsaw Pact: 1955 to 1991, 2005, {{ill, Ch. Links Verlag, de, |location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-86153-362-7|language=de}}
• {{ill|lt=Wahl, Alfred|Alfred Wahl (historian)|de|Alfred Wahl (Historiker)}}. BOOK, La seconda vita del nazismo nella Germania del dopoguerra, The Second Life of Nazism in Postwar Germany, Lindau, Turin, 2007, 978-88-7180-662-4,weblink it,
  • Original edition: BOOK, Wahl, Alfred, La seconde histoire du nazisme dans l'Allemagne fédérale depuis 1945., Armand Colin, Paris, 2006, 2-200-26844-0,weblink fr,

Memoirs

• BOOK, Adenauer, Konrad, Konrad Adenauer, Konrad Adenauer Memoirs 1945–53, Henry Regnery Company, 1966b,weblink registration,
• BOOK, Molotov, Vyacheslav, Vyacheslav Molotov, Statements at Berlin Conference of Foreign Ministers of U.S.S.R., France, Great Britain and U.S.A., January 25 – February 18, 1954, Foreign Languages Publishing House (Soviet Union), Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954b,weblink

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External links

{{commons category}}

• WEB,weblink What was the Warsaw Pact?, North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121030153427weblink">The Woodrow Wilson Center Cold War International History Project's Warsaw Pact Document Collection
• Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security
• Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbook Series / Soviet Union / Appendix C: The Warsaw Pact (1989)
• Map of Russia and the Warsaw Pact (omniatlas.com)
• Soviet Nuclear Weapons in Hungary 1961–1991
• The Warsaw Pact, 1955–1968 by Hugh Collins Embry. Contain extensive documentation of the Pact's first 13 years.

{{Cold War}}{{Communist Eastern and Central Europe}}{{Eastern Bloc}}{{Warsaw Pact militaries}}{{Treaties of Hungary}}{{Marxism–Leninism}}{{International relations}}{{Authority control}}