Warszawa

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Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance Military alliance 1955–1991 → Member states: Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany², Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania. Capital Not specified Language(s) Russian, Polish, German, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Albanian Political structure Military alliance Supreme Commander  - 1955–60 (first) Ivan Konev  - 1989-91 (last) Petr Lushev Head of Unified Staff  - 1955–62 (first) Aleksei Antonov  - 1989–90 (last) Vladimir Lobov Historical era Cold War  - Established 17 May 1955  - Hungarian crisis 4 November 1956  - Czechoslovakian crisis 21 August 1968  - German reunification² 3 October 1990  - Disestablished 1 July 1991 ¹ HQ in Moscow, USSR. ² A 24 November 1990 treaty withdrew the German Democratic Republic from the Warsaw Treaty; at reunification, it became integral to NATO Pact.

The Warsaw Treaty (1955–91) is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, also called called "Warsaw pact" by Cold War time propaganda subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland. In the Communist Bloc, the treaty was the military analogue of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon), the Communist (East) European economic community. The Warsaw Treaty was the Soviet Bloc’s military response to West Germany’s October 1954 integration to NATO Pact, per the Paris Pacts of 1954.^[1][2][3]

Communist Bloc Conclave: The Warsaw Pact conference, 11 May 1955, Warsaw, Poland.

[edit] Nomenclature

Soviet philatelic commemoration: At its 20th anniversary in 1975, the Warsaw Pact remains On Guard for Peace and Socialism.

In the West, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is often called as the Warsaw Pact military alliance; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP. Elsewhere, in the member states, the Warsaw Treaty is known as:

• Albanian: Pakti i miqësisë, bashkpunimit dhe i ndihmës së përbashkët
• Bulgarian: Договор за дружба, сътрудничество и взаимопомощ
  • Romanized Bulgarian: Dogovor za druzhba, satrudnichestvo i vzaimopomosht
• Czech: Smlouva o přátelství, spolupráci a vzájemné pomoci
• Slovak: Zmluva o priateľstve, spolupráci a vzájomnej pomoci
• German: Vertrag über Freundschaft, Zusammenarbeit und gegenseitigen Beistand
• Hungarian: Barátsági, együttműködési és kölcsönös segítségnyújtási szerződés
• Polish: Układ o Przyjaźni, Współpracy i Pomocy Wzajemnej
• Romanian: Tratatul de prietenie, cooperare şi asistenţă mutuală
• Russian: Договор о дружбе, сотрудничестве и взаимной помощи
  • Romanized Russian: Dogovor o druzhbe, sotrudnichestve i vzaimnoy pomoshchi

[edit] Member States

The Cold War (1945–90): NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact, the status of forces in 1973.

The eight member countries of the Warsaw Treaty pledged the mutual defense of any member who is attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-interference in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence. The multi-national Communist armed forces’ sole joint action was the Warsaw Treaty involvment of Czechoslovakia crisis, in August 1968. The founding signatories to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance consisted of the following communist nations:

• People's Republic of Albania (withheld support in 1961 because of the Sino-Soviet split, formally withdrew in 1968)
• People's Republic of Bulgaria
• Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic since 1960)
• German Democratic Republic (withdrew in September 1990, before German reunification)
• People's Republic of Hungary
• People's Republic of Poland
• People's Republic of Romania (Socialist Republic of Romania since 1965)
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

[edit] Structure

The Warsaw Treaty’s organisation was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled civil matters, and the Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Treaty forces also was the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the head of the Warsaw Treaty Unified Staff also was the First Deputy Head of General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, USSR Dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces, as the USA dominated NATO Pact.^[4]

[edit] History

In May 1955, the USSR established the Warsaw Treaty in response to the West’s integration of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO Pact in October 1954 — only nine years after the German Nazi Régime (1933–45) that ended only with the Soviet conquest of Germany during the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). Nevertheless, for 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty never warred against each other in Europe — yet did fight the proxy wars that composed the Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91).

Beginning at the Cold War’s conclusion, in late 1989, popular civil and political public discontent forced the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries from power — independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika- and glasnost-induced institutional collapse of Communist government in the USSR.^[5] In the event the populaces of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Albania, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria deposed their Communist governments in the period from 1989–91.

On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President, Václav Havel (1989–92), formally ended the 1955 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. Four months later, the USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.

[edit] Eastern Europe after the Warsaw Treaty

On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO Pact; later, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia joined during March 2004; and Albania joined on 1 April 2009.

In November 2005, the conservative Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the Institute of National Remembrance who published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006. Yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. In the event, 30 of the reserved 100 documents were published; 70 remained secret, and unpublished.

Among the documents published is the Warsaw Treaty 's nuclear war plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine — a short, sharp, shock capturing Western Europe, using nuclear weapons, in self defense, after a NATO first strike. The plan originated as a 1979 field training exercise war game, and metamorphosed into official Warsaw Treaty battle doctrine, until the late 1980s — thus why the People’s Republic of Poland was a nuclear weapons base, first, to 178, then, to 250 tactical-range rockets. Doctrinally, as a Soviet-style (offensive) battle plan, Seven Days to the River Rhine gave commanders few defensive-war strategies for fighting NATO in Warsaw Treaty territory.^{[citation needed]}

The Cold War (1945–90): NATO (blue) and the Warsaw Pact (red).

[edit] See also

• Collective Security Treaty Organisation (treaty among 6 post-Soviet states)
• Eastern Bloc

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Vojtech Mastny, Malcolm Byrne, Magdalena Klotzbach: A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955–1991, Central European University Press, Budapest, 2005, ISBN 9637326081, ISBN 978-9637326080
• William J. Lewis: The Warsaw Pact: Arms, Doctrine and Strategy, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. 1982. ISBN 0-07-031746-1. Surveys the armed forces, strategy, a campaign against NATO, matériel, uniforms, and nation- and rank-insignia.
• Václav Havel: To the Castle and Bac New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2007.
• (German) Frank Umbach: Das rote Bündnis: Entwicklung und Zerfall des Warschauer Pakts, 1955–1991. Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag, 2005.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Warsaw Pact

• Documents of the Warsaw Pact archives, Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security (PHP)
• The CWIHP Warsaw Pact Document Collection

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