The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact is the name commonly given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, which was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'. Although this rather cute title sounds more like the agreement which you and your friend have about sending cards to each other on Valentine's Day, it was actually a military treaty, which bound its signatories to come to the aid of the others, should any one of them be the victim of foreign aggression.
Nominally the Warsaw Pact was a response to a similar treaty made by the Western Allies in 1949 (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO) as well as the re-militarization of West Germany in 1954, both of which posed a potential threat to the Eastern countries. Although it was stressed by all that the Warsaw Treaty was based on total equality of each nation and mutual non-interference in one another's internal affairs, the Pact quickly became a powerful political tool for the Soviet Union to hold sway over its allies and harness the powers of their combined military. When Hungary tried to extricate themselves from the agreement in 1956, Soviet forces moved to crush the uprising; and, in 1968, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia (with support from five other Pact members), after the Czech government began to exhibit 'Imperialistic' tendencies.
Following the diminishing power of the USSR in the 1980s and the eventual fall of Communism the treaty became redundant. The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved in Prague in 1991, after successive governments withdrew their support of the treaty.
* This article on the Warsaw Pact is meant to be an informative introduction to Warsaw's history for travellers, and is not meant to be used for academic research. Please do not use it for any academic papers, but instead refer to published academic works and textbooks. *
Comments
TAJAMMUL KAMAL from Pakistan Reply
it is totally based on unipolarization & harmful for the developing countries
Goldfish from United States Reply
Wait does any body know what the political organization of the warsaw pact was?
poopy mouth from Bhutan Reply
i like the part where they showed the turtles mating, i had no idea what those poor little creatures have to go through
SN jha from India Reply
Very informative and unbiased data which shows " negative groupism is always fatal towards humanity" . Thanks.
Uzma from Pakistan Reply
Wel. . This article is really inf0rmative. . Like it! And the main reas0n for warSaw pact made six yearS after NATO is that in 1955 america made west germany as a member of NATO so sovait replied immediately by making Warsaw pact! Thanks. . . !
James from United Kingdom Reply
why did hungary want to leave the pact if it was a pact of friendship?
Emmanuel from United States Reply
A very replete and didactic, aggregate of information pertaining to the significance of treaties. The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance is indefinitely a material source of prospective international law students. The Warsaw Pact military alliance was, without incertitude, dominated by their desire to prevent, at all costs, any further recurrence of a large scale invasion of its territories from the western powers (NATO) and the Paris Pacts of 1954. The members of these states were emotionalized by the previous empires in their attempt for conquest. Very brilliant!
Rick Sims from United States Reply
When will people stop rewriting history in order to promote their own agendas. If you check the facts you will find that the formation of NATO and the rearming of West Germany was done in response to the growing threat of the Soviet Union. The creation of the Warsaw Pact was only a formality.
Luna Doom from United States Reply
Hey that's all the information I need, though it was a little too brief...
anna from United States Reply
Hey yam if u want to be negitive do it somewhere else plz its rude so shut the heck up plz 4 all of our sakes good info helped me with project :)
akshat from India Reply
Very informative and the best site to clear doubts and having something add to your knowledge
Nessness from Canada Reply
Good short summary of the Warsaw pact. I got what I needed for my assignment, thanks.
Parker Paxson from United States Reply
I truly hate americans like yam, that give all of us a bad name, this was an incredibly helpful article and I'm sorry on behalf of all of us "yanks" ;D
hey! from United States Reply
hey yam! can you please stop calling the Warsaw pact retarded? and you spelled it wrong by the way. this is a sensitive topic for european people and it can be offensive by calling it this. it is a helpful site and you need to SHUT UP! leave your comments to yourself and leave the site if you don't like it. just please don't leave your negativity with all of us. Thanks
Gopal Shankar Prasad from India Reply
The write-up is an excellent piece of informative essay on the Warsaw Pact,-its genesis,role during its continuance and termination.Kudos !
Carol from United States Reply
I think this site displays very good detailed information about the Warsaw Pact.... I use this site all the time for American History
Mir Mir J from United States Reply
this gave me GREAT info for my school powerpoint project. it helped lots :0
Linda from Finland Reply
Well written and informative summary; however, I needed to search the comments to find out WHO formed the Warsaw Pact. (Thank you, to the one that included the info:) Otherwise, great work!
Dannii from United Kingdom Reply
Khrushchev created the pact, and I found this site really good for my GCSEs :)
Sophia from United Kingdom Reply
I believe it is a good article however there is still confusion as to WHO created the pact.
zep from United States Reply
Informative and direct. the only discrepency is that communism did not fall. you still have red china, N korea, Vietnam and others.
rachel from United States Reply
would the author of this site stop making fake comments? this article is average. not superb.
Ricky from United States Reply
This worked great. Me and my boyfriend got everything done because of it. It was very informativve for me and my boyfriend.:)
Jessie from United States Reply
This was great! We had to find if this was a reform or revolution and it totally helped me and my partner! We didn't have to use any other sites! Thank you!
heidi from Australia Reply
Hehe it is a cute title c: And it told me what I wanted to know so meh; good enough for me.
Maranda from United States Reply
I liked it. All i needed was a brief summary, but this wow'ed my teacher.
knowledge is power from Egypt Reply
anybody know what took USSR 6 years to create warsaw pact in response of NATO ? what were the reasons for which it took 6 years to make such treaty in response to NATO ?
Anonymous from United States Reply
Technically, since NATO is still going strong and Warsaw has been disbanded,NATO won. But it was basically a stalemate throughout the war. Many people think that USA didn't win, but our goal was to contain communism, and we did that everywhere except Vietnam.
Pia Foulser from Italy Reply
Was good on different points, but could be more detailed with the "key features"
steve from United States Reply
whai think is that article is very good and i like it but my question is were did you find those information?
tobi sowale from Nigeria Reply
thanks so much, i now rily understand the role of warsaw pact in d international system.
Sam from United States Reply
It says to not use on acedemic projects....And I got an A+ on my project doesnt set off any alarms...You people lose >.
derrick from United States Reply
WOW I never knew that writing down facts could be so much fun! Thank you Warsaw-life.com
Ace from United States Reply
It was a good source until I read the end of the paper. I was then unable to use it as a source in the paper I was writing.
steffi from United States Reply
i liked it but it could of gave me more detail about wat it is , who made it and etc.... but yea it was very helpful and all.
A person from United States Reply
it is good to work on educational purposes because it states what states where in it and how it fell and what the treaty was about and it worked prety good.
john from United States Reply
very informational and brief, good for my project on the cold war. good job!
Ania from Poland Reply
Dillon- Warsaw Pact does not exist nor does USSR. Furthermore, there was a unification of the East and West Germany. The nations that Warsaw Pact has been constituted of are presently part of NATO.
shining star from Pakistan Reply
well very good.i had often heard about warsaw pact,but did'nt know what did it actually mean.this article gave me v.precise information.
Gajanan Hirde from India Reply
Yes it was a very wise move by USSR...But ignored the USA policy towards USSR..which in fact was involved in splitting of USSR.Still being dominant in world politics..USA`s next move will be splitting China into pieces. So in India dealt with..Thanks and Good writing..Bye
Sheridan from United States Reply
Thank you for breaking this down in simple where professors talk about but didn't define the terms. I, definitely, will not use it for my exam, but it's nice to understand a topic when people mention it. Thanks, Sheridan
dillon from United States Reply
alot of you are confused what warsaw pact was. it waz the alliance of those who were communists, and nato is those who are democracy, even today nato exist and i believe since nato still exist today so does warsaw pact, its obvious that russia is not happy about loseing to us during the cold war. russia is not your friend. they support any communist country such as china and north korea. those are the countries we have to worry about, atleast thats what i think.
HABIBULLAH from Pakistan Reply
warsaw pact assumed immense in the history of europe.it solve the problems of european states wich were bleeding wounds of batic states.it transfom war into friendship.and assumed trade among anguish states of europe.
Chaudia Adams from United States Reply
thank you so much very informal and wonderful for my project thats counts as more than half of my grade!!! this was a great amount of info with out that much reading, amazing i know i couldnt do this!!
Andrew Kingston from Jamaica Reply
I like the way this is described man, but to be honest i just like to smoke da reefa
history student from Australia Reply
this article was quite helpful. it seems to me that, as stated, this pact was a retaliation to the unification of western eruope. i also feel that the soviet union just wanted to ensure that eastern europe and other communist nations were supporting him and there was no chance of russia surrendering to an act of agression from the west, due to the support of the east.
Interactive map
Popular places
Warsaw Marriott Hotel
Plush accommodation in the city centre
Booze Club
Stylish bar with fine food
Buffo
Elegant restaurant owned by a famous chef
Latest reviews
Oki Doki Hostel Galia: The staff doesn't always reply to letters which is obviously not polite. 99 Restaurant Katie: Outstanding restaurant. Lovely place and definitely recommend to everyone for a lovely dinner. Platinium Reissu-Lasse: The bouncers didn't key us in for some reason. They made it clear that we weren't welcomed. Couldn't even give us tips where to go. Cold and rude service. New Orleans Gentleman's Night Club Adam: Best gentlemen's club in Warsaw. Lovely girls!