How did the ‘Soviet NATO’ appear?
On May 14, 1955, in the capital of Poland, European socialist countries signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. Thus, the Warsaw Pact Organization was created.
The creation of the military-political bloc was a response to the accession of West Germany to NATO. This violated the agreement on the demilitarized status of Germany, reached by the allies at the Potsdam Conference in 1945.
The new organization included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Albania. Of course, the USSR took on the main role in it – all the commanders-in-chief of the joint forces and chiefs of staff were Soviet military leaders.
In 1961, however, the bloc suffered its first loss: Albania de facto left the organization, due to a conflict with the USSR. Seven years later, it was formalized.
The most serious challenge for the Warsaw Pact Organization was the so-called ‘Prague Spring’ of 1968, a period of liberalization and radical reforms in Czechoslovakia. On August 21, in order to prevent the country from leaving its sphere of influence, the USSR initiated ‘Operation Danube’.
Military contingents from all member countries of the bloc, with the exception of Romania, entered Czechoslovakia. They took control of key facilities in the country, forcing Alexander Dubcek’s government to begin negotiations on a change in political course.
The Warsaw Pact Organization regularly held military exercises, the largest of which was ‘Zapad-81’ (‘West-81’). More than 100,000 troops participated in them.
After the collapse of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, the Warsaw Pact Organization ceased to exist. It was officially dissolved on July 1, 1991, and all its former members soon joined the ranks of NATO, their former enemy.
