The Warsaw Pact, formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, on May 14, 1955. It was formed by the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics in Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. The pact was created as a counterbalance to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and served to maintain Soviet dominance over its Eastern European satellite states through a unified military command and mutual defense commitment. The member states included the Soviet Union, Albania (which later withdrew), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The pact ceased to exist on July 1, 1991, following the democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet influence in the region.
Key aspects of the Warsaw Pact:
- It was a military alliance dominated by the Soviet Union to counter NATO.
- It included a unified military command headquartered in Warsaw.
- The pact was involved in significant military actions such as the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
- Decisions were ultimately controlled by the Soviet Union, unlike NATO which operated on consensus among its members.
- The pact was officially terminated in 1991 after the Cold War ended.
