What Was the Warsaw Pact?

Even before the end of the Second World War, it became clear that the potential for a new global war was rising. The forces of the West were in an ideological deadlock with the rising power of the Soviet Union.

Immediately, allied planners began to assemble a military alliance that would evolve into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Seeing this as an existential threat, the Soviet Union united the countries under its own sphere of influence in Eastern Europe into a defensive alliance known as the Warsaw Pact.

These two organizations had enough military power to destroy the planet many times over, and the decades that followed would be characterized by very uneasy neighbors in Europe living in fearful times.

The end of World War II left Europe in tatters. From the West, the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, and others had all converged on Germany, while from the East, the Soviet Union rolled like a juggernaut over Berlin, liberating Eastern Europe in the process.

By the end of the war, much of Eastern Europe, including the eastern part of Germany, was under Soviet occupation. Despite the loss of 27 million people, the Soviet Union emerged from the war as a superpower with the strength to rival or even surpass the United States in many areas.

Many saw the Soviet Union as a threat to Western Europe, not least Winston Churchill, who famously declared, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent.” On either side, the great powers would plant and solidify their political ideologies.

In the West, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was created in 1949. Its aim was to be a defensive alliance centered around the ideology of promoting solidarity against any aggression, but in particular, communist aggression.

The original members of this alliance were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Greece and Turkey joined the alliance in 1952, while West Germany became a member in May 1955, the same month the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was established. This treaty became known as the Warsaw Pact.

The driving forces behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact were the ideologies of communism and collective defense against any Western attempts to subvert this ideology. Before this, however, were the concerns of the Czechoslovak leadership, which feared a resurgent Germany and wished to unite with Poland and East Germany in a military alliance.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union, fearing the same, sent a request to join NATO. This was rejected. The Soviet Union had suggested plans for a re-unified Germany but stipulated that it was to be neutral. NATO members refused this idea, believing a neutral state would be subjected to Soviet influence.

Instead, West Germany was accepted into NATO and armed as part of the alliance. As a direct response, the Warsaw Pact was formed on May 14, 1955. One of the first motions passed was the rearming of East Germany as a communist state under the leadership of Walter Ulbricht.

The founding members were The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, The People’s Republic of Bulgaria, The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, The German Democratic Republic, The Hungarian People’s Republic, The Polish People’s Republic, The Socialist Republic of Romania, and the Soviet Union.

With the Kremlin firmly in control, the nature of these countries’ governments was that they were largely controlled by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was still seeking reparations from some of these countries, specifically the ones that had been members of the Axis and had taken part in the invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

There are many examples where Soviet control had to be exerted through military means, but two main incidents stand out: the 1956 invasion of Hungary and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Throughout the decades, it was necessary for the Soviet Union to occasionally exert military power in order to keep control of its satellite states. The first incident in which military force was used in such a way was in Hungary in 1956.

Starting as student protests on October 23, the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi was pressured to veer away from Soviet control. When a new government was installed under the leadership of Imre Nagy, alarm bells rang loudly in Moscow. Nagy promised to withdraw Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and to hold free and fair elections.

On November 4, Soviet troops began reasserting their control. By November 10, the revolution was over, and a new prime minister, János Kádár, was installed as Hungary’s leader.

In 1968, Czechoslovakia would bear the brunt of Soviet military action. Problems started with a command economy not tailored to the unique situation in Czechoslovakia, which was already at a much higher level of industrialization than the model was designed for. As a result, the economy suffered, as did the standard of living. The latter would be the spark that generated student protests.

Students demanded greater freedoms and a change in economic policies, which caused severe unrest and exposed weaknesses in the country’s leader, Antonín Novotný. A transition of power led to the election of Alexander Dubček, who formed a government more open to liberal reform.

Many human rights groups and pro-liberal movements began actively influencing the public in a move that alarmed the Soviet leadership as well as Dubček. The Soviets and Warsaw Pact members tried to intervene to find a diplomatic solution. Dubček, confident that he could solve the issues without the Warsaw Pact’s help, continued attending to the problem.

Fearful of the situation spiraling out of control, On August 20, 1968, Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia to reaffirm complete control over the country. What was termed the “Prague Spring” was crushed. Its leaders were arrested, and a new government was installed, which was not open to any liberal reforms.

Like NATO, the Warsaw Pact was an alliance that stipulated that if one member were attacked, the others would come to its aid.

In NATO, the United States was the foundation of a powerful alliance able to resist any expansionist designs of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union, in turn, served as the vital foundation of the Warsaw Pact. However, the dynamics between the relationships of member states in the Warsaw Pact were different from those in NATO.

Warsaw Pact members had far less ability to defy the will of the Kremlin, and those that did were subject to dangerous consequences such as military action. The member states were independent inasmuch as they were allowed self-determination as long as it fell within the prescribed communist parameters. However, if a country strayed too much from the ideological path or violated Communist Party functions, the Kremlin would get involved.

This led to distrust and opened the doors to a high potential for animosity that was not a hallmark of relationships between NATO members. In practice, the Warsaw Pact exhibited a hierarchy in which the Eastern European satellite states were very much under the control of the Soviet Union.

This grip, however, was not completely solid. Albania left the Warsaw Pact due to differences in ideology in the 1960s. Unlike other Warsaw Pact countries, the Albanian communist leadership had not come to power by the Soviet hand but rather, like Yugoslavia, had chosen communism on its own terms. As such, there was a certain resentment when Soviet authorities expected Albania to fall in line.

Albania also had the luxury of not being bordered by any of the other Warsaw Pact nations, thereby making any military intervention from the Warsaw Pact almost impossible, as it would have to attain permission from other countries (mostly Yugoslavia) to use land and airspace. Albania also had the support of China, which made the Soviets wary in their attempts to exert too much control over it.

Whereas both the Warsaw Pact and NATO provided a framework for a unified military command, the Warsaw Pact also operated as a way for the Soviet Union to exhibit more power at an international level, whether military or diplomatic.

It is difficult to determine which organization was more powerful in terms of military power. Such arguments are academic and rely on many factors, such as quality, command and control, industrial capabilities, and a plethora of others. In terms of pure numbers, it is also difficult to assess the sizes of the forces involved, as both the Warsaw Pact and NATO released widely differing statistics of each other’s armed forces.

What can be said for certain is that both sides had standing forces numbering in the millions of soldiers, and the Warsaw Pact had significantly more tanks and artillery. NATO, on the other hand, had a much larger navy.

By the end of the 1980s, difficult economic issues were plaguing the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev initiated reforms and eventually ended the Soviet Union.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the reunification of Germany, the Warsaw Pact had little reason to exist. These countries left the pact and reformed their governments, leading to a new era of democracy in Eastern Europe.

Legacy of the Warsaw Pact

The legacy of the Warsaw Pact is still clearly visible today. It created a political divide between Western and Eastern Europe that has shaped current politics in the region. While countries in Western Europe have been more accepting of left-leaning politics, many Eastern European countries have become extremely conservative or libertarian in their quest to distance themselves from communism.

This is particularly true among countries that are now members of NATO and perceive Russia as a threat. In addition to current political events, there is also a history of conflict and repression between Russia and certain states in Eastern Europe. Of note is Poland, which has been a historical opponent of Russia for many centuries. Today, Poland is one of the most vocal supporters of NATO and one of Russia’s most zealous critics.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, and NATO’s primary reason for existence disappeared, too. Despite this, NATO continued to expand, and all the former Warsaw Pact countries became new members. In addition, the Baltic States, which were part of the former Soviet Union, also became NATO members. The ramifications of this are a subject of fierce criticism from Russia, which views the expansion as an existential threat to its immediate borders.

As such, the expansion of NATO has been blamed for increased militarization in Europe and has led to a new conflict similar to the Cold War.

The Warsaw Pact’s alliance of countries extended the Soviet Union’s power and kept NATO in check on the European continent. These countries played a vital role in bolstering the Communist Bloc’s size and offset their opponents’ strategic capabilities.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, there seemed little reason for the Warsaw Pact to exist, and it, too, was dissolved.