Warsaw Pact

Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance
Abbreviation	WTO, WAPA, DDSV
Motto	Union of peace and socialism
Type	Military alliance
Headquarters	Moscow, Soviet Union
Membership	Template:Country data People's Socialist Republic of Albania; Bulgaria; Czechoslovakia; East Germany; Hungary; Poland; Romania; Soviet Union;
Supreme Commander	Ivan Konev (first); Pyotr Lushev (last);
Chief of Combined Staff	Aleksei Antonov (first); Vladimir Lobov (last);
Affiliations	Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

The Warsaw Pact, officially the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was an organization of Central and Eastern European socialistic and people’s democracy states. The states were all allies and would fight together if one of them was attacked. While in theory all the countries in the organisation were equals, the smaller countries were controlled by the Soviet Union.^[1] The countries in the Warsaw Pact were East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania however Albania withdrew in 1968 following the 1968 Warsaw Pact Invasion Of Czechoslovakia and so did Romania.

The political situation in Europe during the Cold War.

Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement about financial liability in air travel, and the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) between West Germany and the People's Republic of Poland.

It was established in 1955 in Warsaw, Poland in response to West Germany joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Warsaw, on 14 May 1955 and official copies were made in the languages of Russian, Polish, Czech, and German. The Pact lasted until the end of the Cold War when some members quit in 1991, following the collapse of the Eastern bloc and political changes in the Soviet Union.^[2]

All of these countries, except the Soviet Union, have now joined NATO.

Members

Most member states were considered puppet states of the Soviet Union. Additionally, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam and (until 1961) China were observer states.

Country	Status
Template:Country data People's Socialist Republic of Albania (until 1968)	Puppet state (until 1961) Independent (1961-1968)
Bulgaria	Puppet state
Czechoslovakia	Puppet state
East Germany	Puppet state
Hungary	Puppet state
Poland	Puppet state
Romania	Puppet state (before the 1960s) Independent (after the 1960s)
Soviet Union	Main contributor

Warsaw Pact Media

The Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, where the Warsaw Pact was established and signed on 14 May 1955.
Conference during which the Pact was established and signed.
The Iron Curtain (black line)* Warsaw Pact countries* NATO countries (May 1982 to October 1990)* Militarily neutral countries* Yugoslavia, member of the Non-Aligned Movement*The black dot represents West Berlin, an enclave aligned with West Germany. Albania withheld its support to the Warsaw Pact in 1961 due to the Soviet–Albanian split and formally withdrew in 1968.
A 1981 "Soviet Big Seven" threats poster, displaying the equipment of the militaries of the Warsaw Pact
A typical Soviet military jeep UAZ-469, used by most countries of the Warsaw Pact
Meeting of the seven representatives of the Warsaw Pact countries in East Berlin in May 1987. From left to right: Gustáv Husák (Czechoslovakia), Todor Zhivkov (Bulgaria), Erich Honecker (East Germany), Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union), Nicolae Ceaușescu (Romania), Wojciech Jaruzelski (Poland), and János Kádár (Hungary)
Soviet tanks, marked with white crosses to distinguish them from Czechoslovak tanks, on the streets of Prague during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968
Protest in Amsterdam against the nuclear arms race between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981
The Pan-European Picnic took place on the Hungarian-Austrian border in 1989.
The Warsaw Pact before its 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, showing the Soviet Union and its satellites (red) and the two independent non-Soviet members: Romania and Albania (pink)