Iron Pact

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Lore & Background

The Warsaw Pact was put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO. Soviet leaders, like many European leaders on both sides of the Iron Curtain, feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, had suggested in 1954 that it join NATO, but this was rejected by the US. On 14 May 1955, the USSR and seven other Eastern European countries established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO, declaring that "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes a threat to the national security of the peaceable states." One of the pact's founding members, East Germany, was allowed to re-arm by the Soviet Union and the National People's Army was established as the armed forces of the country to counter the rearmament of West Germany. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, one of its own member states, in August 1968. All member states participated except for Albania and Romania, resulting in Albania's withdrawal from the pact less than one month later.

In Their Own Story

The pact began to unravel with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland, its electoral success in June 1989 and the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. East Germany withdrew from the pact following German reunification in 1990. On 25 February 1991, at a meeting in Hungary, the pact ceased to exist via joint declaration by the defence and foreign ministers of the six remaining member states. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991, although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. In the following 20 years, the Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the Baltic states.

Reader's Guide

The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance of eight Eastern Bloc states dominated by the Soviet Union. Its member states included the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. The pact was established as a counterweight to NATO and the Western Bloc. There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The pact began to dissolve with the Revolutions of 1989 and formally ceased to exist on 25 February 1991.

Did You Know?

• The Warsaw Pact was formally known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA).
• The pact was signed in Warsaw, Poland, in May 1955, during the Cold War.
• The Soviet Union requested to join NATO in 1954, but this was rejected by the US.
• The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
• The pact ceased to exist on 25 February 1991 via a joint declaration by the defence and foreign ministers of the six remaining member states.