Paul M. Krueger

Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

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ㅤThe Warsaw Pact, a collective defense treaty established in May 1955, united the Soviet Union and seven Eastern Bloc socialist republics during the Cold War. Created as a counterweight to NATO and the Western Bloc, the pact aimed to maintain a balance of power in Europe. Though no direct military confrontation occurred between the two organizations, the Warsaw Pact solidified the Soviet Union’s influence over its satellite states and led to an arms race and ideological battles between the East and West.

ㅤThe pact’s internal tensions were exposed during the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Warsaw Pact forces, except for Albania and Romania, intervened to suppress political liberalization. This event, along with the growing desire for autonomy and democratic reforms within Eastern Bloc countries, ultimately led to the pact’s unraveling. The Revolutions of 1989, symbolized by the Solidarity movement in Poland, marked the beginning of the end for the Warsaw Pact, which formally dissolved in 1991, paving the way for many of its former members to join NATO.