Warsaw Pact: Causes and Effects
In the first post-war decade, a bilateral system of international relations was established in the world. This is the time when the global confrontation between the two superpowers - the United States of America and the Soviet Union - was launched, as well as the confrontation between two military-political organizations - the North Atlantic Alliance and the Warsaw Pact.
In the countries of Eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact was signed. It happened in 1955 year. Its main task was to exercise control over these states, as well as to ensure security and peace in Europe. According to the Treaty, it was supposed to assist member countries in the event of a military threat, to conduct mutual consultations in crisis situations and to form a Joint Command of the armed forces.
The Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed by Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, the GDR, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the USSR through 6 years after the formation of NATO. It should be noted that the cooperation of these states existed long before the signing of the document. The fact is that in most of them, after the end of the war, a communist system of government was established, to which the Soviet troops, which remained in Eastern Europe, contributed in no small measure. And until the signing of the contract, all relations between them were carried out on the basis of treaties on friendship and cooperation. In 1949, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was formed, which initially included Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later other countries.
However, after 1953 in some of the countries of Eastern Europe there were signs of mass discontent caused by the controversial policies of the USSR. So, in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, mass demonstrations and strikes took place. And in the GDR they were so numerous that the Soviet leadership was forced to introduce Tanks to suppress the speeches of workers dissatisfied with the deterioration of living standards. When I. Stalin died in 1953 and new leaders came to power, they made a number of trips to the countries of the socialist camp. Their result was the signing of the Warsaw Pact. It included almost all Eastern European states, with the exception of Yugoslavia, which maintained neutrality. The signing of this document was caused primarily by the emergence of military threats as a result of the ratification of the 1954 Paris Agreements, which envisaged the creation of the Western European Union and the accession of West Germany to the North Atlantic Alliance.
The signing of the above document formalized the creation of the Warsaw Pact Organization - the military-political organization of the socialist European states. Its creation was a kind of response to the formation of NATO, which was aimed against the socialist camp.
The objectives of the Warsaw Pact envisaged ensuring the security of the participating countries. It consisted of a preamble and eleven articles. According to its terms and the Charter of the United Nations, all signatory states were obliged to refuse or refrain in international politics from the threat or direct use of force, and in the event of an armed conflict to provide assistance by all available means.
Also, the participating countries were obliged to act in order to strengthen cooperation and friendly relations for the further development of cultural and economic relations, while respecting national sovereignty, and not interfering in each other’s internal policies. But it should also be noted that membership in the Organization was not always voluntary, and rare attempts to get out of it were harshly suppressed (examples of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland).
A supreme body of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, the Political Consultative Committee, was created, whose main tasks were to conduct consultations on controversial issues that arose within the framework of the implementation of the Treaty.
But the activities of the ATS was very controversial and not always successful. It is important to recall that in its confrontation with NATO there were two major crises that almost caused the Third World War: these were the Berlin and Caribbean crises.
The cause of the Berlin crisis of 1959-1962 was the mass resettlement of East Germans to West Berlin. In order to put an end to unauthorized relocation, the famous Berlin Wall was built overnight, where checkpoints were set up. But such actions caused even greater discontent among the population, huge crowds gathered around the checkpoint who wanted to leave the borders of Soviet Berlin. This led to the fact that Soviet and American tanks were concentrated near the Brandenburg Gate and the main checkpoints. As a result, the confrontation between the two states ended with the fact that the Soviet authorities were forced to withdraw their tanks from these positions.
Another crisis occurred in the 1962 year in the Caribbean, putting the world at risk of a nuclear war. It all started with the fact that the Americans placed their missile base in Turkey. The Soviet Union could not leave it unanswered, so they secretly deployed their missiles on the island of Cuba. When this became known in the United States of America, a real panic began there, since the actions of the Soviet leadership were perceived as the beginning of preparation for war. Fortunately, the end was not so bad: Soviet troops removed their missiles from Cuba, the Americans eliminated their base in Turkey and pledged not to take any action against Cuba.
In addition to these conflicts, there were quite a few other crisis situations within the Organization itself. Their main reason was the desire of some countries for a better life and the desire to free themselves from the influence of the Soviet Union. Such crises include the uprising in Hungary, which occurred in 1956 (Operation Whirlwind), attempts to reform Czechoslovakia in 1968, (Prague Spring, Operation Danube). All of them were solved with the help of Soviet tanks.
Do not forget about the war in Afghanistan 1979-1989's. In the 1979 year there, as a result of the military coup, a new leadership came to power, which had the intention to build a model of a socialist state, taking the USSR as a model. This policy has caused discontent among the population, with the result that Afghan President Amin was forced to turn to the Soviet Union for help. What happened next - everyone knows. Introduction to the Afghan territory of the Soviet limited contingent, which was only to keep the situation under control. The result - 10-summer war and the international isolation of the Soviet Union.
In the 1985 year, due to the expiration of the Warsaw Pact, it was extended for 20 years.
When perestroika began in the USSR, changes occurred in the entire foreign policy activity of the country. The Soviet leadership did not impede the "velvet" revolutions in the Eastern European countries of 1989-1990. In the 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and a year later the two Germany were united into one state. For the Union, this meant the loss of a loyal ally.
The impetus for the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet military empire was the signing of the Budapest Treaty of 1991, the three countries - Poland, Hungary and East Germany. This document has drawn a line under the existence of the Warsaw Pact.
The organization existed 36 years. Further, in the 1991-1994 years, Soviet troops began to gradually leave the territory of Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary and Poland. So in stories The existence of the ATS was the final point.
The Warsaw Pact itself raises many questions. So, for example, what did the Soviet Union acquire directly with its signing? Recently, many historians have been inclined to believe that this was the well-thought political course of N. Khrushchev, who was striving to create some kind of joint organization to ensure collective security. The Soviet leadership began to understand the fact that NATO is beginning to threaten the military power of the USSR and its superiority on European territory.
However, if we talk about the real superiority of the West at that time, it consisted only in methods of intimidation using nuclear weapons. weapons. As for conventional weapons and equipment, the indisputable advantage was on the side of the Soviet Union. Moreover, this, according to many experts, was the reason for the emergence of the North Atlantic Alliance.
America with its allies immediately after the end of the war began to disarm and mass dismissal of military personnel, but the Soviet Union did not hurry with this. Yes, and Americans could feel safe only until 1957, when the first Soviet artificial satellite was launched and, thus, there was a threat that nuclear weapons would be put into orbit.
Whatever it was, the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist, however, in the same way as the USSR. But the tacit confrontation between the United States and Russia is still preserved.
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