Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact, officially the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was an organization of Central and Eastern European states. The communist states were to be allies and to fight together if one of them was attacked. In theory, all of 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 after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Romania followed.

Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance

The WTO in 1990
Abbreviation	WTO, WAPA, DDSV
Motto	Union of peace and socialism
Founded	14 May 1955 (1955-05-14)
Founded at	Warsaw, Poland
Dissolved	1 July 1991 (1991-07-01)
Type	Military alliance
Headquarters	Moscow, Soviet Union
Membership	Albania[a]  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 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 the Warsaw Pact countries and three that were part of the the Soviet Union have 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
Albania (until 1968)	Satellite state (until 1961) Independent (1961-1968)
Bulgaria	Satellite state
Czechoslovakia	Satellite state
East Germany	Satellite state
Hungary	Satellite state
Poland	Satellite state
Romania	Satellite state (Until 1965) Independent (After 1965)
Soviet Union	Main contributor