In May 1955, the “treaty of mutual friendship, co-operation and mutual

assistance” was signed between the People’s Republic of Albania, the People’s
Republic of Bulgaria, the Hungarian People’s Republic, the German Democratic
Republic, the Polish People’s Republic, the Rumanian People’s Republic, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Czechoslovak Republic. It was the
Communist counteraction to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The
Warsaw Pact came to be seen as quite a potential militaristic threat, as a sign of
Communist dominance, and a definite opponent to American capitalism. The
signing of the pact became a symbol of Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe.
The pact was used more as a means to keep the Soviet allies under a watchful
eye than to actually make and enforce decisions. Eventually, the alliance grew
to become a way to build and strengthen military forces throughout the Eastern
European countries involved. Conditions of the treaty included “total equality,
mutual noninterference in internal affairs, and respect for national sovereignty
and independence.” The treaty was originally set at twenty years for the pact
and another ten years following that, under the condition that none of the
members dropped out of the alliance; however, in 1962, Albania stopped
participating in the actions of the treaty and formally dropped out of the alliance
in 1968.
The majority of the actions performed by the Warsaw Pact were run by the
Political Consultative Committee and the Unified Command of Pact Armed
forces; both were centered in Moscow. The latter was in charge of all military
activities of the alliance, while the first controlled everything else. One of the
presiding conditions was that the leaders of both of these committees would be
Soviet, so that Communist dominance would remain prevalent.
Speculation about Khrushchev’s ambition towards the power of the Communist
party may explain the formation of the Warsaw pact – he wanted global
domination for Communism. Khrushchev considered his plans of “de-
Stalinization” to be completely justified and necessary for Soviet prosperity.
Additionally, the Communist Soviet Union was finding it increasingly difficult to
fulfill its monetary needs and thought that the Warsaw Pact would resolve this
problem. One of Khrushchev’s main goals was to stimulate the development of
the involved Eastern European nations so that they may function on their own.
The power and control of the Soviets in the pact sharply fell in 1989 and 1990
as a result of global Communist losses. In 1990, Hungary stated that it would no
longer participate in the military functions of the pact, and that it had plans to
ultimately leave the pact in 1991, along with Czechoslovakia and Poland. East
Germany also resigned from the alliance in 1990 as it was reunified into one,
united Germany. Ultimately, in 1991, the remaining six countries decided to
formally end their alliance and the Warsaw Pact was disbanded.