After the creation of NATO, in 1949, by countries aligned with the United States, the USSR felt threatened and created the Warsaw Pact. The objective was to maintain a military integration between the countries of Eastern Europe, whose governments were led by the Communist Parties, to act towards mutual military protection among the members of the pact.
The Warsaw Pact was created in 1955 and had as components: USSR, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland.
The ultimate reason that led the USSR to form the Warsaw Pact with countries aligned with its regime was the inclusion of West Germany in NATO and its rearmament in 1954. In the context of the worsening of the Cold War and with Germany being divided, the rearmament of part of the territory became a danger for the other part.
The Warsaw Pact was, in this sense, a reaction to the US action to create a military integration area in the Northern Hemisphere. But the USSR used the Warsaw Pact to be able to repress dissent and opposition within the countries that were under its influence.
A first case occurred in Hungary, in 1956, when Soviet troops and tanks invaded the country after the occurrence of several workers' strikes, which began to question the power of the Communist Party and the regime in the Soviet mold.
In 1968, during the Prague Spring, in Czechoslovakia, Soviet tanks were again sent to repress forces opposed to the influence of the USSR.
However, unlike NATO, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved in 1991, when the USSR collapsed and the various republics that made up the Soviet federation were dismembered.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
