Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact, or Warsaw Treaty Organization, mutual defense pact signed in 1955 in Warsaw by the USSR and its Communist neighbors (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) after the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Its unified command has headquarters in Moscow. In 1968 (when Albania formally withdrew) pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia to overthrow its independent-minded regime. In 1980–81 the USSR used pact maneuvers and threats of intervention by pact members to discourage labor unrest in Poland. Following the conventional arms treaty signed with NATO (1990), which drastically reduced the number of soldiers and weapons on the European continent, and the breakup of the Soviet-led Communist bloc, the Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved (1991).

See also: North Atlantic Treaty Organization.