 The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation, and Mutual Assistance, more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty between 8 Communist States of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War.  The founding treaty was established under the initiative of the Soviet Union and signed on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw.  The Warsaw Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon)

 The regional economic organization for the communist States of Central and Eastern Europe.  The Warsaw Pact was in part a Soviet military reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955, per the Paris Pacts of 1954 but was primarily motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over military forces in Central and Eastern Europe.

 In the Western Bloc, the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance is often called the Warsaw Pact military alliance; abbreviated WAPA, Warpac, and WP.  Elsewhere, in the former member states, the Warsaw Treaty is  Albanian  Bulgarian  Romanized Bulgarian  Czech  Slovak  German  Hungarian  Polish  Romanian  Russian  Romanized Russian

 The Warsaw Treaty’s organization was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland.  Furthermore, the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the head of the Warsaw Treaty Combined Staff also was a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.  Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces.

 The Warsaw Treaty’s organization was two-fold: The Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi- national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw, Poland.  The Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and the head of the Warsaw Treaty Combined Staff also was a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR.  Therefore, although ostensibly an international collective security alliance, the USSR dominated the Warsaw Treaty armed forces

 The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to dominate Central and Eastern Europe.  This policy was driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically, the Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement.  Geostrategic principles also drove the Soviet Union to prevent invasion of its territory by Western European powers, which had occurred most recently by Nazi Germany in 1941.

 The invasion launched by Hitler had been exceptionally brutal and the USSR emerged from the Second World War in 1945 with the greatest total casualties of any participant in the war, suffering an estimated 27 million killed along with the destruction of much of the nation's industrial capacity.

 The eight member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked; relations among the treaty signatories were based upon mutual non- intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty, and political independence.non- interventionnational sovereignty  However, almost all governments of those members states were directly controlled by the Soviet Union.

 The founding signatories to the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance consisted of the following communist governments:  People's Republic of Albania (withheld support in 1961 because of the Sino–Soviet split, formally withdrew in 1968)  People's Republic of Bulgaria  Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovak Socialist Republic since 1960)  German Democratic Republic (withdrew in September 1990, before German reunification)  People's Republic of Hungary  People's Republic of Poland (withdrew on January 1, 1990)  People's Republic of Romania  Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics

 For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage.

 Beginning at the Cold War’s conclusion, in late 1989, popular civil and political public discontent forced the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries from power – independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika- and glasnost-induced institutional collapse of Communist government in the USSR.  In the event the populaces of Hungary Czechoslovakia, Albania, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria deposed their Communist governments in the period from 1989–91

 On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defense and foreign ministers from Pact countries meeting in Hungary.  On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR.  The treaty was de facto disbanded in December 1989 during the violent revolution in Romania that toppled the communist government there. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991