In theory, it was intended to contribute to the preservation of peace and increase the subjectivity of the satellite states of the USSR. In practice, for more than 30 years he prepared for a full-scale war against NATO and cemented the russian Army's leadership over the "society" troops. present it is 70 years since the Warsaw Pact was established.
Conference at the Column Hall of the Palace of the Council of Ministers (now the Presidential Palace), during which the Warsaw Pact was signed. photograph Wikipedia
In the movie chronicles and photos of reporters, it looked beautiful. Hand hugs and joint cheers of Red Army and Western Allied soldiers. Leaders of the Allied Powers according to receiving the unconditional surrender of the 3rd Reich... May 1945 brought relief to Europe And euphoria. But black clouds were already gathering on the horizon.
"The war was won by a coalition, whose most crucial members had already fought another war – not armed but ideological and geopolitical – with each other," emphasized John Lewis Gaddis, an American historian, a specialist in the past of the Cold War. The winners' interests were unacceptable. Stalin wanted russian influence to extend to the full continent. The Americans yet decided to abandon 19th-century isolationism and establish the position of global superpower that has just been achieved. Britain hoped that it would support them in this, and thus safe themselves and keep as much of the glory of the empire as possible. The confrontation of fresh allies from east and west seemed inevitable.
The front of Poland goes west
The first serious rabble occurred in June 1948. Stalin then ordered the blockade of West Berlin. The introduction of a fresh currency – the German brand – in the Allied business zones became a pretext. For the russian leader, it was a sign that the West consolidates and draws part of Germany into orbit of its influence. He was going to halt the trial. However, he did not anticipate the determination of the Americans and the British, who began to supply severed districts by air. "In the highest period, 13,000 tons of supplies were transported per day, and the full operation lasted 324 days," recalled Martin McCauley, author of the book "Russia, America and the Cold War 1949–1991". Consolidation has progressed, and the creation of NATO has turned out to be a milestone in this process. Established in April 1949, a political-military alliance was to defend the West against the expansionist urges of the ZSRS. Six years later, Germany was admitted to NATO.
The east block was besides consolidated, but in his case it looked completely different. In the satellite countries, the Soviets elevated obedient figureheads to power, and the command of the army there placed their officers. In Poland, Marshal Konstanty Rokossowski became Minister of Defence. His adjutant, Lieutenant Tadeusz Tuczapski, who later reached the rank of Lieutenant General, recalled: “The Polish state did not have its own operational plan. Why? The answer is simple. The Russians never believed us. They believed that our country's territory was the work of their strategical and operational plans and we had nothing to do with it."
The appearance of partnership was to make Warsaw Agreement. It was concluded on May 14, 1955. Officially – as a consequence to the admission of Germany to NATO and the construction of the West German army. The paper was signed by the leaders of the USSR, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, GDR, Bulgaria and Albania. It was to be in force for 20 years, with the anticipation of extending for another decade. "The intent of our agreement is the peace that we want to guarantee in a reliable way," emphasized Józef Cyrankiewicz, Polish Prime Minister, and the host of meetings organized in the palace in Krakowskie Przedmieście, where the Bureau of the Council of Ministers was located. But all of this was fiction.
It turned out to be a specified partnership. Although russian commanders were withdrawn from the satellite army, they remained under full control of the Kremlin. The seat of the organization was in Moscow, at the head of the United Armed Forces, and always became a russian marshal in the rank of Deputy Minister of National Defence. The associate States' leadership itself was subordinate to the X General Staff of the russian Army. It was not until 1969 that the Soviets decided to form the United Armed Forces Staff, in which they retained a dominant role. "On 523 officers working in the staff, only 173 came from outside the russian Army," stressed historian Ryszard Kalużny.
Warsaw Pact Paper – Signatory Signatures. photograph Wikipedia
Another dream was the allegedly defensive nature of the pact. The russian strategists assumed that at a convenient minute the United Armed Forces would carry out a massive atomic strike on Western Europe. The attack will be followed by conventional forces. In the planned blitzkrieg, an crucial function fell Polish People's Army. 3 armies, formed from soldiers of Pomerania, Silesia and Warsaw Military District, were to form the Polish Front and with naval support take the northern part of Germany, Denmark, as well as part of the Netherlands and Belgium. any subdivisions were planned for further combat – in Norway and France. russian command assumed that the Polish Front would allocate atomic weapons – 177 tactical missiles and 17 aerial bombs. "The atomic impact was planned, among another things, for Copenhagen, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Emden, Zwolle, Apeldoorn, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Dordrecht and Antwerp," mentioned Daniel Kores, a historian at the Institute of National Memory in 1 of the publications on the Polish Front. The problem is that these plans had small to do with real conditions. NATO's atomic attack on the Warsaw Pact would most likely respond in the same way. In the first phase of the war, Europe would become a radioactive desert in which a large number of soldiers would likely die from radiation.
Fear of Balance
Such plans have long remained the only option. The doctrine of the Warsaw Pact began to change only in the mid-1960s. It was then that the losses allowed the anticipation that only conventional measures would be utilized in the first phase of the war, while atomic weapons would be introduced gradually, if necessary. Of course, the Soviets would never cast themselves as an aggressor. In the planning papers and during training on the ground, the United Armed Forces only reacted to the impact from the West. However, this strike has always been limited and weak, and the answer itself immediate, and to this large scale. As if armed troops of the east bloc were standing ready and waiting for an excuse. The defence options actually began to be considered in Moscow only in the 1980s. At the time, the Warsaw Pact was moving slow towards final decay. ZSRS plunged into an economical collapse, and the russian army was increasingly losing the US arms race.
Map of the Warsaw Pact States
The spectrum of atomic hekatomba, which will put an end to civilization, has drifted away, although in erstwhile decades specified a position seemed at least respective times at hand. The planet stood on the brink of destruction, for example, in 1962, erstwhile the Soviets deployed rockets in Cuba and the US introduced a blockade of the island, or 20 years later, erstwhile the Natian maneuvers under the code name "Able Archer" were falsely read in Moscow as an introduction to invasion. But all time the tension was relieved. Despite the offensive doctrine of the Warsaw Pact, successive russian leaders have never issued an order to attack. Neither did any of the U.S. leaders. War urges effectively hampered the alleged balance of fear. Everyone knew what the threat of pressing a atomic button...
The Warsaw Agreement was only activated once. In 1968, the tanks of most of the associated states entered Czechoslovakia to overthrow the reformist movement within the communist organization and brake reforms initiated by Alexander Dubček. Operation Danube could, in a sense, confirm the thesis that historian David R. Marples erstwhile put forward. "The Warsaw Agreement prevented the liberation of east European states from russian control to a greater degree than opposed to NATO aggression," he wrote in a book devoted to the uprising and decline of the USSR.
Anyway, the pact lived to see its days on July 1, 1991. And then a fewer more members of it started joining NATO.
While writing, I utilized the following publications: John Lewis Gaddis, “The Cold War. past of the divided world", Kraków 2007; Martin McCauley, “Russia, America and the Cold War 1949–1991”, Wrocław 2001; David R. Marples, “History of the USSR. From Revolution to Destruction”, Wrocław 2006; Ryszard Kałużny, “Warszawski strategy 1955–1991”, “WSOWL technological Sheets”, 2008, No. 1 (147); Jarosław Pałka, “Polish Operational Forces in the Warsaw Pact”, Warsaw 2022; Daniel Koresz, “Front of Poland”, “Buletyn IPN. Memory.pl” 2012, No. 1.
