The Army divorce: how the Warsaw Pact came to an end
On February 25, 1991, the Warsaw Pact Organization, the most powerful and long—term military alliance based on our country, ceased to exist. The divorce took place casually, at a Budapest meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense. Without parades and solemn volleys, under the rustle of papers. Meanwhile, the unity of the Warsaw Pact countries has been the backbone of European stability for several decades. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Mutual assistance
The military Alliance of socialist Countries was formed as a response to the manifestations of American hegemony in Western Europe. In April 1949, 10 European countries, together with Canada and the United States, signed the North Atlantic Treaty. The NATO military bloc has become a threat to European socialist-oriented countries. Washington and London responded with a puzzled refusal to a note from the Soviet government expressing their willingness "to consider together with interested governments the issue of the USSR's participation in the North Atlantic Treaty." Thus, Moscow forced the Cold War opponents to openly admit that their structure is directed against the socialist countries.
Military exercises of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries in Bulgaria. The year 1967
When Germany became a member of NATO in the spring of 1955, a Meeting of European states on Ensuring Peace and Security in Europe opened in Warsaw. On it, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe signed an agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. It was a military alliance of countries with strong ties to the USSR. The Warsaw Pact Organization (ATS) has become a formidable force. The GDR, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Albania united under the auspices of the Soviet Union.
The defensive nature of the alliance was proclaimed, its participants agreed to "refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force and resolve their international disputes by peaceful means in such a way as not to endanger international peace and security" The headquarters of the Department of Internal Affairs was located in Moscow, the language of command of the allied powers recognized Russian. One of the Marshals of Victory, the renowned commander Ivan Konev, became the commander—in-chief of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact member countries.
Soviet commander, Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev. 1967
The military cooperation of the socialist countries was diverse. It cannot be defined narrowly as an instrument of the geopolitical strengthening of the Soviet Union. The armies of the participating countries were reinforced, and exercises of fantastic scale and results were conducted. In terms of combat training and coordination of actions, the "friendly armies" left the NATO forces far behind.
Heading West
On April 26, 1985, the Warsaw Pact was extended for the next 20 years. It was one of the first major events that occurred during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev, in which few people saw the man who would destroy the Soviet system. He met with the leaders of Eastern European countries, and they assured each other of eternal friendship. But very soon this area of Soviet diplomacy hopelessly faded into the background.
Mikhail Gorbachev and member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR E. A. Shevardnadze during a press conference in Washington. The year 1987
After 1987, Gorbachev and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze clearly set out to abandon an active policy in Eastern Europe. From now on, they increasingly spoke about their commitment to the principles of collective security and respect for the sovereign right of peoples to choose the path of development. The leadership of the USSR refused to support the pro-Soviet leaders of the Eastern European Communist parties, who were unable to independently resist the opposition, which increased in these countries also largely due to the trends of Gorbachev's "new political thinking." There was no support for this surrender of positions among the military.
In the USSR, the GDR, Bulgaria, and even Czechoslovakia, high-ranking military leaders opposed the reduction of armies and the archiving of previous strategic decisions. Meanwhile, international contacts between Gorbachev and his closest associates forced a review of military doctrine. Moscow was getting closer to Washington. No, Gorbachev was not going to destroy the army overnight. At least because she remained a trump card in negotiations with the Americans. But the military budget was shrinking, and ties with the allies faded into the background. Optimists thought it was temporary...
Unilateral withdrawal
How did the USSR Ministry of Defense and the General Staff feel about the prospects of the Department of Internal Affairs at that time? Of course, there was no desire to abolish the structure, without which it was difficult to imagine the system of the Soviet army, its tasks, calculated for many years to come. Experienced marshals and generals, veterans of the Great Patriotic War, convinced themselves that Gorbachev's political maneuvers were a temporary phenomenon, everything would return to normal and the country would need a powerful army again. It just can't be otherwise...
But the situation in Eastern Europe was changing irreparably and, by historical standards, at lightning speed. Todor Zhivkov, who had ruled the country for 35 years, was ousted from power in Bulgaria on November 10, 1989. At the same time, the "Velvet revolution" brought to power in Czechoslovakia the recent dissident Vaclav Havel, who removed supporters of the union with the USSR from the government. The power of the Communists in the GDR has been shaken. In Poland, Wojciech Jaruzelski lost the free presidential elections in 1990, and the country was led by a recent rebel, Lech Walesa, who, to put it mildly, was not eager to cooperate with Moscow. By and large, the Soviet Union did not respond to these challenges, as if it were something secondary. Moreover, the press diligently convinced the public that the Warsaw Pact was a pointless unnecessary burden for our country.
A protest rally against President Todor Zhivkov in Sofia. December 1, 1989
After the wave of the "velvet revolutions" and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Warsaw Pact Organization lost its ideological foundation. In all the countries of the alliance, starting with the Soviet Union, the communist parties lost their "leading and guiding role," which means that the main bond of the treaty disappeared, in the organization of which much was based on party discipline. The parties weakened, and the military-political union was on the verge of collapse.
GDR residents are breaking down the Berlin Wall. The year 1989
Back in 1988, at the UN General Assembly, Gorbachev announced the unilateral reduction of the Soviet army and the imminent withdrawal of Soviet troops from Europe. In December 1989, in Malta, during Gorbachev's meeting with Bush, the US president assured the head of the USSR that the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact Organization would not lead to a change in the balance of power in Europe, since all former members of the military bloc would remain neutral states. But the Soviet Union did not receive any formal guarantees. And he did not demand them to the proper extent.
Joint press conference of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George W. Bush in Malta. December 3, 1989
After the collapse of the Emergency Committee in August 1991, few people doubted the sad prospect of Soviet military structures in Europe. The effective work of intelligence, which protected the tranquility of the system, stopped. In the autumn of 1991, previously unthinkable informal consultations between NATO representatives and Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria on the accession of these countries to the North Atlantic military bloc began. Although there were still Soviet garrisons stationed in Eastern Europe. And there was a unified air defense system — the pride of the socialist bloc.
The fate of the Contract
The decision to liquidate the Warsaw Pact military organization was first made publicly in June 1990 at a meeting of the Political Advisory Committee in Moscow, at the Oktyabrskaya Hotel (now the President Hotel). Mikhail Gorbachev spoke in detail that day in his speech about the warming of relations between the USSR and the United States, that there is and cannot be any threat to the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe, and in the future we will have to live in a common house and together with American allies resist possible threats.
The number of Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact Organization in 1985 was 7,562,987 military personnel. By 1990, there were about a quarter fewer of them. The controllability of the troops of the countries in which the velvet revolutions were noisy was also disrupted. Nevertheless, it was a significant military force that dominated Europe. It took more than six months to abolish the structures of the Department of Internal Affairs.
An amphibious assault unit of the USSR Armed Forces, preparing to withdraw from Poland. The year 1990
On February 25, 1991, Budapest hosted the last meeting of the Political Consultative Council of the Warsaw Pact countries, which was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. They unanimously adopted a statement on the abolition of the military organs and structures of the Warsaw Pact Organization by March 31, 1991. What followed was a matter of technique. The Protocol on the Complete Termination of the 1955 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed by them on July 1, in Prague.
An extraordinary meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact Member States in Budapest. February 25, 1991
It is surprising that diplomats in those days did not take care to formalize special relations between the countries that had been cooperating so closely in the military sphere for several decades. Of course, new military cooperation agreements were needed to ensure that the former allies and the ever-present neighbors would not turn to confrontation. But the meetings in Budapest were conducted in a formal, routine style. The withdrawal of Soviet troops from Europe followed, cooperation in the field of intelligence ceased, and the import and export of weapons gradually disappeared, as did the exchange of technologies. This is the sad reality.
The last soldiers of the Central Group of Forces are leaving Czechoslovakia. 1991
Nevertheless, the Warsaw Pact played its historical role. For more than 40 years, Europe has maintained a delicate balance and there have been no explosions. Our army and the military-industrial complex have gained a unique experience of international cooperation. And today we lack ATS, just as Eastern European countries lack an understanding that historically they have a lot in common with Russia. Common roots, common interests in many ways. The history of the Warsaw Pact and its fate remind us of this.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
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