Warsaw Pact

Military defensive alliance 1955–91 between the USSR and East European communist states, originally established as a response to the admission of West Germany into NATO. Its military structures and agreements were dismantled early in 1991; a political organization remained until the alliance was officially dissolved in July 1991.

The Warsaw Pact was signed on 1 May 1955 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The date was significant as 1 May is May Day, the traditional festival day of the socialist calendar. Warsaw was chosen as the site for signing the Warsaw Pact as this allowed the USSR to present itself as merely one of a group of equally concerned nations, rather than the single dominant power. The member countries were the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and East Germany.