Brunswick-Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Pact)

The Warsaw Pact, officially known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, was a military alliance formed in 1955 among Eastern European communist countries led by the Soviet Union. Its purpose was to provide collective defense and reinforce Soviet influence during the Cold War. If one member was attacked, others were obliged to come to its aid. It included nations like Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. The pact served as a counterbalance to NATO’s Western alliance and was dissolved in 1991 following the end of the Cold War and political changes in Eastern Europe.