Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland in May 1955 between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics. The treaty was a military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the economic organization for the Eastern Bloc states. Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western Bloc, leading to proxy wars and the expansion of military forces in both blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which led to Albania withdrawing from the pact. The pact began to unravel with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 and ultimately ceased to exist in 1991, with the USSR dissolving later that year.learn more on wikipedia