On July 1, 1991, in Prague, a protocol was signed on the termination of the Warsaw Pact, which was concluded on May 14, 1955 at a meeting on ensuring peace and security in Europe. The signing of the Warsaw Pact was a response to the ratification by Western states of the Paris Agreements of 1954, providing for the creation of a military grouping of the Western European Union (WEU) and the inclusion of Germany in NATO.
The Warsaw Pact provided for the provision of immediate assistance in the event of an attack on one or more of the signatory states, as well as the deployment of Soviet army units on their territories.
The members of the Warsaw Pact Organization (ATS) were Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Romania, the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Albania, who agreed to coordinate actions in the field of international relations and defense.
Groups of troops of the united ATS forces were located on the territory of the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary.
In the 1980s, revolutions took place in parts of the Eastern European states that were part of the ATS.
As a result, the socialist governments were removed from power.
In 1990, against the background of the unification of West and East Germany, the GDR withdrew from the treaty.
In February - March 1991, the military structures of the Internal Affairs Directorate were abolished, and in July the treaty itself was terminated.
RT asked Russian politicians, public figures and the military how they assess the collapse of the Warsaw Pact Organization and its consequences?
General Vladimir Lobov, in 1989-1991 - Chief of Staff of the Joint Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact Organization Member States, later - Chief of the USSR General Staff:
“I rate it badly, unsatisfactorily.
There was no need to allow it to disintegrate.
There is always a lack of security in the world, and the Warsaw Pact was a deterrent. "
Head of the monitoring group of the Federation Council commission for the protection of the state sovereignty of the Russian Federation Vladimir Dzhabarov, in 1991 - an employee of the KGB of the USSR, later - a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation:
“The Warsaw Pact was a powerful alliance against NATO. After Gorbachev, under pressure from the United States, decided to surrender East Germany, it was "swallowed" by the FRG, respectively, it was necessary to get rid of the Warsaw Pact, since it interfered with the White House administration. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact
-
one of the tragic events in history, along with the collapse of the USSR.
Moreover, the initiative of the exodus, unfortunately, from the last president of the USSR, Gorbachev, who, under the charm of the leaders of Western countries, decided to end the confrontation in the Cold War.
The United States, taking advantage of the fact that the USSR abandoned this military-political bloc, took control of the European countries.
Now they are in NATO opposing Russia, and quite aggressively.
In fact, the USSR voluntarily surrendered its positions.
With great difficulty, it was possible to overcome these negative tendencies to get out of the terrible swamp, into which the last leaders of the USSR took her, and again become a great power. "
Signing of the Warsaw Pact on May 14, 1955
© Wikimedia
Sergei Stankevich, member of the Council of the Federal Political Council of the Growth Party, in the 1990s - a member of the Supreme USSR, First Deputy Chairman of the Moscow City Council, adviser to Russian President Boris Yeltsin:
“There was no disintegration process.
As soon as the communist or socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe began to fall one after another, the new governments that came to power announced that they wanted to end their membership.
Then the USSR could only or somehow press, threaten and demand forcibly (to stay
. - RT)
in union, or agree and disperse peacefully by shaking hands. Here is the second option and was chosen. The USSR acted in two stages under Gorbachev: at first, it was decided that these countries would leave the military organization of the Internal Affairs Directorate, but political participation remained. A few months later, having gathered together, the leaders of the countries belonging to the Internal Affairs Directorate, nevertheless, decided to dissolve the organization. No excesses followed. The decision was at that moment completely logical and uncontested. I believe that this helped to remove serious risks and serious aggravation in relations between Moscow and the new governments in Central and Eastern Europe. Since these countries left the OVD and did it themselves, it was necessary to withdraw the troops that were part of the armed forces of the OVD. An orderly withdrawal of troops began. Here, of course,some mistakes were made when concluding the relevant agreements. It could have been done on much more favorable conditions for Russia. But it is good that this was done on time, before the situation around our servicemen worsened. "
Vladimir Zolotarev, an expert at the Center for Advanced Studies of Russian Security at the Higher School of Economics, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, formerly an employee of the headquarters of the United Armed Forces of the Warsaw Pact Organization member states, head of the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, chairman of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation on prisoners of war, internees and missing lead:
"MIA
-
it was a unique blend of military-organizational, military and political, scientific, technical, very strong, powerful, deterrent organization, which is the guarantor of security in Europe and in the world.
The most difficult consequence of the collapse of the OVD
is
that a large number of our troops were taken out under the open sky from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Western Group of Forces.
In addition, there was an aggravation of interstate relations.
I think there is a huge amount of geopolitical and geostrategic troubles that we are experiencing right now associated with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. "
Deputy of the Moscow City Duma Sergei Mitrokhin, formerly a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the Yabloko party:
“The collapse of the Warsaw Pact was inevitable.
Communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed in line, and the Warsaw Pact collapsed automatically.
The collapse of the treaty itself was the result of a change in political regimes.
Of course, Russia has lost its influence.
Agreements with Western countries were concluded very hastily and ill-considered, there was no state approach on the part of the USSR.
Instead of creating this process of transformation of foreign policy for the benefit of the USSR, everything was allowed to go by itself and lost, although it could have been done more wisely.
In the form in which the Department of Internal Affairs existed before, keep it. "
Regulator of the Bulgarian People's Army Private M. Stavrev.
Joint exercises of the united armed forces of the states-participants of the Warsaw Pact "Shield-82".
People's Republic of Bulgaria, September 25 - October 1, 1982
RIA News
© Dorofey Getmanenko
Colonel General Georgy Shpak, former commander of the Russian Airborne Forces:
“How could the Warsaw Pact be liquidated in such a way - without documenting the consequences of this liquidation?
The professional military was surprised by this decision of the Supreme Command.
The Americans continue to approach our borders, despite the fact that there was a verbal agreement (on the non-expansion of NATO to the east. -
RT
).
Where is the written document?
Now you have to be very careful and "keep the powder dry."
You can't trust the Americans. "
Dean of the School of Economics, Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov Vitaly Tretyakov, in 1991 - editor-in-chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta:
“By the time this happened, it was about the imminent possible disappearance of the USSR.
And this was the main central channel around which the Warsaw Pact was created.
In addition, other organizations created around the USSR, including the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, were simultaneously destroyed or have already been destroyed.
Gorbachev's policy was as follows: he is not going to support any organization that previously provided strong ties between the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe that were part of the ATS.
The liquidation of the Internal Affairs Department was carried out thoughtlessly, but it was natural in a destructive stream, headed by the then leadership of the USSR. "
Nikolay Rybakov, chairman of the Yabloko party:
“The collapse of the Warsaw Pact Organization was natural, since the participants in this agreement were not free democratic countries, but the totalitarian dictatorship and its satellites held by force.
As soon as the peoples of the Warsaw Pact countries achieved the opportunity to express their will, this organization ceased to exist. "
Chairman of the political party "Russian National Union" Sergei Baburin, in 1991 - People's Deputy of the RSFSR:
“Firstly, I am convinced that the Warsaw Pact did not collapse, but was deliberately destroyed by Gorbachev and his team. At the meeting of the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1989, after Gorbachev's proposal on the need to write down in the final document the refusal of international assistance to each other, Erich Honnecker was taken to the hospital with renal colic, and Nicolae Ceausescu publicly accused Gorbachev of betraying not only the USSR, but all socialism. Secondly, the death of the Warsaw Pact upset the balance of world politics and led not only to the expansion of NATO to the east, not only to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, but also brought down the system of world order established by Yalta and Potsdam, which ensured peace in Europe throughout almost 50 years.The destruction of the Warsaw Pact made the peoples of the post-Soviet space and their allies defenseless, which is partially offset by the creation of the Collective Security Treaty, but has not yet received an adequate replacement. The Russian Federation is saved by the presence of nuclear weapons, but peace can be ensured not only by them, but also by allied relations. The problem has not yet been resolved. "
Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, former head of the main directorate of international military cooperation of the RF Ministry of Defense:
“The collapse of the Warsaw Pact, like the collapse of the USSR, was planned, paid for and carried out as part of a geopolitical operation.
This political operation turned out to be successful, with which I, in a personal meeting,
congratulated the
retired director of the CIA, Mr. Casey (William Casey -
RT
).
And he accepted this congratulation with delight.
The socialist project hindered the realization of the "American Dream", the dream of big American capital of world domination.
And it was removed as an obstacle. "
The destruction of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989
© Wikimedia
Head of the Fair Russia faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Mironov:
“The members of the Warsaw Pact were united, first of all, by the common ideology of the political forces ruling in these countries. But the monopoly of the communist parties led countries that considered themselves socialist into a crisis. Somewhere the crisis was resolved softly, “velvety”, like in the former Czechoslovakia, somewhere bloody and cruel, like in Romania. And the new forces that came to power in these countries saw the way out of the crisis in a hasty revision of relations with the then Soviet Union - economic, political and military relations.
The final blow to the Warsaw Pact Organization was the unification, or rather the absorption by West Germany of the former GDR. After the National People's Army of the GDR withdrew from the military structure of the Warsaw Pact in the fall of 1990, the disintegration process could no longer be stopped. For some, it caused euphoria. There were illusions that the very idea of a military confrontation in Europe was now over.
But even eight years had not passed after the protocol on the complete termination of the treaty was signed in Prague, when bombs began to fall on European soil for the first time in more than half a century.
NATO bombs.
Although the former Yugoslavia has never been a member of the Warsaw Pact, I am sure there would be no NATO military operation in the Balkans if the treaty had existed.
It turned out that it was the Warsaw Pact Organization that was the guarantor of decades of peace in post-war Europe.
Yes, it was a thin world.
A world based on mountains of weapons.
But that was the reality.
And most importantly, the weapon was silent.
But after the reality changed, it was definitely not safer. ”
Loading Soviet military equipment on the ferry "Composer Mussorgsky" in the port of Rostok.
Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany
© RIA News
Alexander Rutskoy, in 1991-1993 - Vice President of the Russian Federation:
“The collapse of the Warsaw Pact led to the fact that the USSR had to withdraw its troops into the open field, to sell equipment.
In fact, the Armed Forces of the USSR were destroyed with their own hands.
Today Russia is reaping the fruits of this event, in particular, we are witnessing the presence of NATO at the Russian borders, sanctions and rudeness from the West. "
General of the Army Yuri Baluevsky, former Chief of the General Staff of Russia:
“I regard the collapse of the OVD as a personal betrayal of Gorbachev and a logical continuation of the collapse of the socialist camp. But the collapse began already in 1981 during the events in Poland (when the Solidarity trade union organized mass protests in Poland. -
RT
), when the Internal Affairs Directorate abandoned its internal function
-
protection from internal threats. The collapse continued in 1990, when the USSR and the OVD did not become the guarantors of the GDR's security. The slogans “We have no enemies!”, “Who are you going to fight with?”, “Don't attack us,” actively and purposefully introduced into the mass consciousness of the population of the USSR and other ATS countries, led to the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. The united armed forces of the Internal Affairs Directorate have ceased to be the guarantor of security on the planet. Our children and grandchildren have yet to assess the consequences of the collapse of the Internal Affairs Department ”.