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Chronology of Events
- Central European University Press
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Chronology of Events 1949 April 4: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established. 1950 February 14: The Soviet Union and China sign the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance in Moscow. 1954 October 20–23: Western foreign ministers meeting in Paris agree to end West Germany’s occupation status, and invite it to become a part of NATO. November 29: The Soviets convene a meeting in Moscow to discuss establishing an all-European security system. The Western governments decline to attend, leaving eight communist countries which would eventually form the Warsaw Treaty Organization. 1955 May 9: West Germany joins NATO. May 14: Eight Soviet bloc states sign the Warsaw Treaty. The signatories—Albania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union—are joined by China, North Korea and North Vietnam as observers. May 15: The Soviet Union and the Western powers sign the Austrian State Treaty providing for Austrian neutrality. July 18–23: The USSR, France, Great Britain and the United States hold a summit in Geneva. Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin presents the draft of an allEuropean security treaty. 1956 January 18: The East German army is created. January 27–28: The first meeting of the Political Consultative Committee (PCC) takes place in Prague. The group approves a Soviet-designed Statute of the Unified Command. It decides to create a commission on foreign policy coordination as well as a Secretariat but does not implement the decision. February 25: At the CPSU XXth Congress, Khrushchev delivers the “secret speech” in which he denounces Stalin and his crimes. October 19: Khrushchev and several Soviet Politburo members confront the Polish leadership led Władysław Gomułka over its “national communist” course, but Soviet military intervention is averted. xxv October 23: Street demonstrations in Budapest lead to the outbreak of the Hungarian revolution. Reform communist leader Imre Nagy is brought in to try to stem the revolt but anti-communist sentiment is too powerful. October 30: As popular unrest mounts in Poland and Hungary, a Soviet declaration proclaims readiness to respect the sovereignty of Warsaw Pact allies. November 1: Premier Imre Nagy announces that Hungary will leave the Warsaw Pact and become a neutral country after learning that Soviet troops are preparing to invade the country. November 4: Soviet forces invade Hungary to crush the growing anti-communist revolutionary uprising. 1957 January 1–5: A meeting of party and government representatives, excluding Poles, takes place in Moscow to discuss military matters—arming of the East European armies, and improvement and organization of air defenses. October 2: In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rapacki calls for the creation of a denuclearized zone in Central Europe. The idea becomes known as the Rapacki Plan. October 4: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, unofficially marking the start of the space race between the United States and Soviet Union, and fueling a parallel effort in the broader area of high technology, especially in the military sphere. November 14–19: A Moscow meeting of communist party leaders codifies relations based on the Soviet model and experiences—strengthening the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. A declaration affirms the unity of the camp and the results of the XXth party congress of February 1956. 1958 January 6: The Soviets, after breaking up the U.N. disarmament subcommittee, announce a unilateral reduction of 300,000 troops. January 8: The Soviets propose reducing international tensions by replacing military groupings with a collective security system, by having the West reduce military forcesasMoscowhaddone,bycreatinganuclear-freezoneinthetwoGermanys, Poland and the ČSR, and other measures. May 5: The Soviet Union proposes a non-aggression treaty between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. May 24: The second PCC meeting is held in Moscow. The group approves withdrawing Soviet troops from Romania and planning for unilateral reductions of all Warsaw Pact forces, as well drafting an appeal for a non-aggression treaty between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. The group’s declaration calls for an end to nuclear tests, the creation of nuclear-free zones in Europe, the solution of the German question, and a summit meeting. xxvi [3.88.254.50] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:22 GMT) November 10: In a speech delivered in Moscow (followed on November 27 by notes to the Western powers), Khrushchev sparks the second Berlin crisis by threatening to conclude a separate peace treaty with East Germany...