A Cardboard Castle?: An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact, 1955-1991

Illustrations

1. The Soviet delegation arriving to the meeting in May, 1955, where the Warsaw Pact was signed. First row from the second person on the left to the right: Bolesław Bierut, First Secretary of the Polish Communist Party; Nikolai A. Bulganin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR; Marshal Ivan Konev; Viacheslav M. Molotov, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the Council of Ministers of the USSR; Marshal Georgii K. Zhukov, Minister of Defense of the USSR. 2. May 14, 1955, András Hegedûs, Hungarian Prime Minister signs the official document establishing the Warsaw Treaty Organization. 3. May 14, 1955, Signatures from the Czech version of the official document establishing the Warsaw Treaty Organization. 4. German Democratic Republic, October 29, 1965. “October Storm”, a war game of the Warsaw Pact countries in the southeastern part of the GDR. From right to left: Erich Honecker, secretary of the National Defense Council of the GDR; Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR; Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of the GDR; Marshal Andrei Grechko, Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Pact; Heinz Hoffmann , Minister of National Defense of the GDR; Paul Verner, SED official; Professor Albert Norden; Professor Kurt Hager; Marshal Marian Spychalski and General Bohumír Lomský, Minister of National Defense of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. 5. Erfurt, October 29, 1965. Parade at the end of a Warsaw Treaty war game. 6. 1968. Demonstrators surrounding a tank in the street of Košice. 7. July 29–August 1, 1968, The Čierna nad Tisou talks take place between the CPCz CC Presidium and the CPSU CC Politburo. Among others: Josef Smrkovský, Chairman of of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, Alexander Dubček, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Nikolai Podgornyi, President of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Aleksei Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. 8. This map depicts a 1974 Warsaw Pact exercise in the Baltic Sea known as VAL-74. A command and staff exercise, its purpose was to plan for a scenario in which the unified Baltic fleets would destroy combined enemy naval forces, gain control of the Baltic, support the capture of Denmark and ultimately close the Danish Straits. The title reads: “Initial Conditions and Decisions of Fleet Commanders.” Warsaw Pact Supreme Commander Marshal Ivan I. Iakubovskii directed this iteration of the exercise. 10. Moscow, January 12, 1982. Delegates to the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Defense of the Warsaw Pact countries visiting Lenin’s former study in the Kremlin. From left to right: in the first row, Florian Siwicki (Poland), second from the left, Lajos Czinege (Hungary ), behind him Anatolii I. Gribkov, the Warsaw Pact chief of staff, Martin Dzúr (Czechoslovakia ), behind him Constantin Olteanu (Romania), Viktor Kulikov (USSR), Dobri Dzhurov (Bulgaria) and Heinz Hoffmann (German Democratic Republic). 9. Czechoslovakia, June 25, 1968, Czechoslovak and Soviet military officers at a Warsaw Treaty exercise. 11. Budapest, February 25, 1991. Czechoslovak Minister of Defense, Luboš Dobrovský, signs the documents officially ending the military functions of the alliance by March 31. 12. Budapest, February 25, 1991. Romanian Minister of Defense, Victor Stănculescu, signs the agreement terminating the military aspects of the Warsaw Pact. 13. Budapest, February 25, 1991. Soviet Minister of Defense, Dmitrii T. Iazov, adds his signature to the document eliminating the military component of the alliance. PICTURE CREDITS Photo 1 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 2 Open Society Archives: Prague Spring Exhibition, HU OSA 206-1-5. – Photo 3 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 4 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 5 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 6 Gabriel Bognár. Open Society Archives: Prague Spring Exhibition, HU OSA 206-1-5. – Photo 7 Gabriel Bognár. Open Society Archives: Prague Spring Exhibition, HU OSA 206-1-5. – Photo 8 DVM 10/33960, BA-MA (Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg). Courtesy of the Danish Institute for International Studies – Photo 9 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 10 MTI Photo: Foreign Photo Service – Photo 11 MTI Photo: Attila Kovács – Photo 12 MTI Photo: Attila Kov...