Creation of the Warsaw Pact

Preface
On April 4, 1949, the Western European nations created NATO. This military alliance of Western capitalists made Stalin anxious; he believed that they were planning to gang up on the Soviet Union, he had to create a protective alliance with his satellites, just like with Comecon and the Marshall Plan.

The Pact
Some years after NATO, Stalin made his alliance real. On May 14 1955, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union signed the Warsaw Pact. This defensive military treaty stated that the signatories would come to the aid of any member nation that fell victim to an attack by an aggressor nation.

This was Stalin's defense against the countries of NATO. The Warsaw Pact nations were now forever stuck in communism under control of the Soviet Union. The only country that was able to escape membership was Yugoslavia, under the leadership of Josip Broz, affectionately referred to as "Tito".

The Warsaw Pact was a way for the Soviet Union to maintain very strict control over its satellites, which led to many deaths, and eventually, one of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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