ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the developments of the Warsaw Pact, officially the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), with respect to both its original goals and those which arose during its thirty–year life. The historical and military reasons are closely connected and well known: the Soviets, and especially the Russians, will not easily forget that most major threats to the integrity or even the survival of Russia as a political entity came either from or through Eastern Europe. The Soviets did provide additional weaponry as well as military education for the East European officer corps. While the WTO was initially mainly an outgrowth of Soviet military considerations, over time it developed into an increasingly political organization with a distinct and decisive East European component. Economically, Eastern Europe has recently become to a large extent complementary to the colossus to the East: it can absorb raw materials and provide manufactured goods in exchange.
