ABSTRACT
After 1985, the influence of the Western criticism of human rights violations in Eastern Bloc on relations between both Cold War blocs grew. Therefore, the subject began to be regularly discussed in the Warsaw Pact political structures. The reason why the pressure to respect human rights became more important in the second half of the 1980s lay in the crisis in which the Soviet Union and its European allies found themselves at the time. Economic problems pushed them to try to reconcile with the West, which could reduce exhausting armament and potentially revive their economies through strengthened cooperation with West European countries. It was such an urgent need that the Warsaw Pact did not intend to oppose the West and firmly defend its previous line on the human rights issue. In this respect, the Western pressure contributed to the disintegration of power structures in the Eastern Bloc. The West succeeded in engendering a dispute between the Warsaw Pact members over their approach to human rights, thus creating a substantial area of friction between them, which weakened the cohesion of the alliance.
