ABSTRACT
Among the major political crises in Central Europe prior to 1989 only the last one, in Poland during 1980-81, did not see the use of Soviet military force. The Soviet military had clearly played a major part in establishing communist power in Central Europe after 1945 and in maintaining it in the face of successive uprisings against Soviet-backed dictatorship and even of attempts to reform the mechanisms of communist rule from above. The installation of the communist order may well have been secured primarily by Soviet military might, but the main pillar of communist domination soon became that of political power. Soviet military intelligence agents remained active throughout the region. Military and political threads were thus interwoven in the development of the WTO (Warsaw Treaty Organization), and the dual focus evident from its inception in 1955 was perpetuated in the relations that developed between member countries as well as in the structure of the organization itself.
