"Fraternal Assistance" to Poland? : Role of the Warsaw Pact during the First Period of the Polish Crisis (July-December 1980)
Abstract
Paper analyzes the role of the Warsaw Pact in the first period of Polish communist regime's crisis in the beginning of 80's. It climaxed in December 1980 with the extraordinary Pact member states' leaders meeting in Moscow and the nonstandard maneuvers "Sojuz-80" in Poland and its bordering states.
Polish territory and its armed forces played an important role in the Warsaw Pact's military plans. This fact strengthened the Soviet and the Eastern Bloc states' concerns that the military and strategic interests of the Pact could be threaten by the situation in Poland.
Nevertheless, in observed period Moscow did not strive to engage the alliance in resolving the crisis. Contrary to the Prague Spring 1968 in Czechoslovakia, Polish leadership did not abandon the Soviet model of socialism.
Kremlin therefore preferred only to support the ruling structures in Poland in their attempts to reestablish the order in country. Neither political nor military organs of the Warsaw Pact discussed the Polish issue substantively.
Character of Moscow meeting then confirmed that despite the formalization of the inside pact's cooperation in 70's, Warsaw Treaty Organization's official framework continued to be kept only when it suited the actual situation.