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Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance

Last modified: 2023-06-03 by zachary harden
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Presentation

The so-called Warsaw Pact (formal name: «Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance») was purely a Soviet organization to create an illusion of the equality of satellite states. The foreign officers stationed in its HQ in Moscow didn’t even have access to the floors of the Central Command and their role was that of messengers transmitting Soviet orders to the Defence Ministries and Central Committees of their respective states. They didn’t participate in any decision-making meetings.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Aug 2002

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Flag of the Warsaw Pact?

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No flag?

No flag existed for the Warsaw Pact. During the signing ceremony only the flags of the member-states were hoisted in Polish alphabetical order:

On the subsequent anniversaries also only those flags were shown, minus Albania, which was kicked-out in 1968.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Aug 2002

There was definitely no flag and I think the main reason why is that this was not supposed to by a multilateral organization sensu stricto, in which its member states would coordinate and (even cooperate) with previously agreed defense policies, among other issues. Instead, as already mentioned by Chrystian Kretowicz, it "was purely a Soviet organization to create an illusion of the equality of satellite states", but really the country that had the logistics and ultimately the power to run such an "organization" was indeed the Soviet Union. In fact, even though the name of the pact was labeled as "Warsaw" because of the location where it was signed, the main office was still in Moscow. Its main bodies were:
- Политический консультативный комитет (ПКК) (English: Political Advisory Committee (PAC)), located in Moscow.
- Объединённое командование вооружёнными силами (ОКВС) (English: Joint Armed Forces Command (JAFC)), located in Warsaw but ultimately subordinated to Moscow.
- Штаб (штаб-квартира) (English: Headquarters), located in Moscow
Source: https://ru.wikipedia.org/

Another key element is that such Pact would have been ratified by each Member State as being an international treaty, but that was not the case, since the agreement ("pact") was signed on May 14, 1955, only ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on May 25 and entered into force on June 1, 1955 (source: http://www.law.edu.ru/norm/norm.asp?normID=1168226).

Illustrations of a "flag" can be found on the internet, e.g., here in JPG format: https://www.pnp.ru/upload/entities/2020/05/13/article/detailPicture/ (source: https://www.pnp.ru/politics/varshavskiy-dogovor-zaklyuchili-65-let-nazad.html), which is simply the pact's logo over a white horizontal background.
Esteban Rivera, 28 May 2020

There was no official WTO flag ever approved or used by the Soviets. Basically all that exists is vexi-vaporware, however, on my historical flag website to aid in the historical narrative I used one of the more popular imagined Warsaw Pact flags. Perhaps in the future an anniversary commemorative flag might be issued?

See my suppositious treatment at: http://www.loeser.us/flags/cold.html#WTO

This imagined suppositious flag can be seen in many places and is wide spread. Examples:
1. https://www.cavok.com.br/guerra-fria-aviacao-do-pacto-de-varsovia
2. https://www.istockphoto.com/search/stack/777712173?assettype=film
3. http://www.udimagen.org/warsaw-pact-flag/
Pete Loeser, 29 May 2020

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Or yes flag?…

I have been increasingly maddeningly searching for a reliable image and/or description of the flag used by the Warsaw Pact. I found one and only one graphic (and no descriptions) for this flag on a Polish web site and it didn’t seem proper simply because it was a red star on a red and pinkish background. The red star seemed embroidered but it would still not make good flag design. I don’t even know if that was an accurate portrayal of the Warsaw Pact design since I have been completely unable to find any reference to this flag anywhere else on the internet.
John Niggley, 01 Jun 2000

I am right there with you I remember that site because at about the same date of your remark (I registered warsawpact.org about then) regarding that site I too was looking and had found it. That was some small fry site on the Polish Navy. After receiving negative replies from some vexillological people last year I stopped looking. But some good news may be in order; last week I found what appears to be the emblem at www.isn.ethz.ch. Although it’s not a good flag design either it’s at least something.
Christopher Etter, 27 Jun 2001

The picture of the Polish poster celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Pact is at www.theartofposter.com. There was a badge attributed to the Warsaw Pact which can be seen at: www.shsu.edu and www.warsawpact.org.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 08 Aug 2002