The founding of the Warsaw Pact

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 14 May 1955, the leader of the Soviet Union and leaders from seven European countries met to sign the Warsaw Pact.

In the years following World War Two, the Soviet Union and the United States started the worldwide Cold War. While Western powers feared the spread of communism, the Soviets worried about US atomic bombs.

What resulted was the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949.

The Warsaw Pact was signed six years later in response to West Germany joining NATO.

Natasha Fernandes uses archive of East Germany’s leader Otto Grotewohl to tell the story.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Soviet Premier, Nikolai Bulganin (centre) addresses Soviet leaders at the Warsaw Conference on 14 May 1955. From left to right: Marshal Ivan Koniev, Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, Bulganin and Marshal Gregori Zhukov. Credit: Bettmann via Getty images)

Transcript

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0:31.3	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:40.2	Hi, this is the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Natasha Fernandis,
0:46.3	part of the Witness History team. We're the podcast that takes you back to a key moment in history,
0:51.3	and we bring it all to life through incredible archive and the
0:54.6	amazing memories of a key witness. Episodes are just nine minutes long and come out every weekday.
1:00.7	If that sounds like something you might be interested in, make sure you hit subscribe wherever
1:05.0	you get your BBC podcasts, and turn your push notifications on so you never miss a show.
1:10.9	For the amazing story I've got for you today, we're going back to the 14th of May, 195,
1:16.3	and we're in Poland's capital, where the leader of the Soviet Union
1:19.9	and the heads of state from seven European countries have gathered to sign the Warsaw Pact.
1:25.3	It's one of the most significant documents from the last century.
1:31.3	Leaders of the communist world meet in Warsaw to sign the treaty, which is their answer to NATO.
1:36.8	The Soviet Premier Bulganin is prominent on the platform when the delegates show themselves to Warsaw's thousands.
1:43.3	The leader of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Bulganin, stands in front of a podium surrounded by
1:48.5	representatives from Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and East Germany.
1:55.7	Otto Guptovol, the Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, was one of
2:00.7	the representatives.
2:02.1	The German Broadcasting Archive has the speech Guadivol gave when he returned home the day after.
2:09.3	When we left, we gave the assurance that the delegation would safeguard and represent the interests of the German Democratic Republic
2:17.1	and the national interests of the German Democratic Republic and the national interests of the
	...

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