Last modified: 2023-06-03 by 
zachary harden
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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
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
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
