Yalta Conference 1943. Start in science

Winter 1945, Yalta. A meeting of the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition is being prepared at the highest level. Allied intelligence agencies are developing a plan to protect Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. And for good reason: it became known that a terrorist attack was being planned in the city. Watch the film “Yalta-45” on May 7 at 17.15 on the MIR TV channel.

Do you know what the operation to ensure the safety of the Big Three leaders was called, why Roosevelt’s bathtub was repainted seven times and why Churchill went to Sevastopol after the conference? About these and other little-known details of the historical events of 1945 in Crimea - in the material "MIR 24".

Yalta Conference The “Big Three” - the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA - played a colossal role in the history of the post-war world order. The Second World War was actually coming to an end, and the leaders of the three leading world powers of that time focused on the issues of the post-war division of the world. It was at the Yalta Conference that such important issues as the borders of Poland and the Soviet Union and the creation of independent states in the Balkans, the boundaries of Germany’s occupation zones and measures to weaken it as much as possible, the conditions for the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan and the fate of prisoners of war and displaced persons were resolved.

Unlike the Tehran Conference of 1943, at which all three countries played approximately the same role, the Yalta Conference became a de facto triumph for the Soviet Union. Start at least from the venue of the high-profile meeting. Initially, the heads of the United States and Great Britain proposed to meet in Scotland, a place equally distant from both the American and Soviet shores. Stalin abandoned the Scottish plan - as the legend goes, because he did not want to go to "men in skirts." In reality, the Soviet leader understood perfectly well that it was his country, whose army was already stationed a hundred kilometers from Berlin, that had the right to dictate its terms.

He did everything to ensure that the American and British leaders saw with their own eyes the catastrophic destruction to which the Germans subjected Soviet cities and villages. This gave Stalin a significant bargaining chip in negotiations on reparations - and as time has shown, this was the right step. After Scotland, Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Athens and even Malta were proposed as a meeting place - for the same reasons - but all these ideas were rejected by Moscow in favor of Crimea. And the allies made concessions.

It took the Soviet Union only two months to organize the meeting in Yalta - despite the fact that Crimea was as devastated as all other occupied territories of the USSR. The operation to hold the meeting, initiated by Winston Churchill, received two code names. “Argonauts”, since the British Prime Minister compared himself and the US President to Argonauts sailing to the shores of the Crimea for a new golden fleece. And “Island” - for conspiracy purposes, with a hint of Malta.

Over the course of 60 days, several hundred workers from all over the country, led by NKVD and NKGB officers, as well as operatives, counterintelligence officers and military personnel, managed to do everything to make the Yalta Conference not only possible, but also to demonstrate the capabilities of the USSR for post-war reconstruction. And the desired effect was achieved!

How Marshal Stalin demonstrated who was in charge in Yalta

Both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt viewed the meeting in Yalta as an opportunity, first of all, to obtain concessions from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on the issue of military support for the operations of US and British troops in Germany. By February 1945, it was the Red Army that had achieved the most impressive results, approaching almost Berlin itself, while the Allies were much further away and were experiencing great difficulties.

The allies also understood that by agreeing to the meeting in Yalta, they placed themselves in the position of invited guests who largely depended on the host. To emphasize this, Marshal Stalin at first did not go to meet the distinguished guests arriving at the airfield in the city of Saki, and when Roosevelt, himself dissatisfied with such a violation of protocol, and at the request of Churchill, expressed his displeasure to the Soviet leader, he made it clear that the long delay in opening the second front and the unconditional leadership of the USSR in advancing to Berlin and defeating Germany give it this right. By the way, for the first official meeting of the three of us on February 4, Stalin was demonstratively late - the only time during the entire Yalta conference. And the allies also understood this hint correctly.

Looted Crimean palaces were refurbished

Photo: wikipedia.org/public domain

The two-year occupation of Crimea by German troops cost the peninsula dearly, including in the most literal sense. When Yalta had already been chosen as the meeting place, and inspection trips to the Crimean palaces began, it turned out that these palaces, in the full sense of the word, had been stripped down to bare walls by the Nazis. In particular, in the Livadia Palace, which was supposed to become the main place of negotiations, there was not even fabric wallpaper left on the walls and copper handles on the doors - everything was taken away by “supermans” in German uniforms. Therefore, the situation in the Livadia, Yusupov and Vorontsov palaces had to be collected literally from the pine forest - from all over the Soviet Union. As one of the eyewitnesses of those events recalled, furniture and furnishings, carpets and rugs, kitchen utensils and expensive sets were transported from Moscow to Crimea in trains.

What is Operation Valley?

Under this code name the operation was carried out to ensure the accommodation and safety of the participants of the Yalta Conference. To restore the destroyed palaces, repair the Crimean roads leading to Yalta from the Saki airfield (Roosevelt and Churchill's planes landed there) and Simferopol (Stalin arrived there by train from Moscow), as well as to solve other everyday issues, about 2,500 workers were involved, half of them they were immediately “thrown” into Livadia. About a thousand operatives of the NKVD and NKGB of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic took part in security measures, not counting the rear security units and other military units. Within two weeks, not a single German prisoner of war remained near the conference site, and at the end of January, the entire local population was evicted within a radius of 30 km from the Livadia Palace.

Over the course of a month, 287 operational operations were carried out on the South Coast, checking more than 67 thousand people and detaining almost 400, as well as seizing 267 rifles, 1 machine gun, 43 machine guns, 49 pistols, 283 grenades and 4,186 rounds of ammunition. In addition, by the beginning of the conference in the Black Sea off the coast of Yalta, a triple ring of warships was built, about 300 combat aircraft were deployed, and the meeting site was covered on land by two round-the-clock security rings, to which a third was added at night.

How Livadia Palace became the main meeting place of the Big Three

Photo: wikipedia.org/public domain

Although there are plenty of palaces in Crimea, including in the vicinity of Yalta, only three of them were prepared for the conference. The Soviet delegation was stationed in Yusupovsky, the British in Vorontsovsky in Alupka, and Livadiysky was assigned to the Americans. And although diplomatic protocol requires that the meeting be held on neutral territory, all the main events of the conference were planned from the very beginning to be held at the “home” of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

This was primarily due to the fact that the American president moved exclusively in a wheelchair, suffering from a long-standing disease of polio. Organizing Roosevelt's constant travel would take extra time and would have had a bad effect on his well-being, which was also in conflict with diplomatic protocol. As a result, they decided to choose the lesser of the two violations and meet where it was convenient for the US leader.

How Roosevelt's bathroom was repainted seven times

Photo: wikipedia.org/public domain

There is no documentary evidence of this fact, but eyewitnesses of the events of January 1945 spoke confidently about it. At the last stage of preparation for the conference, British and American specialists took part in fine-tuning the premises allocated for the leaders of the Big Three.

Inspectors from the United States felt that the paint color chosen by Soviet workers, which covered the walls of the bathroom near Franklin Roosevelt's apartment, did not fit well with the view of the Black Sea. As a result, to achieve the desired shade, the bathroom was repainted seven times. And apparently, they still managed to please the tastes of the most famous US leader of the 20th century. Getting ready to go home, Roosevelt shared with Stalin his plans to buy the Livadia Palace after his resignation and settle there in retirement.

Why was Winston Churchill the last to leave Crimea?

Photo: wikipedia.org/public domain

Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt left Yalta at the same time - the day after the end of the Yalta Conference. The leader of the USSR reached Simferopol by car and from there went to Moscow by train, and the US President took off from Saki airfield on February 12 on a C-45 plane and, accompanied by six fighters, went to Cairo.

But the British prime minister stayed in Crimea for another two days, having managed to get to Sevastopol. The reason for this was Winston Churchill’s visit to Balaklava, or more precisely, to the Alma Valley, where in the mid-autumn of 1854 an attack by British light cavalry cost the lives of representatives of many aristocratic families of Great Britain. Among them were the Dukes of Marlborough, ancestors of Winston Churchill. And the promise to organize a visit for him to Balaklava was one of the arguments in favor of holding the conference in Yalta.

How Stalin had only one translator left before the conference

Photo: wikipedia.org/public domain

Throughout the Great Patriotic War, Joseph Stalin was assisted at international meetings by two translators - Vladimir Pavlov and Valentin Berezhkov. During Operation Valley, Soviet counterintelligence checked all participants in the future meeting, not excluding the translators. It was during this check that the fact was revealed that the parents of translator Berezhkov remained in the occupied territory - in Kyiv.

But the matter was not limited to this: despite all the efforts of Valentin Berezhkov himself to find his relatives, he did not achieve success, from which counterintelligence officers concluded that his parents could have left the city along with the retreating Germans (much later it turned out that they left the city back in 1943). This was enough to exclude the translator from participating in the conference, and only Vladimir Pavlov went to Yalta with Stalin.

EXPERIENCE ZEN WITH CONTACT US IN YANDEX. NEWS

For Crimea, which reunited with Russia, some pages of history are especially memorable. One of these events is the Yalta Conference in 1945, which hosted the leaders of the so-called. The Big Three on the eve of the end of World War II.

Yalta Conference: reasons, results, decisions

In February 1945, in the Livadia Palace, US President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister William Churchill and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Joseph Stalin decided the post-war fate of the world. The conference took place in the ballroom of Emperor Nicholas II. The bedroom of the former Russian autocrat was given to Roosevelt, and Churchill and his retinue settled in the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka.

The location of the conference was not chosen by chance. The fact is that the head of the United States has been confined to a wheelchair for many years. Stalin makes a broad gesture - the meetings are held in the same building where the American president was accommodated in order to reduce his movements to a minimum. The whole world was watching what was happening in a small seaside village. The conference participants were provided with enhanced security.

Many years later, from the declassified archives of the KGB of the USSR, the script of a radio game will become known, thanks to which during the entire period of the Yalta Conference not a single air bomb fell on the heads of its participants. From a bunker located in one of the villages near Yalta, converted Nazi Abwehr agents, who were identified in advance, sent false information about weather conditions to Germany.

Even the food served to the table of the leaders of the three powers was carefully checked. Roosevelt loved cabbage soup, Churchill preferred broths, Stalin was absolutely not picky about food. Here, at an ordinary table, the final documents of the conference were signed. One of the most serious decisions was the decision to create the United Nations in the very near future. The issue of the place and time of the founding conference was agreed upon, at which the charter of this organization was supposed to be adopted.

In April 1945, a conference began its work in San Francisco, America, where this charter was ultimately adopted. A separate document agreed on issues of principle for the Soviet side regarding the fate of the Far East. Stalin, in private conversations, guaranteed the USSR's entry into the war with Japan. The political conditions under which the Soviet Union was to enter the war against Japan were discussed. This, in particular, is the return of those positions that Tsarist Russia lost as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

The Soviet Union, represented by Stalin, accepted the obligation to declare war on Japan, but this was to happen only a few months after hostilities in Europe ended. As is well known today, this is what happened. In August 1945, Soviet troops began to defeat the Kwantung Army, and in September of the same year, World War II ended.

The leaders of the Big Three countries in Yalta solved several very difficult problems. They defined the contours of new state borders between those countries that had recently been occupied by the Third Reich. The Allies were well aware that after their common enemy, Germany, disappeared from the political map, the forced union of the West and the USSR would lose all meaning. They should have developed procedures that would firmly guarantee the immutability of the new lines drawn on the post-war map of the world. This was partially achieved.

• Several years ago, the famous Russian director Tigran Keosayan shot a television mini-series “Yalta-45”, where the above-described events were recreated - of course, in the playful and exciting genre of part action film, part melodrama. The main emphasis was placed precisely on the prevention by Soviet intelligence of German attempts to disrupt the meeting of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.

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A history and social studies teacher gives a presentation on the Crimean conference in 1945. The author presents a photograph of the conference venue - the Livadia Palace in Yalta, and names its goal - the establishment of a post-war world

It is from this event that the countdown of a new stage in the history of human civilization in general and the history of the twentieth century in particular begins. Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the world became bipolar and very soon became the arena of military

Preparations for the Yalta Conference, which lasted from February 4 to 11, 1945, began at the end of 1944. Not only the leaders of the anti-Hitler “Big Three” took part in it (the preparation), but also their closest advisers, assistants, and foreign ministers. Among the main participants on our side we can name, naturally, Stalin himself, Molotov, as well as Vyshinsky, Maisky, Gromyko, Berezhkov. The latter, by the way, left very interesting memoirs, which were published during his lifetime and were republished after his death.

Thus, by the time all three participants in the anti-Hitler coalition gathered in Yalta, the agenda had already been agreed upon and some positions had been clarified. That is, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt arrived in Crimea with an understanding of which issues their positions more or less coincided, and which they still had to argue about.

The location of the conference was not immediately chosen. Initially it was proposed to hold the meeting in Malta. Even the following expression appeared: “from Malta to Yalta”. But ultimately, Stalin, citing the need to be in the country, insisted on Yalta. Hand on heart, we must admit that the “father of nations” was afraid to fly. History has not preserved a single flight of Stalin on an airplane.

Among the issues that were subject to discussion in Yalta, there were three main ones. Although, without a doubt, the conference touched upon a much wider range of problems, and agreements were reached on many positions. But the main ones, of course, were: the UN, Poland and Germany. These three issues took up most of the Big Three's time. And, in principle, agreements were reached on them, although, frankly speaking, with great difficulties (especially regarding Poland).

Diplomats during the Yalta Conference. (pinterest.com)

Regarding Greece, we had no objections - influence remained with Great Britain, but regarding Poland, Stalin was stubborn: he did not want to give it up, citing the fact that the country borders the USSR and it was through it that the war came to us (and not for the first time, By the way, in history we were threatened from there). Therefore, Stalin had a very firm position. However, despite Churchill’s categorical resistance and reluctance to cooperate, the Soviet leader achieved his goal.

What other options did the Allies have regarding Poland? In those days there (in Poland) there were two governments: Lublin and Mikolajczyk in London. Churchill, naturally, insisted on the latter and tried to win Roosevelt over to his side. But the American president made it very clear to the British prime minister that he did not intend to spoil relations with Stalin on this issue. Why? The explanation was simple: there was still a war with Japan, which was not of particular interest to Churchill, and Roosevelt did not want to argue with the Soviet leader in anticipation of a future alliance to defeat Japan.

As already mentioned, preparations for the conference began at the end of 1944, almost immediately after the opening of the Second Front. The war was drawing to a close, and it was clear to everyone that Hitler's Germany would not last long. Consequently, it was necessary to resolve, firstly, the issue of the future and, secondly, to divide Germany. Of course, after Yalta there was also Potsdam, but it was in Crimea that the idea arose (it belonged to Stalin) to give the zone to France (for which, we note, de Gaulle was always grateful to the USSR).

Also in Livadia, a decision was made to grant UN membership to Belarus and Ukraine. At first the conversation was about all the republics of the USSR, Stalin gently insisted on this for some time. Then he abandoned this idea and named only three republics: Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania (later very easily abandoning the latter). Thus, two republics remained. To smooth out the impression and soften his insistence, the leader of the Soviet state suggested that the Americans also include two or three states in the UN. Roosevelt did not agree to this matter, most likely foreseeing complications in Congress. Moreover, it is interesting that Stalin had a rather convincing reference: India, Australia, New Zealand are all the British Empire, that is, the UK will have plenty of votes in the UN - we need to equalize the chances. That's why the idea of ​​additional USSR votes arose.

Stalin in negotiations with Roosevelt. (pinterest.com)

Compared to Poland, the discussion of the “German question” did not take much time. They talked about reparations, in particular, about the use of the labor of German prisoners of war to repay all the damage caused by the German army during the occupation of Soviet territory. Other issues were also discussed, but there were no objections on them from our allies, England or the United States. Apparently all the energy was focused on discussing the future of Poland.

An interesting detail: when zones of influence in Europe were distributed between the participants (in this case we are talking about Great Britain and the USSR), when Stalin agreed to leave Greece to Great Britain, but did not agree to Poland in any way, our troops were already in Hungary and Bulgaria. Churchill sketched out the distribution on a piece of paper: 90% of Soviet influence in Poland, 90% of British influence in Greece, Hungary or Romania (one of these countries) and Yugoslavia - 50% each. Having written this on a piece of paper, the English Prime Minister pushed the note to Stalin. He looked, and, according to the memoirs of Berezhkov, Stalin’s personal translator, “he returned it to Churchill with a click.” They say there are no objections. According to Churchill himself, Stalin put a tick on the document, right in the middle, and pushed it back to Churchill. He asked: “Shall we burn the piece of paper?” Stalin: “As you wish. You can save it." Churchill folded this note, put it in his pocket and then showed it off. True, the British minister did not fail to remark: “How quickly and not very decently we decide the future of European countries.”

The “Iranian issue” was also touched upon at the Yalta Conference. In particular, he was associated with Iranian Azerbaijan. We were going to create another republic, but the allies, the USA and Great Britain, simply reared up and forced us to abandon this idea.

Big Three leaders at the negotiating table. (pinterest.com)

Now let's talk about the main participants of the conference. Let's start with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Before the meeting in Yalta, the personal physician of the American president, Dr. Howard Bruen, examined Roosevelt to understand his physical condition: whether he could endure the flight, and indeed the conference itself. It was discovered that the president's heart and lungs were fine. True, things were worse with blood pressure - 211 to 113, which probably should have raised alarm bells. But Roosevelt had an enviable character trait: he knew how to get his act together. And the president pulled himself together, showing extraordinary energy, joked, used irony, quickly responded to all the questions that arose, and thereby somewhat reassured his relatives and advisers that everything was in order. But the pallor, yellowness, blue lips - all this attracted attention and gave Roosevelt’s critics grounds to argue that, in fact, the physical condition of the American president explained all his inexplicable concessions to Stalin.

Roosevelt's closest advisers, who were nevertheless close to him and bore a certain degree of responsibility for the agreements that were reached, argued that the president was in complete control of himself, aware of everything he said, agreed to and agreed to. “I have succeeded in everything where I could succeed,” Roosevelt said after Yalta in Washington. But this by no means cleared him of the charges.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt returned home, he spent all his time at his Warm Springs residence. And so on April 12, almost exactly two months after the end of the Yalta meeting, Roosevelt, signing state documents, while the artist Elizaveta Shumatova, invited by the president’s friend, Mrs. Lucy Rutherfurd, was painting his portrait, suddenly raised his hand to the back of his head and said: “ I have a terrible headache." These were the last words of Franklin Roosevelt's life.

It is worth noting that on the eve of April 12, the American president sent his last telegram to Stalin. The fact is that the Soviet leader received information about the meetings of Allen Dulles, the OSS resident in Bern, with General Wolf. Stalin, having learned about this, did not fail to turn to Roosevelt with this, one might say, not quite by regular letter, expressing protest, even amazement, surprise. How so? We are such friends, we are open all the time in relationships, but here you let us down? Roosevelt responded. Firstly, he said that he was not conducting any negotiations, that this was a continuation of what had been started with Stalin’s consent. But the USSR was not invited to these negotiations, which is why the Soviet leader was indignant. And Roosevelt wrote to Stalin that he really did not want such a minor event to spoil their relationship. And he sent this telegram to Harriman, the US Ambassador to the USSR.

Harriman, on his own initiative, delayed the transmission of the letter to Stalin and sent an urgent coded telegram to Roosevelt that it was not necessary to call this a “minor misunderstanding” - this was a very serious situation. And Roosevelt replied: “I am not inclined to consider this a serious event and continue to consider it simply a misunderstanding.” Thus, the telegram was transmitted to Stalin. And when he received it, the next day Roosevelt was no longer there.

Russian postage stamp 1995. (pinterest.com)

Returning to the Yalta Conference, it is worth saying that Stalin, in principle, was pleased with its results. Nowhere and never did he express any dissatisfaction about the fact that he failed in something (this was not in the spirit of the Soviet leader). The meeting in Crimea received an extremely positive, positive assessment: “achieved”, “preserved”, “provided”, “advanced”.

And finally, a few words about ensuring the security of the Yalta Conference. The security of state representatives during the meeting was, of course, the responsibility of the USSR, on whose territory it was held. It is worth noting that all possible forces were involved in protecting and escorting the leaders of the Big Three. Interesting fact: on the way to Livadia, from the car windows, Churchill and Roosevelt observed not only signs of the war that had just subsided, but also a large number of women in military uniform.

The article is based on material from the program “The Price of Victory” of the radio station “Echo of Moscow”. The guest of the program is Eduard Ivanyan, Doctor of Historical Sciences, guest of the “Price of Victory” program on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, and the presenters are Dmitry Zakharov and Vitaly Dymarsky. You can read and listen to the original interview in full at

The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimean Conference and codenamed "Argonaut", took place from February 4 to 11, 1945, between the heads of government of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The delegations were respectively led by Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.

The conference took place in Yalta, a resort city on the Crimean Peninsula in the Soviet Union. The American delegation was housed in the former Tsar's palace, while President Roosevelt remained in the Livadia Palace, where the meetings took place. The British delegation settled in the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka. Key members of the delegations were Edward Stettinius (US Secretary of State), Averel Harriman (United Kingdom Foreign Secretary), Anthony Eden (British Foreign Secretary), Alexander Cadogan (US Ambassador to the USSR) and Vyacheslav Molotov (People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs).

According to Anthony Beevor, a British historian and writer, all rooms were bugged by the NKVD. Stalin arrived by train on February 4. The meeting began with a formal dinner that evening.

Big three

The key leaders of the Allied countries, Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, were called the “Big Three” - due to the power of the states they led and their cooperation during the war. During the war they met only twice, and both times these meetings changed the course of history.

After the Tehran Conference, they agreed to meet again, and this agreement was embodied in the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Although Stalin expressed concern about Roosevelt's health during the Tehran conference, these concerns did not affect his actions. For the next summit, he refused to travel further than Yalta, the Black Sea resort in Crimea, and Roosevelt again faced a long and arduous journey to the conference site.

Demands of the parties at the Yalta Conference

Each of the three powers put its proposal on the agenda. The British wanted to preserve their empire, the Soviets wanted to gain more land and consolidate what they had won, and the Americans wanted to secure the Soviet Union's agreement to enter the war with Japan and negotiate a post-war settlement. Moreover, Roosevelt hoped to obtain from Stalin a commitment to participate in the United Nations. The first topic on the agenda for the expansion of the Soviet Union immediately became the question of Poland, and Stalin immediately expressed his point of view:

“For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor, but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been a corridor through which the enemy passed into Russia. Poland is a matter of life and death for Russia.”

Accordingly, Stalin made it clear that some of his demands regarding Poland were non-negotiable: the Russians were to gain the eastern part of Poland, and Poland was to compensate by expanding its western borders, thereby displacing millions of Germans. Reluctantly, Stalin promised free elections in Poland, despite the newly installed communist puppet government.

However, it soon became obvious that Stalin had no intention of keeping this promise. In fact, it was only 50 years after the Yalta Conference that the Poles had the opportunity to hold free elections for the first time. As mentioned above, Roosevelt's main goal was to make sure that the Soviets entered the Asian War, that is, the war against the Japanese.

However, Roosevelt did not have to waste time trying to involve the USSR in the Pacific War, because Stalin did not need to be convinced. The Soviets themselves were determined to avenge the humiliation of defeat and the loss of privileges over Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War. The Soviets were eager to restore the territories they had conquered and thought they could gain more land.

However, Roosevelt did not recognize Stalin's goals, since he excellently “kept his face” and was impenetrable. Therefore, Roosevelt readily accepted the USSR's terms, leaving the Yalta Conference satisfied that Stalin had agreed to enter the war against Japan. Moreover, the Soviets agreed to join the United Nations under the condition of a secret agreement on a form of veto voting for the permanent members of the Security Council, giving the Security Council more control in world affairs and significantly weakening the United Nations. In general, I was confident that the negotiations in Yalta were successful.

The Big Three ratified earlier agreements on the post-war division of Germany: it was divided into four zones - one for each of the three countries participating in the conference and one zone for France. Berlin itself, although it was in the Soviet zone, was also divided into four sectors. Later, the infamous Berlin Wall, built under the leadership of the USSR, would become the main symbol.

The Big Three also decided that in the occupied countries all original governments would be restored and that all civilians would be repatriated. Democratic states will be created, and all territories will hold free elections. In Europe, the procedure should be established according to the following official statement:

“The establishment of order in Europe and the restoration of national economic life must be achieved through processes that will enable liberated peoples to destroy the last remnants of Nazism and fascism and create democratic institutions of their choice.”

After the war, the USSR received Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, half of East Prussia, German Koenigsberg and control over Finland. In addition, Roosevelt let it slip that the United States would not object if the Soviet Union tried to annex the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) or create puppet governments in them. So it is quite understandable why both Stalin and Roosevelt were pleased with the overall results.

The Yalta Conference is often viewed by many Central European countries as a “Western betrayal.” This is the view of countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic, and they are based on the belief that the Allied powers, despite reverence for democratic politics and the signing of numerous pacts and military agreements, allowed the Soviet Union to control smaller countries or turn them into communist states . The Big Three at the Yalta Conference "tried to sacrifice freedom for stability," and many believe that the decisions and concessions of Roosevelt and Churchill during the summit led to the power struggle of the Cold War that followed.

Highlights

• It was agreed that the priority was the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war, the country would be divided into four occupation zones, and Berlin would also be divided into four zones. Stalin agreed to allocate a fourth occupation zone for France from the British and American zones - in Germany and Austria. France also received a seat on the Allied Control Council.
• Germany will be subjected to demilitarization and denationalization.
• A decision was made to create a union council for reparations with its location in Moscow.
• The fate of Poland was discussed, but the situation was complicated by the fact that Poland was by this time under control. It was decided to reorganize the Provisional Government of Poland, which was created after the entry of the Red Army into the country: it was now called the Provisional Government of National Unity, was expanded to include political figures from Poland itself and those who were outside its borders, and was supposed to ensure democratic elections (after which the Polish government in exile, based in London, effectively lost its legitimacy).
• Poland's eastern border should largely follow the Curzon Line, and Poland should receive substantial territorial compensation in the west at Germany's expense.
• Citizens of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, regardless of their consent, were to be repatriated from other countries.
• Stalin promised Roosevelt to join the United Nations on the condition that the five permanent members of the Security Council would have veto power.
• Stalin agreed to join the fight against the Japanese Empire within 90 days of Germany's defeat. After the defeat of Japan, the Soviet Union will receive South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Consequences

The Yalta Conference was the last significant meeting before the end of the war. This was also Roosevelt's last trip abroad. He already looked sick and exhausted. Most likely, his most important goal was to ensure the participation of the Soviet Union in the United Nations, which he achieved at the cost of granting veto power to every permanent member of the Security Council, which significantly weakened the UN. Another goal of his was to drag the Soviet Union into a war against Japan, which had not yet been proven. The Red Army had already liberated most of Eastern Europe from the Nazis, so Stalin got everything he wanted, namely a significant sphere of influence in a large part of Europe, which he could use as a buffer zone. The freedom of small nations was sacrificed for the sake of stability: the three Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - became part of the USSR.

- a conference of the heads of government of the three allied powers of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II, the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, convened in order to coordinate plans for the final defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies, and to develop the basic principles of a common policy regarding the post-war world order.

The Conference Communiqué formulated a unified policy of the USSR, USA and Great Britain regarding the post-war status of Germany. It was decided that the armed forces of the three powers, after complete defeat, would occupy Germany and occupy certain parts of it (zones).

It was also envisaged to create an allied administration and control the situation in the country through a specially created body, which would be headed by the commanders-in-chief of the three powers, with its seat in Berlin. At the same time, it was supposed to invite France as the fourth member of this control body so that it would take over one of the zones of occupation.

In order to destroy German militarism and Nazism and transform Germany into a peace-loving state, the Crimean Conference outlined a program for its military, economic and political disarmament.

The conference made a decision on the reparation issue. She recognized the need to oblige Germany to compensate the allied countries for the damage it caused to the “maximum possible extent” through natural supplies. Determining the amount of reparations and methods of collecting them was entrusted to a special commission for compensation of losses, which was supposed to work in Moscow.

The conference participants adopted the “Declaration of a Liberated Europe,” in which the Allied powers declared their desire to coordinate their actions in solving the political and economic problems of a liberated Europe.

One of the most difficult issues at the conference was the Polish question. The heads of the three powers reached an agreement to reorganize the current Provisional Government on a broader basis, including democratic figures from Poland itself and Poles from abroad. With regard to the Polish borders, it was decided that “the eastern border of Poland should run along the Curzon Line with a deviation from it in some areas of five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland.” It was also envisaged that Poland “should receive significant increases in territory in the North and West.”

On the question of Yugoslavia, the conference adopted a number of recommendations regarding the formation of a Provisional United Government from representatives of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia and the émigré royal government in London, as well as the creation of a Provisional Parliament based on the Anti-Fascist Assembly of People's Liberation of Yugoslavia.

The decision was of greatest importance Crimean Conference on the establishment of a general international organization for the maintenance of peace and security - the United Nations (UN) and a permanent body under it - the Security Council.

The situation in the Asia-Pacific theater of military operations was not officially discussed by the participants of the Yalta Conference, since the USSR was bound by a neutrality treaty with Japan. The agreement was reached in secret negotiations between the heads of government and signed on February 11.

The Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East, adopted at the Crimean Conference, provided for the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan two to three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe. In exchange for Soviet participation in the war against Japan, the United States and Great Britain provided Stalin with significant concessions. The Kuril Islands and Southern Sakhalin, lost in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905, were transferred to the USSR. Mongolia received the status of an independent state.

The Soviet side was also promised the restoration of the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the USSR, and joint operation of the Chinese Eastern and South Manchurian Railways with China.

Bilateral agreements were also signed at the conference, which determined the procedure for the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians of the states party to the agreements in the event of their release by the troops of allied countries, as well as the conditions for their repatriation.

An agreement was reached to establish a permanent mechanism for consultation between the foreign ministers of the three great powers.

At the Crimean Conference of 1945, the foundations of the post-war world order were laid that lasted almost the entire second half of the 20th century, and some of its elements, such as the UN, still exist today.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources