Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
1 The Conference
All three leaders were attempting to establish an agenda
for governing post-war Europe. They wanted to keep
peace between post-world war countries. On the Eastern
Front, the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union but, by August 1944, Soviet forces were inside Poland and parts of Romania as
part of their drive west.[1] By the time of the Conference,
Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov's forces were 65 km
(40 mi) from Berlin. Stalins position at the conference
was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms. According to U.S. delegation member and
future Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, "[i]t was not a
question of what we would let the Russians do, but what
Yalta Conference in February 1945 with (from left to right) we could get the Russians to do.[2] Moreover, Roosevelt
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Also
hoped for a commitment from Stalin to participate in the
present are Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (far left);
United Nations.
Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew
Cunningham, RN, Marshal of the RAF Sir Charles Portal, RAF,
(standing behind Churchill); General George C. Marshall, Chief
of Sta of the United States Army, and Fleet Admiral William
D. Leahy, USN, (standing behind Roosevelt).
The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the reestablishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. Within
a few years, with the Cold War dividing the continent,
Yalta became a subject of intense controversy. To some
extent, it has remained controversial.
Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among
the Big Three. It had been preceded by the Tehran
Conference in 1943, and was followed by the Potsdam
Conference in July 1945, which was attended by Stalin,
Churchill (who was replaced halfway through by the
newly elected British Prime Minister Clement Attlee) and
Harry S. Truman, Roosevelts successor.
1
1 THE CONFERENCE
sponsored provisional government recently installed by ets had already liquidated most of the governments; and
him in Polish territories occupied by the Red Army.
Poland whose government-in-exile was also excluded by
Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacic War with Stalin) and that all civilians would be repatriated.
the Allies. One Soviet precondition for a declaration of
war against Japan was an American ocial recognition 1.1 Key points
of Mongolian independence from China (Mongolian Peoples Republic had already been the Soviet satellite state in The key points of the meeting are as follows:
World War One and World War Two), and a recognition
of Soviet interests in the Manchurian railways and Port
Agreement to the priority of the unconditional surArthur (but not asking the Chinese to lease), as well as
render of Nazi Germany. After the war, Germany
deprivation of Japanese soil (such as Sakhalin and Kuril
and Berlin would be split into four occupied zones.
Islands) to return to Russian custody since the Treaty of
Portsmouth; these were agreed without Chinese represen Stalin agreed that France would have a fourth octation, consultation or consent, with the American desire
cupation zone in Germany, but it would have to be
to end war early by reducing American casualties. Stalin
formed out of the American and British zones.
agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacic War
three months after the defeat of Germany. Stalin pledged
Germany would undergo demilitarization and
to Roosevelt to keep the nationality of the Korean Penindenazication.
sula intact as Soviet Union entered the war against Japan.
German reparations were partly to be in the form of
forced labour. (see also Forced labor of Germans
after World War II and Forced labour of Germans
in the Soviet Union). The forced labour was to be
used to repair damage that Germany inicted on its
victims.[6]
Creation of a reparation council which would be located in the Soviet Union.
The status of Poland was discussed. It was agreed to
reorganize the communist Provisional Government
of the Republic of Poland that had been installed by
the Soviet Union on a broader democratic basis.
3
the port of Darien would be internationalized, and that the three would assist occupied countries to form inthe Soviet lease of Port Arthur would be restored, terim government that pledged to the earliest possible
among other concessions.[8]
establishment through free elections of the Governments
responsive to the will of the people and to facilitate
Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and where necessary the holding of such elections.[9]
brought to justice.
The agreement called on signatories to consult together
A Committee on Dismemberment of Germany on the measures necessary to discharge the joint responwas to be set up. Its purpose was to decide whether sibilities set forth in this declaration. During the Yalta
Germany was to be divided into six nations. Some discussions, Molotov inserted language that weakened the
examples of partition plans are shown below:
implication of enforcement of the declaration.[10]
The eventual partition of Germany into Allied
Occupation Zones:
British zone
French zone (two exclaves) and from 1947 the Saar
protectorate
American zone
Soviet zone, later the DDR
Polish and Soviet annexed territory
2 AFTERMATH
Parliament army debate starting on February 27, which
ended in a vote of condence. During the debate
many MPs openly criticised Churchill and passionately
voiced loyalty to Britains Polish allies and expressed
deep reservations about Yalta.[14] Moreover, 25 of these
MPs risked their careers to draft an amendment protesting against Britains tacit acceptance of Polands domination by the Soviet Union. These members included:
Arthur Greenwood; Sir Archibald Southby, 1st Baronet;
Sir Alec Douglas-Home; James Heathcote-DrummondWilloughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster and Victor Raikes.[14]
After the failure of the amendment, Henry Strauss,
1st Baron Conesford, the Member of Parliament for
Norwich, resigned his seat in protest at the British treatment of Poland.[14]
When the Second World War ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland. Most Poles felt betrayed
by their wartime allies. Many Polish soldiers refused to
return to Poland, because of the Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (19391946), the Trial of the Sixteen and
other executions of pro-Western Poles, particularly the
former members of the AK (Armia Krajowa). The result
was the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, Britains rst mass
immigration law.
5
sta that Moscows tactics were to drag out the period
for holding free elections while the Lublin Committee
consolidate their power.[17] The Polish elections, held on
January 16, 1947, resulted in Polands ocial transformation to a communist state by 1949.
Following Yalta, in Russia, when Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov expressed worry that the Yalta
Agreements wording might impede Stalins plans, Stalin
responded Never mind. We'll do it our own way
later.[12] While the Soviet Union had already annexed
several occupied countries as (or into) Soviet Socialist
Republics,[19][20][21] other countries in eastern Europe
that it occupied were converted into Soviet-controlled
satellite states, such as the Peoples Republic of Poland,
the Peoples Republic of Hungary,[22] the Czechoslovak
Socialist Republic,[23] the Peoples Republic of Romania,
the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, the Peoples Republic
of Albania,[24] and later East Germany from the Soviet
zone of German occupation.[25] Eventually the United
States and the United Kingdom made concessions in recognizing the then Communist-dominated regions, sacricing the substance of the Yalta Declaration, while it remained in form.[26]
4 Gallery
Taken by War Oce ocial photographer, United
Kingdom
5 See also
The Betrayal of Cossacks
Eastern Bloc
Iron Curtain
2.2
Cultural signicance
6 Notes
[1] Traktuyev, Michael Ivanovich, The Red Armys Drive into
Poland in Purnells History of the Second World War, editor Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Hateld, UK, 1981, vol.18,
pp.19201929
[2] Black et al. 2000, p. 61
[3] Stephen C. Schlesinger, Act of Creation: The Founding
of the United Nations, (Boulder: Westview Press, 2003).
ISBN 0-8133-3324-5
[4] Beevor, Antony (2012). The Second World War. New
York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 709. ISBN
9780316023740.
The movie Yalta by Yves-Andr Hubert was produced in France about this conference.
[6] Pavel Polian-Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Central European
University Press 2003 ISBN 963-9241-68-7 P.244-249
8 FURTHER READING
7 References
Berthon, Simon; Potts, Joanna (2007), Warlords:
An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II
Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill,
Roosevelt, and Stalin, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-30681538-9
Black, Cyril E.; English, Robert D.; Helmreich,
Jonathan E.; McAdams, James A. (2000), Rebirth:
A Political History of Europe since World War II,
Westview Press, ISBN 0-8133-3664-3
Grenville, John Ashley Soames (2005), A History of
the World from the 20th to the 21st Century, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-28954-8
LaFeber, Walter (1972), America, Russia, and the
Cold War, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 0-47151137-4
Miscamble, Wilson D. (2007), From Roosevelt to
Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War,
Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-86244-2
Roberts, Georey (2006), Stalins Wars: From
World War to Cold War, 19391953, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-11204-1
Truman, Margaret (1973), Harry S. Truman,
William Morrow & Co., ISBN 0-688-00005-3
Wettig, Gerhard (2008), Stalin and the Cold War in
Europe, Rowman & Littleeld, ISBN 0-7425-55429
Kennedy, David M. (2003), The American People in
World War II Freedom from Fear, Part Two, Oxford
University Press, ISBN 0-19-516893-3
8 Further reading
Fraser J. Harbutt, Yalta 1945: Europe and America
at the Crossroads (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Geoery Roberts, Stalins Wars: From World War to
Cold War, 1939-1953 (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008).
7
Geoery Roberts, Stalin at the Tehran, Yalta, and
Potsdam Conferences, Journal of Cold War Studies
9:4 (Fall 2007): 6-40.
Special German series 2. The Committee on Dismemberment of Germany Allied discussions on the
dismemberment of Germany into separate states,
March 29, 1945. The committee was ordained at
Yalta.
O'Neil, William L. World War II: a Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
External links
Minutes of the conference Combined Arms Research Library
Foreign relations of the United States. Conferences
at Malta and Yalta, 1945
Protocol of proceedings of Crimea Conference
MilitaryHistoryOnline Yalta Conference
How good was the Good War?
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