The Yalta Conference was held in a Russian resort of Yalta, in Crimea. It lasted for a week, from February 4 to 11, 1945. The participants were the “Big Three”: United Kingdom, United States and Soviet Union represented by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, respectively. It was one of the most important events in the 20^th century. It was the second of the three conferences during the Second World War. Preceded by the Teheran Conference and followed by the Potsdam Conference, its purpose was to reshape the postwar world.

The previous conference, held in Tehran, happened because of the breakout of the conflict between the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill, using the occasion, reached out to Stalin and offered and agreement between the two countries, following the proverb: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Churchill is known to have once remarked that “if Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least make a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons”¹. The German attack on the Soviet Union was indeed a gift for the British Prime Minister. Together with the United States involvement in the war due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the need to coordinate the war effort arose. Despite both Churchill’s and Roosevelt’s wariness of Stalin’s totalitarian aspirations, the meeting came to fruition at the end of 1943. The main topic discussed at the conference was the second front that was to be opened in France against the Nazi Germany in order to relieve the Soviet troops of the constant onslaught of the German forces. There were also other topics such as the Yugoslavian situation and the war effort against Japan. The meeting, as can be observed, focused mainly on the current issues, however, the issues of the postwar Eastern Europe and Germany as well as the United Nations organization were also discussed. With regards to the United Nations, Churchill was left excluded from the talks. Roosevelt and Stalin agreed on a larger international cooperation plan with “the four policemen” ( the US, the UK, the Soviet Union and China) having “the power to deal immediately with any threat to the peace and any sudden emergency which requires this action.”² When it comes to the issue of postwar Europe, Stalin managed to win a great victory by persuading the other member of the Big Three to revise antebellum Poland’s borders in accordance with the so-called Curzon Line from 1920. Although not ratified during the conference, it was made into law in Potsdam.

The Yalta conference was the second of the three big meetings between the main Allied Powers. It was held in February, 1945. By this time, the outcome of the war was almost certain. The allies were advancing in on Germany, with the Soviet Union’s forces pummeling the enemy. It was one of the reasons why the leaders of the three great nations gathered to settle the dispute over the issue of how postwar Europe shall look like. Each of the politicians had their own agenda and thus the conference was a heated one and remains controversial to this day.

Stalin’s position at the time was the strongest. With his Red Army advancing on Berlin, he was the one to dictate the terms. His interests lay in strengthening the Soviet Union and obtaining more land to add to his newly-built empire. Britain was mainly concerned with preserving their empire, although Churchill was an avid protector of democracy and strongly opposed Stalin. He pressed for a democratic Eastern Europe, fearing Soviet’s influence over the region. Roosevelt, on the other hand, was preoccupied with trying to persuade Stalin to participate in the conflict on the Pacific. He failed to notice Stalin’s flaws and the danger that the Soviet Union posed to the free world. The conference is often regarded as being one of the main reasons behind the outbreak of the Cold War. Seeing how the Big Three agendas differed, it may as well be so.

The participants of the conference came to an agreement on fourteen issues regarding Europe as well as one issue that covered the Pacific theatre of war. The organization of the world involving the creation and maintenance of the United Nations, a successor to the League of Nations – a botched attempt at keeping the world peace – was the first on the list of agreements that were settled by the Yalta Conference. The drafting of what was to become the United Nations Charter was set to 25 April, 1945. It was already agreed during the conference that the five nations with permanent seats on the Security Council of the UN – namely the US, the UK, France, Soviet Union and China – “should consult each other prior to the United Nations conference on the question of territorial trusteeship.”³ It already shows which countries were to play the major role in shaping the world. The impact of this decision can still be seen today, with those countries still being the most influential.

Second on the list was the declaration of liberated Europe. It was basically a repetition of the Atlantic Charter of 1941, drafted by Roosevelt and Churchill. In the Declaration of the United Nations, a document which was the basis of today’s UN, the 26 nations of the pact agreed upon the principles of the Atlantic Charter. This was just the reaffirmation of those principles, important nonetheless.

The next four key points focused on Germany itself. It was to surrender unconditionally and be split into four occupied zones. The Soviet occupied zone would later become the German Democratic Republic, known colloquially as East Germany, another on of Soviet satellite states. It had a huge impact on the postwar Europe and was one of the major seeds of conflict during the Cold War. The West pushed for the reunification of Germany, but the Soviet Union opposed the idea thus creating what Churchill dubbed as the Iron Curtain, dividing the continent into the free western states and Soviet puppet states in the east. The issue of war reparations delivered by Germany was settled upon. Germans were to be used for labor in order to repair the damage caused by their war machine as well as being forced to deliver “goods from current production for a period to be fixed.”⁴ It was also agreed that Germany should be completely demilitarized “chiefly for the purpose of destroying the war potential of Germany“⁵.

Much of the conference was dedicated to Poland, on account of it being in Stalin’s interest to gain control over the Polish territory. It was agreed that Poland should have a government “reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and from Poles abroad”⁶. While Roosevelt was not concerned with this issue as much as Churchill was, the latter was lulled by Stalin’s admission of guilt over what has transpired on the Polish territory over the course of the war and believed that Stalin would keep his promises. He allowed Stalin to annex the territory conquered by the Soviet Union in the 1939 aggression on Poland. Upon returning to Britain, Churchill was criticized by many politicians who openly voiced their concern and doubt about the Yalta Conference. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, a communist government was installed in Poland, condemning it as well as other countries under Soviet sphere of influence to a half of a century worth of oppression and disregard for human rights and personal freedoms.

Among other issues discussed there was the problem of Yugoslavia, southeastern Europe and Iran. Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed to persuade Stalin to join the war against Japan, however, on several conditions that were very beneficial to Stalin.

It is evident that the Yalta Conference was dominated by Joseph Stalin. The Soviet leader achieved all of his goals, while Roosevelt and Churchill had to yield to his requests in hopes of appeasing him or possibly because they realized that nothing could be done at the moment, especially in the case of Poland, occupied by the Soviet Army. It became the bone of contention for the decades to come. The problem with the Yalta Conference was the fact that Stalin and the other two leaders did not see eye to eye on basic values, Stalin having none when it came to democracy and respect for human rights. The conference itself, despite some aforementioned opposing voices, was deemed a success and a great accomplishment of the British and American diplomacy. Unfortunately, what it essentially did was to split Europe in half. Due to Soviet presence in Eastern Europe at the time, Poland and the other countries were already lost even before the Yalta Conference has begun. This tragedy could have been prevented if only the US backed up British plan of opening the second front not in France, but in the Balkans. Churchill was an avid supporter of the plan as he thought it would thwart Soviet Union’s attempts at stretching their influence over Poland and Romania. It created tensions between the West and the Soviet Union. In addition, the US’ plan to create a new and independent Germany met with strong opposition from the Russians who in turn crafted a German puppet state out of their occupied zone. The Iron Curtain fell and kept the world on the verge of atomic annihilation ever since the attack on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Summarizing, the Yalta Conference divided the world and pushed it into another conflict that spanned decades. It condemned the countries east of the Iron Curtain to maltreatment from which they are yet to fully recover. However, it succeeded in creating the United Nations, which replaced the ineffective League of Nations and proved to be an important force in the struggle for world peace.

---

1. Irving, David. Churchill’s War. Hutchinson (London), p. 628↩

2. The text of the agreements reached at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp↩

3. The text of the agreements reached at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp↩

4. The text of the agreements reached at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp↩

5. Ibid.↩

6. Ibid.↩