Yalta decision conference. Crimean Conference

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The Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the second meeting of the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - during the Second World War (1939-1945), occupies an important chapter in the history of not only our country, but the whole world. Interest in it does not wane, although 70 years have passed since it was held.

The location of the conference was not immediately chosen. Initially it was proposed to hold the meeting in Great Britain, as it was equidistant from the USSR and the USA. Among the names of the proposed venues were also Malta, Athens, Cairo, Rome and a number of other cities. I.V. Stalin insisted on holding the meeting in the Soviet Union so that the heads of delegations and their entourage could personally see the damage that Germany caused to the USSR.

The conference was held in Yalta on February 4-11, 1945 at a time when, as a result of successfully carried out strategic operations of the Red Army, military operations were transferred to German territory, and the war against Nazi Germany entered its final stage.

In addition to the official name, the conference had several codes. Going to the Yalta Conference, W. Churchill gave it the name “Argonaut”, drawing an analogy with ancient Greek myths: he, Stalin and Roosevelt, like the Argonauts, set off to the Black Sea shores for the Golden Fleece. Roosevelt responded to London with agreement: “You and I are the direct heirs of the Argonauts.” As you know, it was at the Yalta Conference that the division of spheres of influence of the three powers in the post-war world took place. The conference was codenamed “Island” to mislead opponents, since Malta was one of the possible venues for its holding.

The Conference was attended by the leaders of the three allied powers: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR I.V. Stalin, Prime Minister of Great Britain W. Churchill, President of the United States of America F.D. Roosevelt.

In addition to the Heads of the Three Governments, members of delegations also participated in the Conference. From the Soviet Union - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov, People's Commissar of the Navy N.G. Kuznetsov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General of the Army, Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.Ya. Vyshinsky and I.M. Maisky, Air Marshal S.A. Khudyakov, Ambassador to Great Britain F.T. Gusev, Ambassador to the USA A.A. Gromyko. From the United States of America - Secretary of State E. Stettinius, Chief of Staff to the President Fleet Admiral W. Lehey, Special Assistant to the President G. Hopkins, Director of the Department of Military Mobilization Judge J. Byrnes, Chief of Staff of the US Army General of the Army J. Marshall, Commander in Chief of the Navy US forces Fleet Admiral E. King, Chief of Supply of the American Army Lieutenant General B. Somervell, Administrator of Naval Transport Vice Admiral E. Land, Major General L. Cooter, Ambassador to the USSR A. Harriman, Director of the European Department of State Department F. Matthews, Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs of the State Department A. Hiss, Assistant Secretary of State Charles Bohlen, along with political, military and technical advisers. From Great Britain - Foreign Secretary A. Eden, Minister of Military Transport Lord Leathers, Ambassador to the USSR A. Kerr, Deputy Foreign Minister A. Cadogan, Secretary of the War Cabinet E. Bridges, Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal A. Brooke, Chief of the Air Staff Forces Air Marshal C. Portal, First Sea Lord Fleet Admiral E. Cunningham, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense General H. Ismay, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater Field Marshal Alexander, Chief of the British Military Mission in Washington Field Marshal Wilson, Member of the British Military Mission in Washington Admiral Somerville, along with military and diplomatic advisers.

The USSR prepared to receive high-ranking guests in Yalta in just two months, despite the fact that Crimea was heavily damaged by military operations. Destroyed houses and the remains of military equipment made an indelible impression on all conference participants; US President Roosevelt was even “horrified by the extent of the destruction caused by the Germans in Crimea.”

Preparations for the conference were launched on an all-Union scale. Equipment, furniture, and food were brought to Crimea from all over the USSR, and specialists from construction organizations and the service sector arrived in Yalta. In Livadia, Koreiz and Alupka, several power plants were installed in two months.

Sevastopol was chosen as the site for the allied ships and vessels, where reserves of fuel, drinking and boiler water were created, berths, lighthouses, navigation and anti-submarine equipment were repaired, additional trawling was carried out in bays and along the fairway, and a sufficient number of tugboats were prepared. Similar work was carried out in the Yalta port.

The conference participants were located in three Crimean palaces: the USSR delegation headed by I.V. Stalin in the Yusupov Palace, the US delegation led by F. Roosevelt in the Livadia Palace and the British delegation led by W. Churchill in the Vorontsov Palace.

The host party was responsible for the safety of conference participants. Security on land was provided by aviation and artillery special groups, from the sea - by the cruiser Voroshilov, destroyers, and submarines. In addition, Allied warships joined them. Since Crimea was still within the range of German aircraft based in Northern Italy and Austria, an air attack was not ruled out. In order to repel the danger, 160 fleet aviation fighters and the entire air defense were allocated. Several air-raid shelters were also built.

Four regiments of NKVD troops were sent to Crimea, including 500 officers and 1,200 operational workers specially trained for security duties. Overnight, the park around the Livadia Palace was surrounded by a four-meter fence. Service personnel were prohibited from leaving the palace grounds. A strict access regime was introduced, according to which two rings of security were installed around the palaces, and with the onset of darkness a third ring of border guards with service dogs was organized. Communication centers were established in all palaces to ensure communication with any subscriber, and employees who spoke English were assigned to all stations.

Official meetings of members of delegations and informal ones - dinners of heads of state - were held in all three palaces: in Yusupovsky, for example, I.V. Stalin and W. Churchill discussed the issue of transferring people liberated from fascist camps. Foreign ministers met at the Vorontsov Palace: Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (Great Britain). But the main meetings took place at the Livadia Palace, the residence of the American delegation, despite the fact that this was contrary to diplomatic protocol. This was due to the fact that F. Roosevelt could not move independently without assistance. From February 4 to February 11, 1945, eight official meetings took place at the Livadia Palace.

The range of military and political issues discussed turned out to be very wide. The decisions that were made at the conference had a great influence on accelerating the end of the war and the post-war structure of the world.

During the conference, the Heads of the three powers demonstrated a desire for cooperation, mutual understanding and trust. It was possible to achieve unity on issues of military strategy and the conduct of a coalition war. Powerful strikes by the Allied armies in Europe and the Far East were jointly agreed upon and planned.

At the same time, the decisions made by the conference participants on the most complex issues of world politics, which were the result of compromises and mutual concessions, largely determined the development of international political events for a long time. Favorable opportunities were created for the effective operation of the post-war system of international relations, based on the principles of balance of interests, reciprocity, equality and cooperation, in order to ensure universal peace and security.

As a result of the conference, the most important international legal documents were approved, such as the Declaration of Free Europe, documents on the basic principles of the creation of the international United Nations Organization, which laid the foundation for relations between states.

The terms of the Allies' treatment of defeated Germany were worked out and questions about its future were resolved. The conference participants declared their unshakable determination to eliminate German militarism and Nazism, agreed on France's participation in resolving the German problem, on the borders of Poland and the composition of its government, and on the conditions for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan. The enormous growth in the international authority of the Soviet Union, which was facilitated by the outstanding victories of the Soviet Armed Forces, played an important role in the course and results of the negotiations.

However, there were serious disagreements between the conference participants on a number of issues. Representatives of the Western countries that were members of the anti-Hitler coalition had concerns related to the transformation of the USSR into a global power. However, the persistent desire of Soviet diplomacy to search for mutually acceptable solutions and adopt them on the basis of equality without imposing its opinion on others led to the fact that the documents approved at the conference were a reflection of the consent of its participants, and not the result of Soviet dictate.

The work of the Conference began with a consideration of the situation on the European fronts. The heads of government of the three powers instructed the military headquarters to discuss at their meetings the issues of coordinating the offensive of the allied armies from the east and west. During meetings on military issues, it was confirmed that on February 8, 1945, the Soviet offensive would begin on the western front. However, American and British military experts refused to comply with Soviet requests to prevent the transfer of German troops from Norway and Italy to the Soviet-German front. In general terms, the interaction of strategic aviation forces was outlined. The coordination of relevant operations was entrusted to the General Staff of the Soviet Army and the heads of the allied military missions in Moscow.

During the Conference, the issue of the USSR's entry into the war in the Far East was resolved. The secret agreement signed on February 11, 1945 stipulated that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan two to three months after the surrender of Germany. In this regard, the conditions for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan were agreed upon, which were put forward by I.V. Stalin: maintaining the status quo of the Mongolian People's Republic; the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of Sakhalin and all adjacent islands; internationalization of Dairen (Dalian) and restoration of the lease on Port Arthur as a naval lease USSR base; resumption of joint cooperation with China (ensuring preferential significant interests of the Soviet Union) operation of the East China and South Manchurian Railways; transfer of the Kuril Islands to the USSR.

This agreement concretized the general principles of allied policy, which were recorded in the Cairo Declaration, signed by the United States, England and China and published on December 1, 1943.

Since the prospect of the USSR entering the war with Japan implied its defeat in the near future, this political agreement determined the boundaries of the possible advance of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Far East.

The leaders of the three great powers discussed the political issues that were to arise after the defeat of Germany. They agreed on plans to enforce the terms of unconditional surrender and general principles for the treatment of a defeated Germany. Allied plans provided, first of all, for the division of Germany into occupation zones. The conference confirmed the agreements developed by the European Advisory Commission “On the zones of occupation of Germany and on the management of Greater Berlin,” as well as “On the control mechanism in Germany.”

According to the terms of the agreement “On the Zones of Occupation of Germany and on the Administration of Greater Berlin,” the armed forces of the three powers were to occupy strictly defined zones during the occupation of Germany. The eastern part of Germany was intended for the Soviet Armed Forces to occupy. The northwestern part of Germany was allocated for occupation by British troops, the southwestern part by American troops. The “Greater Berlin” area was to be occupied jointly by the armed forces of the USSR, the USA and England. The northeastern part of “Greater Berlin” was intended to be occupied by Soviet troops. The zones for British and US troops had not yet been determined.

The agreement “On the control mechanism in Germany,” signed on November 14, 1944, stated that supreme power in Germany during the period of its fulfillment of the basic requirements of unconditional surrender would be exercised by the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces of the USSR, the USA and England, each in its own zone of occupation according to instructions their governments. On matters affecting Germany as a whole, the Commanders-in-Chief would act jointly as members of the Supreme Control Authority, which would henceforth become known as the Control Council for Germany. Expanding these resolutions, the Crimean Conference decided to grant a zone in Germany also to France at the expense of the British and American occupation zones and invite the French government to join as a member of the Control Council for Germany.

When discussing the German question at the Crimean Conference, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain insisted on making a decision to create a commission to study the issue of the post-war structure of Germany and the possibility of its dismemberment. However, the Anglo-American plans for the dismemberment of Germany did not receive the approval of the Soviet delegation.

The Soviet Union's point of view on the future of Germany was well known from the very beginning of the war from the speeches of Soviet leaders. The USSR rejected the policy of revenge, national humiliation and oppression. At the same time, the leaders of the three powers declared their determination to implement important measures in relation to defeated Germany: to disarm and disband all German armed forces; destroy the German general staff; determine the punishment for Hitler's war criminals; destroy the Nazi party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions.

The issue of reparations to Germany, initiated by the USSR, occupied a special place at the conference. The Soviet government demanded that Germany compensate for the damage caused to the allied countries by Hitler's aggression. The total amount of reparations was supposed to be 20 billion dollars, of which the USSR claimed 10 billion dollars. The Soviet government proposed that reparations be levied in kind - in the form of a one-time withdrawal from Germany's national wealth and annual supplies of goods from current production.

The collection of reparations through a one-time withdrawal from national wealth (equipment, machines, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, etc.) was envisaged mainly for the purpose of destroying Germany's military potential. The conference took into account the experience of resolving the reparation problem after the First World War, when Germany was required to compensate for damages in currency and when the reparation issue ultimately contributed not to weakening, but to strengthening Germany's military potential.

During the discussion of this issue, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain were forced to admit the validity of Soviet proposals for reparations from Germany. As a result of the negotiations, a protocol was signed, published in full only in 1947. It outlined the general principles for resolving the reparations issue and outlined the forms of collecting reparations from Germany. The protocol provided for the establishment in Moscow of an inter-union commission on reparations consisting of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain. The protocol indicated that the Soviet and American delegations agreed to base their work on the Soviet government’s proposal on the total amount of reparations and on allocating 50 percent of it for the USSR.

Thus, despite the differences, the Allied powers made agreed decisions at the Crimean Conference not only on the complete defeat of Germany, but also on a common policy on the German question after the end of the war.

An important place among the decisions of the Crimean Conference was occupied by the Declaration of a Liberated Europe. It was a document on policy coordination in helping peoples liberated from fascist occupation. The Allied Powers declared that the general principle of their policy towards the countries of liberated Europe was the establishment of an order which would enable the peoples "to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism and to establish democratic institutions of their own choice." The Crimean Conference showed an example of the practical resolution of such problems in relation to two countries - Poland and Yugoslavia.

The “Polish question” at the conference was one of the most complex and controversial. The Crimean Conference was supposed to resolve the issue of the eastern and western borders of Poland, as well as the composition of the future Polish government.

Poland, which before the war was the largest country in Central Europe, sharply shrank and moved to the west and north. Until 1939, its eastern border passed almost under Kiev and Minsk. The western border with Germany was located east of the river. Oder, while most of the Baltic coast also belonged to Germany. In the east of the pre-war historical territory of Poland, the Poles were a national minority among Ukrainians and Belarusians, while part of the territories in the west and north inhabited by Poles was under German jurisdiction.

The USSR received the western border with Poland along the “Curzon Line”, established in 1920, with a deviation from it in some areas of 5 to 8 km in favor of Poland. In fact, the border returned to the position at the time of the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR in 1939 under the Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany, the main difference from which was the transfer of the Bialystok region to Poland.

Although Poland by the beginning of February 1945, as a result of the offensive of Soviet troops, was already under the rule of a provisional government in Warsaw, recognized by the governments of the USSR and Czechoslovakia (Edward Benes), there was a Polish government in exile in London (Prime Minister Tomasz Archiszewski), which did not recognize the decision of the Tehran Conference on the Curzon line and therefore could not, in the opinion of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, lay claim to power in the country after the end of the war. The instructions of the government in exile for the Home Army, developed on October 1, 1943, contained the following instructions in the event of an unauthorized entry of Soviet troops into the pre-war territory of Poland: “The Polish government sends a protest to the United Nations against the violation of Polish sovereignty - due to the entry of the Soviets into the territory of Poland without coordination with the Polish government - at the same time declaring that the country will not interact with the Soviets. The government simultaneously warns that in the event of the arrest of representatives of the underground movement and any reprisals against Polish citizens, the underground organizations will switch to self-defense.”

The allies in Crimea realized that “a new situation was created in Poland as a result of its complete liberation by the Red Army.” As a result of a long discussion of the Polish issue, a compromise agreement was reached, according to which a new government of Poland was created - the “Provisional Government of National Unity”, on the basis of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic “with the inclusion of democratic figures from Poland itself and Poles from abroad.” This decision, implemented in the presence of Soviet troops, allowed the USSR to subsequently form a political regime in Warsaw that suited it, as a result of which clashes between pro-Western and pro-communist formations in this country were resolved in favor of the latter.

The agreement reached in Yalta on the Polish issue was undoubtedly a definite step towards resolving one of the most controversial issues of the post-war world order. The conference did not accept the Anglo-American plan to replace the Polish Provisional Government with some new government. From the decisions of the conference it became clear that the core of the future Government of National Unity should be the existing Provisional Government.

At the proposal of the USSR, the Crimean Conference discussed the issue of Yugoslavia. The point was to speed up the formation of a unified Yugoslav government on the basis of an agreement concluded in November 1944 between the chairman of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia, I. Tito, and the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav exile government in London, I. Subasic. According to this agreement, the new Yugoslav government was to be formed from the leaders of the national liberation movement with the participation of several representatives of the exile Yugoslav government. But the latter, with the support of the British government, slowed down the implementation of the agreement.

Having discussed the Yugoslav question, the conference accepted the USSR proposal with amendments from the British delegation. This decision was a great political support for the national liberation movement of Yugoslavia.

The problem of ensuring international security in the post-war years occupied an important place in the work of the Crimean Conference. The decision of the three allied powers to create a general international organization to maintain peace was of great importance.

The leaders of the three powers managed in Yalta to resolve the important issue of the voting procedure in the Security Council, on which no agreement was reached at the Dumbarton Oaks conference. As a result, the “veto principle” proposed by Roosevelt was adopted, that is, the rule of unanimity of the great powers when voting in the Security Council on issues of peace and security.

The leaders of the three Allied powers agreed to convene a United Nations conference in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, to prepare a charter for an international security organization. The conference was intended to invite countries that signed the United Nations Declaration on January 1, 1942, and those countries that declared war on the common enemy by March 1, 1945.

During the Crimean Conference, a special declaration was adopted: “Unity in organizing peace, as well as in waging war.” It indicated that the states represented at Yalta reaffirmed their determination to preserve and strengthen in the coming period of peace that unity of action that made victory in the war possible and certain for the United Nations. This was a solemn commitment by the three great powers to preserve in the future the principles of the powerful anti-fascist coalition that emerged during the Second World War. One manifestation of this determination was the agreement to establish a permanent mechanism for regular consultation between the three foreign ministers. This mechanism was called the “Conference of Foreign Ministers”. The conference decided that ministers would meet every 3-4 months alternately in the capitals of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA.

The Crimean conference of the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain was of great historical significance. It was one of the largest international meetings during the war and the highest point of cooperation between the three Allied powers in waging war against a common enemy. The adoption by the Crimean Conference of agreed decisions on important issues serves as convincing proof of the possibility and effectiveness of international cooperation between states with different social systems. Given the presence of good will, the Allied powers, even in conditions of acute disagreement, were able to reach agreements imbued with the spirit of unity.

Thus, the decisions of the Crimean Conference strengthened the anti-fascist coalition at the final stage of the war and contributed to the achievement of victory over Germany. The struggle for the comprehensive and complete implementation of these decisions became one of the main tasks of Soviet foreign policy not only at the end of the war, but also in the post-war years. And although the Yalta decisions were strictly carried out only by the Soviet Union, they were, nevertheless, an example of the military cooperation of the “Big Three” during the war.

All the work of the Crimean Conference took place under the sign of the immeasurably increased international authority of the Soviet Union. The results of the work of the heads of the three allied governments served as the basis for those democratic, peace-loving principles of the post-war structure of Europe, which were developed by the Potsdam Conference, shortly after the victory over Nazi Germany. The bipolar world created in Yalta and the division of Europe into East and West survived for more than 40 years, until the end of the 1980s.

Prokhorovskaya A.I.
senior researcher of the 3rd department of the Scientific Research
Institute (military history) of the Military Academy
General Staff of the RF Armed Forces
Candidate of Historical Sciences

Diplomacy wins wars as much as armies. The history of the Great Patriotic War includes several diplomatic events, the significance of which can be safely equated to the most ambitious front-line victory. Among them is the Yalta Conference of 1945. During the Crimean summit, the world's greatest politicians laid the foundations of the modern world order.

Where was the Crimean Conference of 1945 held?

As the name suggests, the venue was Crimea, or rather its small southern suburb called Livadia.

Yalta continuation of Tehran

Negotiations from February 4 to February 11, 1945 in Yalta were held between Soviet leader I.V. Stalin, US President F.D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill. This was not the first meeting of the three “pillars” of world politics. At the end of 1943 they held successful negotiations in Tehran.

But at the beginning of 1945, the world situation and the military situation changed and required new solutions. At the same time, some important issues did not receive final resolution in Tehran; as a result, it was specifically stated that the allies would meet again for this purpose.

It can be reasonably assumed that the Soviet leader deliberately made the USSR the host of the conference and held the event in the region that had just been liberated from the Nazis. By doing this, he killed a lot of birds with one stone at the same time: he demonstrated to the allies the country’s contribution to the victory and its sacrifices along the way, proved his ability to provide them with complete security, confirmed the ability of the USSR to insist on its own, but at the same time its readiness to behave in an allied manner.

In Tehran they talked mainly about the conditions for ending the war. The “highlight” of the program was the opening of a second front in France and the participation of the USSR in hostilities with Japan. The main decisions of the Yalta (Crimean) conference concerned post-war development.

Major Decisions: United Nations

We will have to speak briefly about the decisions of the conference: there were many of them. But there are several main ones:

On the creation of the United Nations. The founding conference took place in April of the same year. Stalin negotiated membership in the UN for Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (he wanted all the republics, but it didn’t work out), they did not have to join this community after the collapse of the USSR.
About the arrangement of Germany, known as “3D”: denazification, demilitarization, democratization. It was decided that there would be 4 occupation zones in Germany (participants + France). The result was a long-term split into two states, but Nazi revanchism is still persecuted more severely there than in most regions of the world.
About borders in Europe. After the conclusion of peace, boundaries had to be established, representatives guaranteed their inviolability. The people had to elect their own governments democratically. Many affected countries, in particular Poland and France, received territorial compensation through the aggressive bloc. This decision was violated after the collapse of the USSR and the forced partition of Yugoslavia.
Repatriation of displaced persons. It was an agreement to facilitate the return of prisoners, concentration camp prisoners, and ostarbeiters to their homeland.
War with Japan. The USSR pledged to join it a maximum of 3 months after the defeat of Germany. This point was carried out with precision almost to the minute, leading to the lightning defeat of the million-strong Kwantung Army. However, Russia is still feeling the consequences - it still does not have a peace treaty with the Empire of Japan.

In Yalta, the Crimean Conference of 1945 was the last meeting of the heads of the three great states. In July, another conference began - Potsdam. But Franklin Roosevelt had died by that time, and Churchill did not complete the negotiations. Elections were held in England, the Conservatives lost, and the new prime minister, Clement Richard Attlee, arrived to finish the meeting. The situation turned out to be worse than in Crimea: American leader Harry Truman boasted of successful nuclear tests and did not try to hide the fact that they were directed against the USSR. Consequently, the Yalta Conference can rightfully be considered the highest achievement of World War II diplomacy.

Memory of the greats

And it’s not surprising - all the participants were the greatest politicians, and not only of their time. Winston Churchill is officially recognized as the most famous Briton of all time. Roosevelt is the only US President to be elected to this post three times, which is generally not provided for by law. This is how his fellow citizens thanked him for saving the state from the “Great Depression” and honorable behavior during the war. I.V. Stalin “took over the country with a plow, but left it with an atomic bomb” (no matter what anyone says).

Roosevelt was greatly impressed by the visit and said that if he could walk (he moved in a chair), he would go on foot to pay tribute to Leningrad and Stalingrad. He even almost had an accident due to the tilt of his seat in a car on a serpentine road, and his venerable bodyguards were “catching crows” at that time. But the Soviet driver F. Khodakov grabbed the head of state almost by the collar and saved him from falling.

Joseph Vissarionovich showed himself to be a hospitable host. Soviet intelligence provided complete security for the conference. All those participating in the summit lived in luxurious palaces (Roosevelt - in

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Yalta Conference 1945 - Stalin I.V. Roosevelt F.D. Churchill W.

The Yalta or Crimean Conference was another meeting of the leaders of Great Britain, the USSR, and the USA during the Second World War. The meeting took place in 1945 in February. The city of Yalta on the Crimean Peninsula was chosen as the location. The conference took place over 8 days, which resulted in the signing of a number of acts that predetermined the system of the future world order and in Europe in particular.

Conference participants

The conference participants were representatives of three member states of the anti-Hitler coalition: Winston Churchill from Great Britain, Joseph Stalin from the USSR, Franklin Roosevelt from the USA. Accordingly, all three delegates were leaders and leaders of their states.

Separate palaces were allocated for each representative. So, Stalin and delegates from the USSR were located in a small village near Yalta. The palace was built back in the 19th century.

Roosevelt and representatives of the American delegation were accommodated in 3 km away. from Yalta itself. It is worth noting that it was in the Livadia Palace that all significant meetings of the participants of the Yalta Conference took place.

The British delegation led by Prime Minister Churchill settled in the city located at the foot of the famous.

Conference location

Meeting of Foreign Ministers - Crimean (Yalta) Conference 1945

Some sources indicate that the initiative to hold the conference in Yalta came personally from Stalin, who sought to demonstrate the decisive role of the USSR in the fight against Nazi Germany. Other sources refer to the fact that the American president chose Yalta because of his health. As you know, Crimea is a resort and health resort, and Roosevelt at that time was experiencing serious health problems.

In February 1945, it was 9 months since Crimea was liberated from the occupation of German troops. Yalta itself was not in the best condition. For this purpose, in preparation for the meeting of coalition leaders, about 1,500 carloads of construction materials, equipment, and furniture were delivered to the city over several months.

All meetings of delegations within the framework of the conference were held in the largest hall of the Livadia Palace - the White Hall. For this purpose, a large round negotiating table was equipped in its very center.

Agreements reached during the conference

At the Yalta Conference, many agreements were reached concerning the interests of each of the participating parties.

The leaders decided to divide Germany into occupation zones. It was assumed that each side would receive a certain section of the country's territory on which military bases would be created. A decision was made to completely disarm Germany and completely eliminate the Nazi regime in it.
It was at the Yalta Conference that the first agreements were reached on the creation of the United Nations, which would regulate international problems peacefully. At the same time, the date was set for the first conference within the framework of the creation of the UN.
The parties signed the “Declaration of a Liberated Europe,” which emphasized that the liberated peoples of Eastern Europe would be restored to their rights, but at the same time indicated the possibility of the victorious countries to “help” them in this.
The issue of the structure of Poland was actually resolved. At the initiative of the USSR, an alternative government was formed there, consisting of both communists and democrats. In fact, the USSR secured for itself in the future the opportunity to establish a regime convenient for itself in Poland.
Agreements have been reached regarding future borders between the countries. This question was fundamental and meant the division of spheres of influence in the future Europe.
A compromise was found regarding compensation to the victorious countries for the damage caused by Germany. Thus, the USSR received the right to claim half of all compensation paid by Germany to Great Britain and the USA.
As a result of the Yalta Conference, the USSR expanded its territory by returning the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin in the future. The Soviet military had the opportunity to rent a base in the city of Port Arthur, as well as the Chinese Eastern Railway.
At the conference, the leaders of the three states agreed on the return to the USSR of people liberated or captured in those areas that were captured by US and British troops.
Finally, during the conference, the leaders of the so-called “Big Three” resolved the issue regarding the future structure of Yugoslavia and Greece.

The significance of the Yalta Conference for history

The conference in Yalta became a world-class event. Decisions that were fateful for millions of people were made there. The meeting of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition itself showed that states with different ideologies can cooperate with each other and jointly solve common world problems. The Yalta Conference was the last meeting of the leaders of the three countries in such a composition, as well as the last conference of the pre-nuclear world era.

It was the Yalta Conference that predetermined and actually formalized the division of the world into two camps, which in the future will compete with each other for spheres of influence in the world.

Such a system was able to exist for half a century until the collapse of the USSR, but many of the decisions that were made at meetings within the conference are still in effect. Thus, the UN still exists, the borders of European states have remained practically unchanged, the only exception being the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 90s. XX century. The agreements of the conference are still in force regarding the integrity of China and the independence of the two Koreas - South and North.

The agreement between the USSR, USA, and Great Britain, reached at the conference regarding the border between the USSR and Japan, still remains in force and has not changed for 70 years.
The results of the conference are still the subject of political disputes and mutual accusations. The decisions taken by the leaders of the participating states are currently being interpreted and used by the warring parties as propaganda policies.

The code word for all meetings concerning the organization of the conference and meetings at it was the word “Argonaut”. This idea was proposed by British Prime Minister Churchill. The word was not taken by chance, since it is a reference to the ancient Greek myth about the Argonauts who were looking for the Golden Fleece. Churchill associated Crimea with the city of Colchis, which the Argonauts were looking for. Churchill and Roosevelt called themselves Argonauts. Stalin reluctantly agreed to this version of the code word.
It is known that Churchill was the one who did not want to go to Yalta the most, calling the Crimean climate and conditions in the city terrible.

There were no reporters at the conference itself. Churchill took the initiative to make the meeting informal. Only a few military photographers were invited from each side and took a small number of photographs. It is known that the leaders of the USA and the USSR welcomed this initiative.
The Yalta Conference could well have been held in Odessa and called the Odessa Conference. Odessa was considered as a backup option in case there was bad weather in Crimea.

The most recent leader to leave Yalta was Winston Churchill. The conference itself ended on February 11, and the British Prime Minister left Crimea only on February 14, having visited. It was in this place in 1854-1855. As part of the Crimean War, British troops fought on the side of the Ottoman Empire against the troops of the Russian Empire.

Monument dedicated to the conference

The idea of installing a monument dedicated to the Yalta Conference arose many years later. The sculptor Zurab Tsereteli began to implement the idea. In 2005, a monument was prepared depicting the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain sitting on chairs. The weight of the composition was within 10 tons, and bronze was chosen as the material. It was assumed that the monument would be erected in Livadia in the same year, 2005, on the anniversary of the conference. The event did not take place due to protests from a number of Ukrainian parties. Only in 2014 the monument was transferred to Crimea, and on February 5, 2015 it was inaugurated as part of the 70th anniversary of the conference itself.

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70 years ago, from February 4 to 11, 1945, in Crimea, which was then part of the RSFSR, the second conference of the heads of the “Big Three” - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - was held during the Second World War.

The decisions adopted at this meeting laid the foundations of the post-war world order and formalized the division of spheres of influence between Western states and the USSR. Precisely in Crimea, provided that Moscow receives the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin,The USSR announced its participation in the war against Japan. The USA and Great Britain agreed that the USSR would receive 50% of all losses. In Yalta, the ideology of the United Nations was formed as an organization capable of preventing any attempts to change the established boundaries of spheres of influence. And the Declaration on a Liberated Europe adopted at the conference determined the principles of the policy of the victors in the territories conquered from the enemy and created the preconditions for the formation of a bipolar world.

The Soviet delegation at the conference was headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili), the American delegation by President Franklin Roosevelt, and the British delegation by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. AiF-Crimea recalls how the peninsula welcomed important guests.

J.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov. Photo:

Western leaders began talking about the need to hold a repeat meeting in the summer of 1944. According to Winston Churchill, the best place for the conference would be the Scottish town of Invergordon. Stalin, in correspondence with world leaders, reacted restrainedly to their proposals for a meeting. Thus, in a response message to Churchill on July 26, the Soviet leader wrote: “As for the meeting between you, Mr. Roosevelt and me... I, too, would consider such a meeting desirable. But at this time, when the Soviet armies are fighting along a wide front, increasingly developing their offensive, I am deprived of the opportunity to leave the Soviet Union and leave leadership of the armies even for the shortest time.”

A proposal to hold a conference “in one of the coastal cities in the south of the European part of the USSR” was made by the American side. Stalin warmly supported him. Roosevelt later said that he would prefer to come to Alexandria or Jerusalem in Egypt, which Churchill allegedly brought to his attention. But the head of the USSR said that doctors did not recommend long flights for him. As a result, Yalta became the meeting place for the Big Three.

F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill discuss the plans of the allies at the Yalta Conference. Photo: Encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”

Behind the Golden Fleece

During its preparation, the Yalta Conference had the code name “Argonaut”, a “name” that Churchill came up with for it. So the British Prime Minister wrote to Roosevelt: “We are the direct descendants of the Argonauts, who, according to Greek mythology, sailed to the Black Sea for the Golden Fleece.” Stalin also liked the expressive metaphor.

Without media

The leaders of the three powers decided to make the meeting informal and not invite media representatives. On January 21, Churchill telegraphed simultaneously to Stalin and Roosevelt: “I propose that the press should not be allowed on the Argonaut, but each of us will have the right to bring no more than three or four uniformed war photographers for photography and filming. Photographs and films should be released when we deem it appropriate... Of course, the usual one or more agreed communiqués will be published." Stalin and Roosevelt agreed with the opinion of the British prime minister.

Leaders of the Big Three at the negotiating table at the Yalta Conference. Photo: Encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”

Beria was “erased”

Lavrenty Beria was responsible for organizing the preparations for the meeting in Crimea. But later they tried to remove traces of the participation of the head of the NKVD in the Crimean Conference. In a photograph published in the media, where he stands next to Stalin, his face was blurred out.

Odessa - backup option

In case of bad weather in Crimea, the full conference was held in Odessa. Therefore, serious preparations were also underway in the city: renovation of the facades of houses, hotels, representative premises and roads was actively carried out. As a result, all these preparations went towards the good cause of disinformation of the German enemy, whose agents could remain in the liberated territories.

Three palaces

The conference participants were located in three palaces: the USSR delegation - in Yusupovsky, the USA - in Livadia, Great Britain - in Vorontsovsky.

The courtyard of the Vorontsov Palace, where Churchill lived during the conference. Photo: Encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”

Official meetings of members of delegations and informal dinners of heads of state were held in all three palaces of the South Coast. In Yusupovsky, for example, Stalin and Churchill discussed the issue of transferring people liberated from fascist camps. Foreign ministers met at the Vorontsov Palace: Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (Great Britain). But the main meetings still took place in the Livadia Palace. Diplomatic protocol did not allow this, but Roosevelt could not move without assistance. Official meetings of the Big Three took place here eight times. It was signed in Livadia.

Half a ton of caviar

The participants of the Yalta Conference ate half a ton of caviar, as many different cheeses and butter. The delegations consumed about 1,120 kilograms of meat (live calves, cows, sheep, and poultry were brought to the central base). The vegetable menu reached 6.3 tons. The guests did not forget about drinks - they stocked up more than 5,000 bottles of wine, 5,132 bottles of vodka, 6,300 bottles of beer and 2,190 bottles of cognac. Food and drinks were brought to Crimea from all over the USSR.

I.V. Stalin, W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt at a banquet during the Yalta Conference. Photo: Encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”

Dreams of Livadia

In a conversation with Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt said that when he left the presidency, he would like to ask to sell Livadia to him in order to plant many trees near it.

Stalin invited his American guest to spend a vacation in the summer of 1945 in Crimea. The US President accepted this invitation with gratitude, but the death of 63-year-old Roosevelt, which followed very soon, on April 12, prevented the implementation of his plan.

The Last Churchill

Winston Churchill was the last leader of the powers to leave Crimea. After signing the “Communiqué on the Crimean Conference,” Stalin left the Simferopol station for Moscow in the evening. The American president, having spent the night on board a US ship stationed in Sevastopol Bay, flew away the next day. Churchill stayed in Crimea for two more days: he visited Sapun Mountain, Balaklava, where the British fought in 1854-55, visited the cruiser Voroshilov, and only on February 14 he flew from the Saki airfield to Greece.

Winston Churchill at the Livadia Palace. Photo: Encyclopedia “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”

Roosevelt's impression

The trip to Crimea made an indelible impression on the American president. Returning to Washington, he said: “I saw examples of merciless and senseless violent destruction... Yalta had no military significance and no defensive structures... Little remained of Yalta except ruins and devastation. Sevastopol was a picture of extreme destruction, and less than a dozen houses remained intact in the entire city. I have read about Warsaw, Lidice, Rotterdam and Coventry, but I have seen Sevastopol and Yalta, and I know that German militarism and Christian virtue cannot exist on earth at the same time.”

All decisions of Yalta, in general, related to two problems.

Firstly, it was necessary to draw new state borders on the territory recently occupied by the Third Reich. At the same time, it was necessary to establish unofficial, but generally recognized by all sides, demarcation lines between the spheres of influence of the allies - a task that had begun in Tehran.

Secondly, the allies understood perfectly well that after the disappearance of the common enemy, the forced unification of the West and the Bolsheviks would lose all meaning, and therefore it was necessary to create procedures to guarantee the immutability of the dividing lines drawn on the world map.

To achieve these goals, the heads of the three superpowers set themselves a number of tasks, which included the redistribution of Germany's borders, the Polish and Balkan issues, the issue of reparations, and the formation of the UN. These and many other issues are discussed in more detail in this chapter.

Questions of a primary nature

Yalta Potsdam fascism militarism

The main issue of the Yalta Conference was the question about the redistribution of borders, in particular borders Germany. The decision of the Crimean Conference stated that after the defeat, Germany would be occupied by the Allies, its territory would be divided into occupation zones. Initially, it was planned to have three occupation zones - for the USSR, the USA and England, but then it was proposed to allocate an occupation zone for France, which would be formed from the British and American zones, and its dimensions would be established by the British and Americans in consultation with the French provisional government. A specific settlement of the issue regarding the zones of occupation of Germany was reached even before the Crimean Conference and was recorded in the “Protocol of the Agreement between the governments of the USSR, the USA and the United Kingdom on the zones of occupation of Germany and on the management of Greater Berlin” dated September 12, 1944.

This decision predetermined the split of the country for many decades. On October 7, 1949, the German Democratic Republic was formed on the territory of the Soviet zone, after the remaining German states were merged into the Federal Republic of Germany. There was also talk about the separation of East Prussia (later, after Potsdam, the current Kaliningrad region was created in most of this territory).

It was also decided that the French provisional government should be invited to join as a member of the Control Council for Germany, seated in Berlin, formed by representatives of the high commands of the Allied powers. His task will be to harmonize and coordinate the actions of the allies in the fight against Germany. The issues of managing the inter-allied commandant's office, operating under the command of the Soviet zone of occupation, were also agreed upon. No special rights of access to Berlin were established for the Western powers (which would later be subject to considerable debate) were not established.

The eternal Balkan question, in particular, the situation in Yugoslavia and Greece. It is believed that Stalin allowed Great Britain to decide the fate of the Greeks, as a result of which later clashes between communist and pro-Western forces in this country were decided in favor of the latter. On the other hand, it was actually recognized that power in Yugoslavia would be given to the pro-Moscow troops of Josip Broz Tito, who, however, were recommended to take “democrats” into the government.

It was more difficult to decide the question of the structure of post-war Poland. Its outlines changed dramatically after World War II. Poland, which before the war was the largest country in Central Europe, sharply shrank and moved to the west and north. Until 1939, its eastern border was practically under Kiev and Minsk, and besides, the Poles owned the Vilna region, which now became part of Lithuania. The western border with Germany was located east of the Oder, while most of the Baltic coast also belonged to Germany. In the east of the pre-war territory, the Poles were a national minority among Ukrainians and Belarusians, while part of the territories in the west and north inhabited by Poles was under German jurisdiction.

Although Poland had been under German rule for six years by that time, there was a provisional government of this country in exile in London, which was recognized by the USSR and therefore could well lay claim to power in its country after the end of the war. However, Stalin in Crimea managed to obtain from the allies agreement to create a new government in Poland itself “with the inclusion of democratic figures from Poland itself and Poles from abroad.” This decision, implemented in the presence of Soviet troops, allowed the USSR to later, without much difficulty, form a political regime that suited it in Warsaw.

When discussing the Polish question, the Soviet delegation sought to make decisions in favor of creating a strong and independent Polish state. The Soviet delegation rejected the intentions of the United States and England to impose a reactionary emigration government on Poland. “After heated disputes, it was agreed that the Polish provisional government would be “reorganized on a broader democratic basis to include democratic figures from within Poland and Poles from abroad.” After a heated debate about the borders of Poland, it was decided that the USSR would receive the eastern border with Poland along the so-called “Curzon Line”, established back in 1920, with a retreat from it in some areas of 5 to 8 km in favor of Poland. In fact, the border returned to the position at the time of the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR in 1939 under the secret additional protocol on the division of spheres of interest to the Non-Aggression Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, the main difference from which was the transfer of the Bialystok region to Poland.

The conference decisions also stated about reparations- about Germany's obligation to compensate for the damage caused to it by the countries against which it waged war. Material damage to the Soviet Union amounts to about 2 trillion 600 billion rubles. The Soviet Union understood the impossibility of full compensation for direct material losses. The USSR insisted only on minimal compensation for damage. Thus, the “Protocol on negotiations between the heads of three governments at the Crimean Conference on the issue of reparations in kind from Germany” was signed.

The heads of the three governments agreed on the following:

1. Germany is obliged to compensate in kind for the damage it caused to the Allied nations during the war.

Reparations should be received primarily by those countries that bore the brunt of the war, suffered the greatest losses and organized victory over the enemy.

2. Reparations must be collected from Germany in three forms:
- a) one-time withdrawals within two years upon the surrender of Germany or the cessation of organized resistance from the national wealth of Germany, located both on the territory of Germany itself and outside it (equipment, machines, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, shares in industrial, transport , shipping and other enterprises in Germany, etc.), and these seizures should be carried out mainly with the aim of destroying the military potential of Germany;
- b) annual commodity supplies from current products during a period the duration of which must be established;
- c) the use of German labor.
3. To develop a detailed reparations plan based on the above principles, an inter-union reparations commission consisting of representatives from the USSR, USA and Great Britain is established in Moscow.
4. With regard to determining the total amount of reparations, as well as its distribution between the countries affected by the German aggression, the Soviet and American delegations agreed on the following: “The Moscow Reparations Commission in the initial stage of its work will accept as a basis for discussion the proposal of the Soviet government that the total amount of reparations in accordance with points “a” and “b” of paragraph 2 should be 20 billion dollars and that 50% of this amount goes to the Soviet Union.” The British delegation believed that, pending consideration of the issue of reparations by the Moscow Reparations Commission, no reparations figures could be named.

The above Soviet-American proposal has been submitted to the Moscow Reparations Commission as one of the proposals subject to its consideration.

In Yalta, the implementation of the idea of a new League of Nations began. The Allies needed an interstate organization capable of preventing attempts to change the established boundaries of their spheres of influence. It was at the conferences of the winners in Tehran and Yalta that the ideology was formed United Nations. In the opinion of all participants in the conference, the UN was to become an organ for ensuring peace and international security on the basis that representatives of the USSR, USA and England achieved at the conference in Dumbarton Oaks.

In Crimea, representatives of the three powers agreed on the voting procedure in the Security Council. As early as December 5, 1944, in a message to the Soviet government, the US President proposed that decisions of the Security Council on all issues, except procedural ones, be considered adopted if the votes of seven members of the Council, including the concurring votes of all permanent members of the Council, are cast for them. Moreover, the party involved in the dispute must abstain from voting on the issue relating to the peaceful settlement of the dispute. The Soviet government, noting that the American proposal required unconditional unanimity of the permanent members of the Security Council on all major decisions to maintain peace, including economic and military coercive measures, agreed with the formulation proposed by Roosevelt. The Crimean Conference approved the American proposal.

So, according to the protocol of the Crimean Conference on the creation of the UN, it was decided:

1) that a conference of the United Nations on the question of the proposed world organization and the formulation of its Charter should be convened on Wednesday, April 25, 1945, and should be held in the United States of America;
2) that the following states should be invited to this conference:
- a) United Nations by composition on February 8, 1945,
- b) Those of the acceding nations that declared war on the common enemy by March 1, 1945 (In this case, the term “aligned nations” means the eight acceding nations and Turkey). When the conference on world organization takes place, the delegates of the United Kingdom and the United States of America will support the proposal for admission to initial membership of the two Soviet Socialist Republics, namely Ukraine and Belarus;
3) That the Government of the United States, on behalf of the Three Powers, will consult with the Government of China and with the French Provisional Government on the decisions taken at this conference concerning the proposed world organization;

In addition, it was decided that the five states that would have permanent seats on the Security Council should consult among themselves before the United Nations conference on the question of territorial trusteeship.

a) to the existing mandates of the League of Nations;
b) to territories seized from enemy states as a result of a real war;
c) to any other territory which may be voluntarily placed under trusteeship, and
(d) There will be no discussion about specific territories at the forthcoming United Nations Conference or during the preliminary consultations, and the question of which territories falling within the above categories will be placed under trusteeship will be the subject of a later agreement.

The UN became a symbol and formal guarantor of the post-war world order, an authoritative and sometimes even quite effective organization in resolving interstate problems. At the same time, the victorious countries continued to prefer to resolve truly serious issues in their relations through bilateral negotiations, rather than within the UN framework. The UN also failed to prevent the wars that both the US and the USSR fought over the past decades.

At the Yalta Conference an agreement was concluded on the USSR's entry into the war against Japan on the Allied side, two to three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe. During separate negotiations between Stalin and Roosevelt and Churchill, agreements were reached to strengthen the position of the USSR in the Far East.

Stalin put forward the following conditions:

1. Preservation of the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic);
2. Restoration of the rights belonging to Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904, namely:

a) the return of the southern part of the island to the Soviet Union. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands;

b) the internationalization of the commercial port of Dairen, ensuring the priority interests of the Soviet Union in this port and the restoration of the lease on Port Arthur as a naval base of the USSR;

c) joint operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway, giving access to Dairen, on the basis of organizing a mixed Soviet-Chinese Society, ensuring the primary interests of the Soviet Union, it being understood that China retains full sovereignty in Manchuria.

3. Transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union.

It is assumed that the agreement regarding Outer Mongolia and the aforementioned ports and railways will require the consent of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. On the advice of Marshal I.V. Stalin, the President will take measures to ensure that such consent is obtained.

The Heads of Government of the Three Great Powers agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union should be unconditionally satisfied after the victory over Japan.

For its part, the Soviet Union expresses its readiness to conclude a pact of friendship and alliance between the USSR and China with the National Chinese Government in order to assist it with its armed forces in order to liberate China from the Japanese yoke.