Yalta Conference (1945)

Meeting held near the end of World War II and attended by the leaders of the United States (President Franklin Roosevelt), the United Kingdom (Prime Minister Winston Churchill), and the Soviet Union (Premier Joseph Stalin). The purpose of the conference was to discuss Europe's postwar reconstruction and organization. Often referred to as the beginning of the Cold War, the Yalta Conference was instrumental in the secret division of the continent (as well as other regions of the world) into competing spheres of influence—the Western bloc, led by the United States, and the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union.

The Yalta Conference took place in February 1945 in a former czarist palace in the Soviet province of Crimea (part of present-day Ukraine). The negotiations lasted for one week, during which the “Big Three” (as the attending leaders became known) resolved a variety of issues from the establishment of the United Nations to the fate of the Soviet-liberated central and Eastern Europe.

At the time of the meeting, Hitler's army was on the brink of final defeat. The Soviet army, having entered Germany from the east, was awaiting word from its supreme commander to advance on Berlin. Given the imminent takeover of the German capital by the Soviet army, Europe's largest, Joseph Stalin bargained from a position of strength. He was able to extract a series of concessions from his British and American allies—concessions that later became the object of widespread criticism.

The Provisions

The first issue that the world leaders dealt with at Yalta was the forthcoming occupation of Germany. With Hitler's armies almost entirely defeated, the Allies divided Germany into four occupation zones, one for each of the powers represented at the conference, plus France. France's interests were ardently backed by Winston Churchill, despite Stalin's disdain for a country that had been defeated by the Nazis.

Next, the Big Three discussed the case of Poland, which had been successively occupied by Nazi Germany and then by the Soviet Union. Fearing that an already Stalin-dominated Poland would become a mere satellite of Russia, Churchill and Roosevelt convinced Stalin to agree to the formation of a broad coalition government there, which would be joined by Western-supported Polish émigrés as well as procommunist leaders. As a principle, the Yalta participants declared the right of all European countries that had been conquered by Hitler to hold free and fair popular elections. In effect, many of these countries—particularly those of Eastern Europe—were to be placed under the indirect control of the three great powers.

With respect to the Asian front, where fierce battles were still raging in the Pacific, the Soviet Union agreed to join in the battle against Japan a few months after Germany had been defeated in Europe. In exchange, Stalin was guaranteed a series of territorial rights in the Far East.

A Good Deal?

Most historians agree that the 1945 Yalta Conference was an event of immense historical significance. The [Page 826]Yalta agreements spelled the defeat of both Germany and Japan, set up the United Nations, and, most important, created a genuinely new world order in Europe.

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