On this day in 1945, President Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Joseph Stalin of the USSR met in Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula. The three leaders would attend the conference with the end of the Second World War in sight, intent on planning the reorganization of post-war Europe and Germany.
At the occurrence of the Yalta Conference, Allied forces had liberated France and Belgium, beginning their push into western Germany. The Soviet Forces had come within 40 miles of Berlin. The “Big Three” as they came to be known, were brought together despite the exclusion of French leader, General Charles de Gaulle. It is believed Gaulle was not invited due to the fact that the other leaders did not consider him to be a leader of the French state. That is considering that half of France had been occupied by a Nazi regime, while the other half was seen to be a puppet state, used by the Allies in their fight against the Germans. The conference was held at the behest of Roosevelt. The overall goal of the conference would be to discuss the future state and structuring of Europe. Though there are some who believe that Roosevelt called the conference himself in order to boost his status in America as a world leader, due to (at the time of him calling the conference) the upcoming presidential elections. All of the “Big Three” agreed to the conference and the location was decided to be Yalta, an area relatively close to Russia, its position being decided by its neutrality, but also Stalin’s unwillingness to travel far.
One of the most important factors of the conference was the redrawing of Europe. The area of Germany would be split up into two blocs. The first being the Eastern Bloc, controlled by the Soviet Union and unified under the Warsaw Pact. The second being the Western Bloc, this area was made up of zones controlled by the British, French and American forces. Despite the French not originally being included in the conference, it was agreed that they were allowed to control their own zone. This French zone was made up of areas originally appointed to the British and Americans, a decision the Soviets would not make any accommodations with.
Each of the three leaders entered Yalta with their own agendas and benefits in mind. The most influential voice, according to reports from the conference, would be that of Stalin. The Soviet leader immediately brought up the topic of Poland. Much of the Polish territory had been acquired by Soviet forces during the war and it had become the goal of Stalin to maintain and protect those military gains. The territory lost by Poland would be made up by extending its borders west, at the expense of Germany. It was agreed that the Soviet Provisional Government would not be removed; this was decided upon Stalin’s agreement to allow free and fair elections within the state. It was also agreed that territories won by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 would be restored to the Soviet Union. One of the major agreements made was that the Soviet Union would join the United Nations, instituting them as a part of the National Security Council.
Roosevelt’s focus throughout the conference was to garner Stalin’s support for America’s war in the Pacific against the Japanese. This alliance would only come to fruition if Roosevelt recognized the independence of Mongolia, an acting buffer between the Soviet Union and China. Stalin also desired the recognition of Soviet railways in the East, an issue that had been contended by the Chinese. Roosevelt agreed to these terms, resulting in the Soviets joining the Americans in the Pacific at the end of the war. It was also by Roosevelt’s doing that the Soviet Union agreed to join the United Nations. Winston Churchill traveled to the conference with the intent of ensuring the return and creation of free elections and democratic governments in Europe. Churchill’s desired outcomes were challenged by the Soviet presence in Poland, but nevertheless, Churchill’s wishes were adhered to when the Soviets agreed to fair elections in Poland.
This conference was crucial to the future of Europe, a future that had seemed uncertain only months before. It resulted in the institution of all the agreements noted above, but also paved the way for the demilitarization and denazification of Germany. Included in those acts were the Nuremberg trials, the trials and executions of members of the Nazi party. These became key events in the reformation and restructuring of modern day Germany. It was also decided that all countries present before the war (excluding Romania and Bulgaria who had undergone the liquidation of their governments by the Soviet Union) would have their government and democracy restored. The conference not only gave way to change in Germany, but it signified the expansion of both territory and power for the Soviet Union, an effect that would lead to conflict in later years.
The decided outcomes undoubtedly shaped the future of Europe, though whether all of the decisions made were beneficial is of a different matter. The importance of the Yalta Conference, for better or for worse, has cemented the event as an incredibly important day in modern history.
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