Consequences of making decisions made at the Yalta conference. Yalta conference - miscellaneous. Monument dedicated to the conference

70 years ago, from 4 to 11 February 1945, in the 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 taken at this meeting laid the foundations of the post-war world order, formalized the division of spheres of influence between the Western states and the USSR. It is in Crimea, provided that Moscow receives the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin,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 - by President Franklin Roosevelt, the British - by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. "AiF-Crimea" recalls how the peninsula met important guests.

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

Western leaders began to talk about the need for a second 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 with restraint to their proposals for a meeting. Thus, in his reply to Churchill on July 26, the Soviet leader wrote: “As for the meeting between you, Mr. Roosevelt and me ... then I would also consider such a meeting desirable. But at this time, when the Soviet armies are fighting on a wide front, developing their offensive more and more, I am deprived of the opportunity to leave the Soviet Union and leave the leadership of the armies, even for the shortest time. "

The 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. Later, Roosevelt said that he would have preferred to come to Egyptian Alexandria or Jerusalem, to which Churchill allegedly drew 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

The Yalta conference during its preparation had the code name "Argonaut", such a "name" was invented by Churchill. 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 unofficial and not invite media representatives there. On January 21, Churchill telegraphed both Stalin and Roosevelt: “I propose not to allow press representatives 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. Photos 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 "erased"

Lavrenty Beria was responsible for organizing the preparations for the meeting in Crimea. But later, they tried to remove the 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 smeared.

Odessa is a fallback

In case of bad weather in Crimea, the whole conference was going to be hosted in Odessa. Therefore, serious preparations were also underway in the city: the facades of houses, hotels, representative premises and roads were being actively repaired. As a result, all these preparations went to the good cause of disinformation of the German enemy, whose agents could remain in the liberated territories.

Three palaces

The conference participants were accommodated in three palaces: the delegation of the USSR - in Yusupov, the USA - in Livadia, Great Britain - in Vorontsov.

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

Official meetings of the members of the delegations and unofficial - dinners of the heads of state were held in all three palaces of the Southshore. In Yusupovsky, for example, Stalin and Churchill discussed the issue of transferring people released from Nazi camps. Foreign ministers Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (Great Britain) met at the Vorontsov Palace. But the main meetings still took place in the Livadia Palace. According to diplomatic protocol, this was not required, but Roosevelt could not move without assistance. Official meetings of the Big Three have taken place here eight times. It was signed in Livadia.

Half a ton of caviar

Participants of the Yalta conference ate half a ton of caviar, the same amount of various cheeses and butter. The delegations consumed about 1,120 kilograms of meat (live calves, cows, rams, poultry were brought to the central base). The vegetable menu was 6.3 tons. The guests did not forget about drinks either - they stocked 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 leaves the presidency, he would like to ask him to sell him Livadia in order to plant many trees near it.

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

The last Churchill

Winston Churchill was the last of the leaders of the Crimean powers to leave. After signing the "Communiqué on the Crimean Conference," Stalin left the Simferopol railway station for Moscow in the evening. The American president, having spent the night on board a US ship, docked in the Sevastopol Bay, flew away the next day. Churchill stayed in the 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 flew to Greece from the Saki airfield.

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 ruthless and senseless violent destruction ... Yalta had no military significance and no defensive structures ... Little was left of Yalta, except for ruins and devastation. Sevastopol showed a picture of extreme destruction, and in the whole city there were less than a dozen untouched houses. I read about Warsaw, Lidice, Rotterdam and Coventry, but I saw Sevastopol and Yalta, and I know that German militarism and Christian virtue cannot exist on earth at the same time. "

The presented work is devoted to the theme "Yalta Conference of 1945". The problem of this study has relevance in the modern world. This is evidenced by the frequent study of the issues raised. The topic "Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945" is studied at the junction of several interrelated disciplines. A lot of works are devoted to research questions. Basically, the material presented in the educational literature is of a general nature, and in monographs on this topic, narrower issues of the "Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945" are considered. However, it is required to take into account modern conditions in the study of the problems of the designated topic.

The high significance and insufficient practical elaboration of the "Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945" determine the undoubted novelty of this study. Further attention to the issue of the "Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945" is necessary for a deeper and more substantiated solution of particular topical problems of the subject of this study.

The Crimean (Yalta) Conference of the Allied Powers (February 4-11, 1945) is one of the meetings of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition countries - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, dedicated to the establishment of the post-war world order. The conference was held at the Livadia Palace in Yalta, Crimea.

In 1943, in Tehran, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill discussed mainly the problem of achieving victory over the Third Reich, in Potsdam in July-August 1945, the Allies resolved issues of peaceful settlement and partition of Germany, and in Yalta, the main decisions on the future division of the world were made. between the countries - the winners.

By that time, the collapse of Nazism was no longer in doubt, and the victory over Germany was only a matter of time - as a result of powerful offensive strikes by Soviet troops, military operations were transferred to German territory, and the war entered its final stage. The fate of Japan also did not raise any special questions, since the United States already controlled almost the entire Pacific Ocean. The Allies understood that they had a unique chance to dispose of the history of Europe in their own way, since for the first time in history almost all of Europe was in the hands of only three states.

All decisions of Yalta, in general, dealt with two problems. Firstly, it was required to draw new state borders on the territory that had recently been occupied by the Third Reich. At the same time, it was necessary to establish unofficial, but generally recognized by all parties, demarcation lines between the spheres of influence of the allies - a business that was started back in Tehran.

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

The relevance of this work is due, on the one hand, to the great interest in the topic "Crimean (Yalta) conference of 1945" in modern science, on the other hand, to its insufficient development. Consideration of issues related to this topic is of both theoretical and practical significance.

The object of this research is to analyze the conditions of the "Crimean (Yalta) conference of 1945". In this case, the subject of the study is the consideration of individual issues formulated as the objectives of this study. The aim of the research is to study the topic "Crimean (Yalta) conference of 1945" from the point of view of the latest domestic and foreign research on similar issues.

As part of achieving this goal, the following tasks were set: to study the role of decisions made by the "Big Three" at the Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945; consider the historical significance of the Crimean (Yalta) conference of 1945.

The work has a traditional structure and includes an introduction, a main part consisting of 2 chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography, and an appendix.

According to the results of the study, a number of problems related to the topic under consideration were revealed, and conclusions were drawn about the need for further study of the state of the issue. Thus, the relevance of this problem was determined by the choice of the topic of the term paper "Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945", the range of issues and the logical scheme of its construction.

The sources of information for writing a work on the topic "The Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945" were basic educational literature, theoretical works of the largest representatives in the area under consideration, the results of practical research by prominent domestic and foreign authors, articles and reviews in specialized and periodicals dedicated to the topic " Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945 ”, reference books, other relevant sources of information.

The Second World War

General information

World War II 1939-1945 - the largest war in history, unleashed with the aim of redistributing the world. It was unleashed by Germany, Italy and Japan in order to revise the results of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, according to which Germany surrendered to the Allies in World War I and the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Naval Arms and the Problems of the Far East in 1921-1922, which fixed a new balance of power between states in China and the Pacific Ocean, unfavorable for Japan. 61 states were involved in the war, more than 80% of the world's population. Military operations were conducted on the territory of 40 states, as well as in sea and ocean theaters. The outbreak of World War II was preceded by the coming to power in Germany of the Nazis (1933), the signing of the anti-Comintern pact between Germany and Japan (1936), the emergence of foci of world war both in Europe (the capture of Czechoslovakia by Germany in March 1939) and in the east (the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in July 1937).

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, with the German attack on Poland, after which Great Britain and France entered the war against Germany. In April - June 1940, German - fascist troops occupied Denmark and Norway, and on May 10 they invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. France surrendered on June 22, 1940. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began. On December 7, 1941, with an attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Japan unleashed a war against the United States. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy joined the Japanese war against the United States.

The first major defeat of the German - fascist troops in the Second World War was their defeat near Moscow in 1941 - 1942, as a result of which the fascist "Blitzkrieg" was disrupted, the myth of the invincibility of the German army - the Wehrmacht - was dispelled. The counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Stalingrad in 1942 - 1943, which ended in the encirclement and capture of a 330,000-strong group of German fascist troops, was the beginning of a radical turning point in the Second World War. The Soviet army seized the strategic initiative from the enemy and began to expel him from the territory of the USSR.

American forces defeated the Japanese navy in 1942 in naval battles in the Coral Sea and off Midway Island. In February 1943, the allies captured Fr. Guadalcanal, landed in New Guinea, drove the Japanese out of the Aleutian Islands, began to develop an operation to advance to the territory of Japan proper along the islands of the Kuril ridge. June 6, 1944 in Europe, the Normandy landing operation, the allies opened a second front.

In February 1945, the Crimean (Yalta) conference of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain took place, which considered the issues of the post-war world order and the USSR's participation in the war with Japan. On February 11, 1945, an agreement was signed at the conference, which provided for the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan on the side of the Allies two to three months after the surrender of Germany on certain conditions.

1.2 Choosing a venue for the 1945 Crimean (Yalta) Conference

The first message about the meeting, read by the Crimeans: "The President of the USA, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, accompanied by their chiefs of staff, as well as three foreign ministers and other advisers, are currently conferring in the Black Sea region." Only a few of those who ensure the holding of the meeting know that the "Black Sea region" is the South Coast. Crimea has been cleared of fascists for almost a year, but it continues to be in the area of ​​operation of German aviation based in Northern Italy, and it is not customary to spread the word about the places of such meetings in advance. The world started talking about Yalta after February 15, when the last planes of high-ranking guests left the peninsula.

However, initially there was no talk of a meeting in Crimea. The US President suggested North Scotland, Cyprus, Athens or Malta, the British Prime Minister Alexandria or Jerusalem. But the leader of the USSR was adamant: "On the Soviet Black Sea coast." Stalin had the right to insist: after the Vistula - Oder operation, Soviet troops were sixty kilometers from Berlin, the allies, barely recovering from the fascist counterstrike in the Ardennes (Belgium), were five hundred kilometers away. But Stalin agreed with Churchill's proposal to name the conference by the code name "Argonaut". The British wrote to the American: "We are the direct descendants of the Argonauts, who, according to Greek mythology, sailed to the Black Sea for the Golden Fleece." The “golden fleece” was the USSR, according to the Americans: “We need the support of the Soviet Union to defeat Germany. We desperately need the Soviet Union for the war with Japan after the end of the war in Europe. "

The USSR had two months to prepare for the conference, and there was a lot to do: the peninsula was badly damaged by the Nazis, the southern coastal palaces - Livadia, Vorontsov (Alupka) and Yusupov (Koreiz), where the delegations were supposed to be located, were plundered. Equipment, furniture, products were brought to Crimea from all over the country, specialists from construction organizations, the service sector arrived (for Churchill's fireplace in the Vorontsov Palace, birch firewood was specially prepared from the Crimean trees now listed in the Red Book). In Livadia, Koreiz and Alupka, several power plants were installed, metro workers made bomb shelters. Security was provided by the Soviet Union: air and artillery special groups, "covered" from the sea - the cruiser "Voroshilov", destroyers, submarines, entered the Black Sea and several warships of the allies.

In the parks, palaces of the southern coast of Crimea and other places, where delegations even stayed for a short time, they brought shine, but they did not have time to remove the traces of war along the entire route of the motorcade. And there was no need to "mask" them: destroyed houses, crumpled military equipment, as the US president saw from the windows of the ZIS-101 representative (there is a photo where the American president in Crimea was captured not on the ZiS, but on the open army "Willis" ) and the British Prime Minister, made the "right" impression. Roosevelt, for example, "was horrified by the size of the destruction caused by the Germans in the Crimea." But the rest of the reception, the guests were satisfied. Everything was matched to their taste, even the curtains on the windows in the apartments of the American president were his favorite blue, and the British Prime Minister was accommodated in a palace designed by an English architect. Franklin Roosevelt said that when he was no longer president, he would like to ask to sell him Livadia in order to plant many trees near her. Winston Churchill asked Joseph Stalin what his feelings would be if an international organization came up with a proposal to transfer Crimea as an international resort, and Stalin replied that he would willingly provide Crimea for conferences of the three powers. But the conference in February 1945 remained the only one held in Crimea.

It began on February 4 at 5 pm with a meeting in the Great Hall of the Livadia Palace. But the peninsula began to meet the participants earlier: on February 1, Stalin arrived at the Simferopol railway station by train from Moscow. Koreiz (an urban-type settlement in the Crimea), where the Soviet delegation was located in the Yusupov Palace, was already waiting for him.

“Among the historical sites of the conference is the building at 20 Lenin Street, in Alushta, this is the former dacha of General Golubov,” says the author of the book “The Crimean Conference of 1945. Memorable places "Vladimir Gurkovich. - The dacha was one of two road houses prepared for the rest of the delegations - Stalin stayed here. The leader of the USSR stayed in Alushta for about an hour, then left for Koreiz, from where he "personally and strictly secretly" notified Churchill that he was already at the meeting place. But the Soviet leader did not go to the airfield to meet or see off the guests, instructing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Molotov, to do so. The heads of the allied countries flew to the military airfield "Saki" (the current airfield in Novofyodorovka), where there was a runway convenient for their aircraft, built in the 30s. Churchill's plane landed first, Roosevelt's one hour later. A guard of honor, the orchestra performs the anthems of the three countries, and the President especially thanked for the excellent performance of the American anthem, a small "snack" in the military tents set up at the airfield and "a long journey from Sak to Yalta."

“The Americans covered the distance from the airfield to Livadia (where their residence was) in six hours,” Gurkovich continues, “and the British took eight, although it took about thirty minutes from Livadia to Alupka (where the British residence was). About where Winston Churchill spent another hour and a half, I was told by a Crimean journalist, a participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Sergei Shantyr. In 1942, he was seriously wounded in the Mekenziev Mountains, and he was treated with British medicines for ten months in hospital. "On my behalf, you will put a marble board in Simferopol on Winston," the journalist asked and said that Churchill stayed in Simferopol in one of the prepared road houses - an old mansion with a lion at 15 Schmidt Street. "

Official meetings of the members of the delegations and unofficial - dinners - of the heads of state were held in all three palaces of the Southshore. In Yusupovsky, for example, Stalin and Churchill discussed the issue of transferring people released from Nazi camps. Foreign ministers Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (Great Britain) met at the Vorontsov Palace. But the main meetings were still held in the Livadia Palace - the residence of the American delegation. According to diplomatic protocol, this was not required, but Roosevelt could not move without assistance. Official meetings of the Big Three have taken place here eight times (February 4-11). It was in Livadia that the "Communiqué on the Crimean Conference" was signed.

Then Roosevelt and Churchill went to Sevastopol, Stalin left in the evening from the Simferopol railway station for Moscow. The American president, having spent the night aboard a US ship in the Sevastopol Bay, left on February 12 for the Saki airfield, from where he flew to Egypt. 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 flew to Greece from the Saki airfield. Roosevelt from the plane sent Stalin gratitude for the hospitality, Churchill said at the farewell ceremony: "Leaving the resurrected Crimea, cleared of the Huns thanks to Russian valor, leaving Soviet territory, I express my gratitude and admiration for the valiant people and their army."

“Probably,” argues Vladimir Gurkovich, “the main lesson of the Crimean conference is that in a difficult moment in the face of a common enemy, people of different political views, sometimes even with hostility towards each other, can and should unite for the sake of saving their peoples and civilization.”

In the year of the 60th anniversary of the conference, they were going to erect a monument to the Big Three, created by Zurab Tsereteli, near the Livadia Palace. But the idea provoked a stormy protest from a number of Crimean nationalist organizations. Now the monument is waiting in the wings at the sculptor's art gallery in Moscow. They expressed their readiness to erect the monument in Volgograd and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Chapter 2. Crimean (Yalta) Conference of 1945

Redistribution of borders

Exactly 66 years ago, from February 4 to 11, 1945, Crimea was at the epicenter of an event of international importance - these days a conference of the heads of powers - allies of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II - USSR Prime Minister I. V. Stalin, US President F D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill.

By the time the Yalta Conference was held, the war had already entered its final stage - as a result of the offensive of the Red Army and the landing of the allied forces in Normandy, hostilities were transferred to German territory. And it was precisely this circumstance - the already completely obvious defeat of Nazism - that dictated the issues discussed at the meeting of the leaders of states.

Behind the external respectability of the leaders of the “Big Three” countries, who proclaim the destruction of German militarism and Nazism as their unyielding goal, practically did not hide the tough and pragmatic approaches of the parties in solving two main problems. First, it was required to draw new state borders between the countries that had recently been occupied by the Third Reich. At the same time, it was necessary to establish unofficial, but generally recognized by all parties, demarcation lines between the spheres of influence of the allies - a business that was started back in Tehran.

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

In this regard, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin managed to find a common language.

The situation with Poland was very difficult. Its shape changed dramatically after the Second World War. Poland, which was the largest country in Central Europe before the war, shrank sharply and moved west and north. Until 1939, its eastern border was practically near Kiev and Minsk, and besides, the Poles owned the Vilna region, which is now 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, 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 so-called "Curzon Line", established back in 1920, with a deviation from it in some areas from 5 to 8 km in favor of Poland. In fact, the border returned to the position at the time of the partition of Poland between Germany and the USSR in 1939 under a secret additional protocol on the division of spheres of interest to the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, the main difference from which was the transfer of the Bialystok region to Poland.

Although Poland by that time had already been under German rule for the sixth year, there was a provisional government of this country in exile in London, which was recognized by the USSR and therefore could well claim power in its country after the end of the war. However, Stalin in Crimea managed to get the allies to agree to the creation of a new government in Poland itself "with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and Poles from abroad." This decision, implemented in the presence of Soviet troops, allowed the USSR in the future, without much difficulty, to form a political regime suitable for it in Warsaw.

Germany

A fundamental decision was made to occupy and divide Germany into occupation zones (one of the zones was allocated to France). It was decided that France should be given a zone in Germany to be occupied by French troops. This zone will be formed from the British and American zones, and its size will be determined by the British and Americans in consultation with the French interim government. It was also decided that the French interim government should be invited to join as a member of the Control Council for Germany.

Actually, the settlement of the issue regarding the zones of occupation of Germany was reached even before the Yalta conference, in September 1944 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."

This decision predetermined the split of the country for many decades. On May 23, 1949, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, previously signed by representatives of the three Western powers, was put into effect. On September 7, 1949, the first session of the West German parliament proclaimed the creation of a new state. In response, on October 7, 1949, the German Democratic Republic was formed on the territory of the Soviet occupation zone. There was also talk about the secession of East Prussia (later, after Potsdam, the present Kaliningrad region was created on 1/3 of this territory).

The participants in the Yalta Conference stated that their unyielding goal is to destroy German militarism and Nazism and to create guarantees that "Germany will never again be able to break the peace", "to disarm and disband all German armed forces and to destroy the German General Staff forever", " withdraw or destroy all German military equipment, liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for war production; to subject all criminals of war to just and swift punishment; to wipe out the Nazi Party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions; to eliminate all Nazi and militaristic influence from public institutions, from the cultural and economic life of the German people. " At the same time, the communiqué of the conference emphasized that after the eradication of Nazism and militarism, the German people will be able to take a worthy place in the community of nations.

The perennial Balkan issue was also discussed - 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 formations in this country were resolved in favor of the latter. On the other hand, it was actually recognized that the power in Yugoslavia will receive the NOAJ (People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia) Josip Broz Tito, who, however, was recommended to take the "democrats" into the government.

... It was then that Churchill touched on the topic that interested him most of all. “Let's settle our business in the Balkans,” he said. - Your armies are in Romania and Bulgaria. We have interests there, our missions and agents. Let's avoid clashes over minor matters. Since we are talking about England and Russia, what do you think if you had 90% of the influence in Romania, and we, say, 90% of the influence in Greece? And 50% to 50% in Yugoslavia? While his words were being translated into Russian, Churchill sketched these percentages on a piece of paper and pushed the piece across the table to Stalin. He glanced at it briefly and handed it back to Churchill. There was a pause. The sheet was on the table. Churchill did not touch him. Finally, he said, “Wouldn't it be considered too cynical that we could so easily resolve issues affecting millions of people?” Let's better burn this paper ... -No, keep it with you, - said Stalin. Churchill folded the sheet in half and hid it in his pocket.

Far East

The fate of the Far East was fundamentally decided in a separate document. In exchange for the participation of Soviet troops in the war against Japan, Stalin received substantial concessions from the United States and Great Britain. First, the USSR received the Kuriles and South Sakhalin, which had been lost in the Russo-Japanese war. In addition, Mongolia was recognized as an independent state. Port Arthur and the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) were also promised to the Soviet side.

The leaders of the Three Great Powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - agreed that two to three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies, provided:

1. Maintaining the status quo of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic);

2. Restoration of rights belonging to Russia, violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904, namely:

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

b) the internationalization of the trading 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) the joint operation of the Sino-Eastern Railway and the South Manchurian Railway, giving access to Dairen, on the basis of organizing a mixed Soviet-Chinese Society with the preferential interests of the Soviet Union, meaning that China retains full sovereignty in Manchuria.

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

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 expressed its readiness to conclude a pact of friendship and alliance between the USSR and China with the National Chinese Government to help it with its armed forces in order to liberate China from the Japanese yoke.

Declaration on a Liberated Europe

In Yalta, the Declaration on a Liberated Europe was also signed, which determined the principles of the policy of the victors in the territories conquered from the enemy. It assumed, in particular, the restoration of the sovereign rights of the peoples of these territories, as well as the right of the allies to jointly "help" these peoples to "improve conditions" for the exercise of these very rights. The declaration said: "The establishment of order in Europe and the reorganization of national and economic life must be achieved in such a way that will allow the liberated peoples to destroy the last traces of Nazism and fascism and create democratic institutions of their own choice."

The idea of ​​joint assistance, as expected, later did not become a reality: each victorious power had power only in those territories where its troops were stationed. As a result, each of the former allies in the war began to diligently support their own ideological allies at the end of the war. Within a few years Europe was divided into the socialist camp and Western Europe, where Washington, London and Paris tried to resist communist sentiments.

Major war criminals

The conference decided that the question of the main criminals of war should, after the closing of the conference, be considered by the three foreign ministers for a report in due course. At the Crimean Conference, negotiations took place between the British, American and Soviet delegations to conclude a comprehensive agreement on measures for the protection, maintenance and repatriation (return to their homeland) of prisoners of war and civilians of Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States of America liberated by the allied armed forces entering the Germany. The texts of the Agreements signed on February 11 between the USSR and Great Britain and between the USSR and the United States of America are identical. The agreement between the Soviet Union and Great Britain was signed by V.M. Molotov and Eden. The agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States of America was signed by Lieutenant General Gryzlov and General Dean.

Under these Agreements, until vehicles are allocated for the repatriation of allied citizens, each ally will provide food, clothing, medical care, and other needs for the citizens of other allies. Soviet officers will assist the British and American authorities in their task of serving Soviet citizens released by the British and American forces during the period of time they will be on the continent of Europe or in the United Kingdom, awaiting transport to transport them home.

In serving British subjects and American citizens, the Soviet Government will be assisted by British and American officers. As an agreement has now been reached, the three Governments undertake to provide all assistance consistent with the requirements of military operations in order to ensure the prompt repatriation of all these prisoners of war and civilians.

The results of the 1945 Crimean Conference, in principle, are well enough covered in historiography. But it touched on an issue that for a long time was actually not known to the general public.

On February 10, 1945, in Koreiz, in the Yusupov Palace, where Stalin's residence was, he met with the British Prime Minister Churchill and his accompanying Foreign Minister Eden. The meeting was about the repatriation of Soviet citizens who ended up outside the USSR as a result of the war (prisoners of war, ostarbeiters (from German Ostarbeiter - worker from the East) - a definition adopted in the Third Reich to refer to people exported from Eastern Europe for use in as a free or low-paid labor force, soldiers of the Wehrmacht volunteer formations). According to the Yalta agreements, all of them, regardless of their wishes, were subject to extradition to the USSR, a significant part of them later ended up in camps and were shot. It is no coincidence that these people, with the light hand of the emigrant historian Nikolai Tolstoy, began to be called "victims of Yalta."

Here is what an eyewitness to those events, the former Soviet doctor Georgy Aleksandrov, wrote about this in a series of articles published in the émigré magazine Sotsialisticheskiy Vestnik in 1949-1952. After his army was surrounded, he himself ended up in German captivity. In the article “The Way to the West” G. Aleksandrov wrote with bitterness about the unenviable fate of Soviet citizens, who were actually “surrendered” to the fascists by their own power: “We knew from the very first days of captivity that our homeland and the Stalinist regime had put us outside the law. At stages and halts, Soviet planes threw bombs at the columns of prisoners and poured machine-gun fire on us. Over the years of captivity and fascist captivity, not a single piece of news from our homeland has reached us - the Soviet homeland has not sent us a single piece of stale biscuit ... And yet, by a miracle, the surviving Soviet prisoners reached their homeland ... Smershi (independent counterintelligence organizations in the USSR ), special departments, the Ministry of State Security and other punitive bodies greeted them with filtering commissions, bullying, beatings, torture, prisons, exile and executions ... Those of us who had sufficient experience and strength of resistance knew that we were not given a return home ... the way to the east is closed. "

For example, on July 12, 1945, the Americans faced the first case of massive Russian resistance to forced return to their homeland in the USSR: in Kempten, several people subject to repatriation committed suicide; a similar incident occurred on June 29, 1946 in the American Fort Dick (USA).

In no way trying to justify Stalin - who by that time had already accumulated quite a lot of experience in fighting his own people - one should not discount the position of Stalin's Western allies, who, in general, without much torment, agreed with the USSR on this issue and sometimes with particular cruelty they betrayed the leader of his citizens - for virtually inevitable reprisal.

In light of the study of the history of the Crimean Tatars, an excerpt from the work “Victims of Yalta” by Nikolai Tolstoy is interesting: “Just eight months before the Yalta conference, the NKVD, after a series of massacres, deported all Crimean Tatars from Crimea. The vehicles for the operation were provided by British and American forces in Iran, and Soviet officials believed the Allies knew the purpose of the trucks. However, Stalin's plan was not at all original - Hitler also intended to take out the entire population from the Crimea and populate the peninsula with Tyrolean Germans, but Himmler opposed this plan. The mass eviction of the Crimean Tatars did not simply precede the agreement now proposed to Stalin by Eden and Churchill; the agreement itself, as it were, completed the operation to evict them. The fact is that several thousand Tatars left for the West even before the occupation of Crimea by the Red Army in May 1944. Almost all of them died at the hands of the Nazis, who took them for Jews (the Muslim custom, like the Jewish one, provided for the rite of circumcision). But about 250 people survived and fell into the hands of the British army in Germany. They asked for permission to emigrate to Turkey, but on June 21, 1945, Army Group 21 received firm instructions from Patrick Dean from the Foreign Ministry that, in accordance with the Yalta Agreement, the Crimean Tatars should be returned to Stalin. For many decades these people were deprived of the right to return to their native places. "

In light of the study of the history of the Crimean Tatars, the content of the dialogue between US President Roosevelt and Stalin, recorded by one of the documents of the Stalin Foundation in the Russian State Archives of Social and Political History, seemed curious: “Roosevelt said that he felt very good in Livadia. When he is not president, he would like to ask the Soviet government to sell him Livadia. He, Roosevelt, is very fond of forestry. He would have planted a large number of trees on the mountains near Livadia. Comrade Stalin replied that Crimea is still a country of little culture, and much still needs to be developed here. "

Probably, Stalin's last statement could have been ignored if it had not been so symptomatic, if not symbolic - just at that time a course was taken for a "new Crimea", an end to "Tatar" - that is, with that "uncultured" - in Stalin's interpretation - Crimea, as it was under the Crimean Tatars. However, it is difficult to say whether Stalin's American counterpart was able to decipher the hidden meaning of this statement.

Consideration of the question of reparations

Once again, the question of reparations was raised. However, the allies were never able to finally determine the amount of compensation. It was only decided that the United States and Great Britain would give Moscow 50 percent of all reparations. The following protocol was signed: Protocol on negotiations between the heads of the three governments at the Crimean conference on the issue of reparations in kind from Germany.

The heads of the three governments agreed on the following:

Germany is obliged to compensate in kind for the damage caused by it in the course of the war to the allied nations. Reparations should be obtained primarily by those countries that bore the brunt of the war, suffered the greatest losses and organized victory over the enemy.

Reparations must be levied from Germany in three forms:

a) one-time withdrawals within two years after 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 of it (equipment, machinery, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, shares of industrial, transport , shipping and other enterprises of Germany, etc.), and these seizures should be carried out mainly with the aim of destroying the military potential of Germany;

b) annual supply of goods from current products during the period, the duration of which must be established;

c) the use of German labor.

To work out a detailed reparations plan on the basis of the above principles, an inter-union reparations commission is being set up in Moscow, consisting of representatives from the USSR, the USA and Great Britain.

With regard to the determination of 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: reparations in accordance with paragraphs "a" and "b" of paragraph 2 should amount to 20 billion dollars and that 50% of this amount goes to the Soviet Union. " The British delegation believed that, pending the consideration of the question of reparations by the Moscow Reparations Commission, no figures for reparations could be given.

Questions concerning the international security organization

In Yalta, it was decided to hold the founding UN conference in the United States in April 1945. The Soviet proposal for membership of the Soviet republics in the future UN was accepted, but their number was limited to two - Ukraine and Belarus. At the Yalta Conference, an agreement was concluded on the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan two to three months after the end of the war in Europe. In the course of separate negotiations between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, agreements were reached on strengthening the positions of the USSR in the Far East. The main burden of military efforts against Japan fell on the United States, they were interested in the soonest entry of the USSR into the war in the Far East.

In Yalta, the implementation of the idea of ​​a new League of Nations was started. The Allies needed an intergovernmental organization capable of preventing attempts to change the established boundaries of spheres of influence. It was at the conferences of the winners in Tehran and Yalta and at the intermediate negotiations in Dumbarton Oaks that the ideology of the United Nations was formed.

It was decided:

1) that a United Nations conference on the proposed world organization should be convened on Wednesday 25 April 1945 and should be held in the United States of America;

2) that the following states should be invited to this conference:

b) those of the acceding nations that declared war on the common enemy by March 1, 1945 (In this case, the term “acceding 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 regarding the proposed world organization;

4) that the text of invitations to be sent to all States participating in the conference should be as follows:

Invitation

“The Government of the United States of America, on its own behalf and on behalf of the Governments of the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Republic of China, as well as on behalf of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, invites the Government of ... ... ... representatives to the United Nations conference to be held on April 25, 1945, or shortly after that date, in San Francisco, in the United States of America, to prepare the charter of a general international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security.

The aforementioned Governments propose that the conference should consider as the basis for such a charter the proposals for the establishment of a universal international organization, which were published last October as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks conference and which were supplemented by the following conditions for section C of chapter VI:

It was decided that the five states that will have permanent seats on the Security Council should consult among themselves prior to a United Nations conference on territorial trusteeship.

This recommendation was accepted on the condition that territorial trusteeship would apply only: a) to the existing mandates of the League of Nations; b) to territories torn away from enemy states as a result of a real war; c) any other territory that may be voluntarily placed under guardianship; and d) no discussion of specific territories is expected at the upcoming United Nations conference or prior consultations, and the question of which territories fall into the above categories , will be placed under guardianship, will be the subject of a later agreement.

It was agreed that the principle of the unanimity of the great powers - the permanent members of the Security Council with the right of veto - will be put in the basis of the UN's activities in resolving the cardinal issues of ensuring peace.

Stalin achieved the consent of his partners to include not only the USSR, but also the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR among the founders and members of the UN. And it was in the Yalta documents that the date "April 25, 1945" appeared - the date of the beginning of the San Francisco Conference, which was intended to develop the UN Charter.

The UN has become 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 winning countries continued to prefer to resolve really serious issues of their relations through bilateral negotiations, and not within the framework of the UN. The UN also failed to prevent the wars that both the United States and the USSR fought over the past decades.

Conclusion

The Yalta Conference of the leaders of the USA, USSR and Great Britain was of great historical importance. It was one of the largest international wartime meetings, an important milestone in cooperation between the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition in waging a war against a common enemy. The adoption at the conference of agreed decisions on important issues again showed the possibility of international cooperation between states with different social systems.

The bipolar world created in Yalta and the rigid division of Europe to the east and west remained for half a century, until the 1990s, which indicates the stability of this system.

The Yalta system collapsed only with the fall of one of the centers that ensured the balance of power. In just two or three years, at the turn of the 1980s - 1990s, Vostok, which personified the USSR, disappeared from the world map. Since then, the boundaries of spheres of influence in Europe have been determined only by the current balance of power. At the same time, most of Central and Eastern Europe survived rather calmly the disappearance of the former demarcation lines, and Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Baltic countries were even able to integrate into the new picture of the world in Europe.

The conference, which was attended by I. Stalin (USSR), F. Roosevelt (USA), W. Churchill (Great Britain), began its work at a time when, thanks to the powerful blows of the Red Army on the Eastern Front and active actions of the Anglo-American troops in western Europe, the Second World War entered its final stage. This also explained the agenda of the conference - the post-war structure of Germany and other states that took part in the war, the creation of an international system of collective security, which would rule out the emergence of world military conflicts in the future.

The conference adopted a number of documents that determined the development of international relations for many years. It was stated, in particular, that the goal of the conference participants is “to disarm and disband all German armed forces and to destroy the German General Staff for good; withdraw or destroy all German military equipment, liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for war production; to subject all criminals of war to just and swift punishment; to wipe out the Nazi Party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions; to eliminate all Nazi and militaristic influence from public institutions, from the cultural and economic life of the German people ”, i.e. destroy German militarism and Nazism so that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace.

It was decided to create the United Nations Organization as a system of collective security, and the basic principles of its charter were defined. In addition, in order to end World War II as soon as possible, an agreement was reached on the Far East, which provided for the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan. The fact is that Japan - one of the three main states that unleashed World War II (Germany, Italy, Japan) - was in a state of war with the United States and Britain since 1941, and the allies turned to the USSR with a request to help them eliminate this the last hotbed of war.

The communiqué of the conference recorded the desire of the allied powers "to preserve and strengthen in the coming peace period that unity of goals and actions that made victory in modern war possible and undoubted for the United Nations."

Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve the unity of goals and actions of the allied powers in the post-war period: the world entered the era of the Cold War.

Adygea, Crimea. Mountains, waterfalls, herbs of alpine meadows, healing mountain air, absolute silence, snowfields in the middle of summer, the murmur of mountain streams and rivers, stunning landscapes, songs by the fires, the spirit of romance and adventure, the wind of freedom are waiting for you! And at the end of the route there are gentle waves of the Black Sea.

- a conference of the heads of government of the three allied powers of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II, the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, convened in order to agree on plans for the final defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies, to develop the basic principles of a common policy regarding the post-war world order.

The Communiqué of the conference formulated a unified policy of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in relation to the post-war statute of Germany. It was decided that the armed forces of the three powers, after a complete defeat, would occupy Germany and occupy certain parts of it (zones).

It was also envisaged to create an allied administration, control the situation in the country through a specially created body, headed by the commanders-in-chief of the three powers, with a seat in Berlin. At the same time, it was supposed to invite France as the fourth member of this control body to take over one of the zones of occupation.

In order to destroy German militarism and Nazism and turn Germany into a peace-loving state, the Crimean Conference outlined a program for its military, economic and political disarmament.

The conference adopted a decision on the question of reparations. She found it necessary to oblige Germany to compensate the Allied countries for the damage caused by it to the "maximum possible extent" by means of supplies in kind. Determining the amount of reparations and methods of collecting them was entrusted to a special commission for compensation for damages, which was supposed to work in Moscow.

The conference participants adopted the "Declaration on a Liberated Europe", in which the Allied Powers declared their desire to coordinate their actions in solving the political and economic problems of a liberated Europe.

One of the most difficult issues at the conference was the Polish question. The heads of the three powers reached an agreement on the reorganization of the current Provisional Government on a broader basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself and Poles from abroad. With regard to the Polish borders, it was decided that "the eastern border of Poland should go along the Curzon Line, with a deviation from it in some areas from five to eight kilometers in favor of Poland." It was also envisaged that Poland "should receive significant increases in territory in the North and West."

On the issue of Yugoslavia, the conference adopted a number of recommendations regarding the formation of a Provisional United Government of representatives of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia and the emigrant royal government in London, as well as the creation of a Provisional Parliament on the basis of the Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia.

Of the greatest importance was the decision of the Crimean Conference to establish a general international organization for maintaining peace and security - the United Nations (UN) and its permanent body - the Security Council.

The situation in the Asia-Pacific theater of operations was not officially discussed by the participants of the Yalta conference, since the USSR was bound with Japan by a treaty of neutrality. The agreement was reached in secret negotiations between the heads of government and signed on February 11.

The Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East, adopted at the Crimean Conference, provided for the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan two to three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe. In exchange for the participation of Soviet troops in the war against Japan, the United States and Great Britain provided Stalin with substantial concessions. The Kurils and Southern Sakhalin, lost in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, were transferred to the USSR. Mongolia received the status of an independent state.

The Soviet side was also promised the restoration of the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the USSR, and joint operation with China of the Chinese-Eastern and South Manchurian railways.

At the conference, bilateral agreements were also signed that determined the procedure for the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians of the states parties to the agreements in the event of their release by the troops of the allied countries, as well as the conditions for their repatriation.

An agreement was reached to establish a permanent mechanism for consultation between the foreign ministers of the three great powers.

The Crimean Conference of 1945 laid the foundations for a post-war world order that existed for almost the entire second half of the 20th century, and some of its elements, such as the UN, still exist today.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Or the meeting of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, all researchers and historians call historical. It was on it, in the period from 4 to 11 February 1945, that a number of decisions were made that determined the way of Europe and the world as a whole for decades to come.

Not Malta, not Sicily, not Rome. To Yalta!

The first meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill took place in November 1943 in Tehran. It determined the preliminary dates for the landing of the Allies in Europe in 1944.

Immediately after Tehran-43 and the landing of allied troops in France in June 1944, the heads of the three states in personal correspondence began to probe the ground for a meeting. According to historians, the first to raise the topic of a new conference, or as they say now, a summit, was US President Franklin Roosevelt. In one of his messages to Stalin, he writes: "A meeting should soon be arranged between you, the Prime Minister and me. Mr. Churchill completely agrees with this idea."

The meeting was originally supposed to be arranged in Northern Scotland, Ireland, then on the island of Malta. Possible meeting points also named Cairo, Athens, Rome, Sicily and Jerusalem. However, the Soviet side, despite the objections of the Americans, insisted on holding the conference on its territory.

Churchill, like the Americans, did not want to go to Crimea and noted in a letter to Roosevelt that "the climate and conditions are terrible there."

Nevertheless, the meeting place was precisely the southern coast of Crimea and specifically Yalta, which was less destroyed after the occupation.

"Eureka" and "Argonaut"

What Stalin allowed the British Prime Minister, who so did not want to get out to Crimea, was to give the conference code name, which was mentioned in the secret correspondence. Namely "Argonaut". Grouch Churchill proposed this name, as if drawing a parallel between the ancient heroes of ancient Greek myths, who went to the Black Sea region for the Golden Fleece, and the participants of the Yalta Conference, who go to practically the same places, but the "golden fleece" for them will be the future of the world and the division of spheres of influence ...

Greek mythology hovered invisibly in the relationship of the Big Three. It is no coincidence that the 1943 Tehran meeting was codenamed "Eureka". According to legend, it was with this legendary exclamation ("Found!") That Archimedes of Syracuse discovered the law that "on a body immersed in a liquid ...".

It is no accident that Tehran-43 also showed the convergence of the positions of the heads of the three great powers, who really found a common language and ways to full-fledged cooperation.

Aircraft, anti-aircraft guns, ships and armored trains: safety above all

Although in February 1945 the war was at its final stage, increased attention was paid to the security issues of the participants in the Yalta Conference.

According to the Russian writer and historian Alexander Shirokorad, which he cites in his publication in the Independent Military Review, thousands of Soviet, American and British security and security personnel, ships and aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet and the US Navy, and Great Britain. From the US side, the Marine Corps was involved in protecting the president.

The air defense of the Saki airfield, which was the only host of the delegation, consisted of more than 200 anti-aircraft guns. The batteries were designed to fire seven-layer fire at an altitude of up to 9000 m, aimed fire at a height of 4000 m, and barrage fire at a distance of up to 5 km to the airfield. The sky above it was covered by over 150 Soviet fighters.

76 anti-aircraft guns and almost 300 anti-aircraft machine guns and heavy machine guns were deployed in Yalta. Any plane that appeared over the conference area was to immediately go astray.

Highway security was provided by the personnel of seven checkpoints of more than 2 thousand people.

When the motorcade of the delegations participating in the conference passed along the entire route, all other traffic was stopped, and residents were evicted from residential buildings and apartments facing the highway - their place was taken by state security officers. In order to ensure security, about five NKVD regiments and even several armored trains were additionally deployed to Crimea.

To protect Stalin, together with the Soviet delegation at the Yusupov Palace in the village of Koreiz, 100 state security officers and a battalion of NKVD troops in the amount of 500 people were assigned. For foreign delegations who arrived with their own guards and security services, the Soviet side allocated external guards and commandants for the premises they occupied. Soviet automobile units were assigned to each foreign delegation.

There is no reliable evidence that Hitler intended to stage an assassination attempt on his opponents in Crimea. And he was not up to it then, when Soviet troops were already a hundred kilometers from the walls of Berlin.

Russian hospitality: caviar with cognac, but no bird's milk

Saki airfield became the main airfield for receiving delegations arriving in Crimea. The airfields of Sarabuz near Simferopol, Gelendzhik and Odessa were considered as alternatives.

Stalin and the delegation of the Soviet government arrived in Simferopol by train on February 1, after which they went by car to Yalta.

Churchill's and Roosevelt's planes landed at Saki about one hour apart. Here they were met by the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and other high-ranking officials of the USSR. In general, 700 people who were part of the official delegations of the United States and Great Britain at meetings with Stalin were delivered to Crimea from Malta, where the meeting of the American President and the British Prime Minister took place the day before.

According to the first researcher of the unofficial nuances of the Yalta meeting, Crimean historian and ethnographer Vladimir Gurkovich, with whom the RIA Novosti correspondent (Crimea) spoke, the Allied delegations were greeted with great fanfare. In addition to the obligatory in this case the formation of the guards of honor and other honors, the Soviet side also arranged a grand reception not far from the airfield.

In particular, three large tents were erected, where there were tables with glasses of sweet tea with lemon, bottles of vodka, cognac, champagne, plates with caviar, smoked sturgeon and salmon, cheese, boiled eggs, black and white bread. This is despite the fact that ration cards were still valid in the USSR, and Crimea was liberated from the invaders less than a year ago.

Gurkovich's book about everyday and unofficial details of the Yalta conference was published in 1995 and became the first such publication on this topic. The ethnographer collected testimonies of the participants in the events still alive at that time: guards - NKVD officers, cooks, waiters, pilots, providing "clear skies" over the Crimea.

He says that, according to the testimony of one of the chefs who prepared dishes for the reception at the Saki airfield, there were no restrictions on food and drinks.

“Everything had to be at the highest level and our country had to confirm this level. And the tables were really full of all kinds of delicacies,” the Crimean ethnographer notes.

And this is only on the tables of official delegations. And American and British pilots were received at the Saki military sanatorium named after Pirogov, where about 600 places were prepared for them. Russian hospitality manifested itself here as well. They were prepared according to the menu approved by a special order of the chief of the rear services of the Black Sea Fleet. According to eyewitnesses, the tables were also full of abundance: they had everything except bird's milk.

Churchill smoked a cigar in Simferopol, and Stalin shaved in Alushta

In fact, this stop of the British Prime Minister in Simferopol, in the house at 15 Schmidt Street, cannot be called secret. Along the route of the motorcade from Sak, several places of possible stops for rest were envisaged. One of them was in Simferopol, and the second in Alushta. The first of them was used by Churchill on his way to Yalta, and the second was used by Stalin.

The house on Schmidt Street in Simferopol was previously a reception house, or otherwise a hotel of the Council of People's Commissars of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. During the occupation, high-ranking officers of the Wehrmacht lived there, so the building and internal premises were sufficiently well-groomed and ready to receive distinguished guests.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a famous lover of cognac and cigars, which he consumed without sparing his health. While flying from Malta, and this is a rather long journey, he sent a telegram to Stalin that he was already in flight and "had already had breakfast." And at the airfield in Saki, the allies were greeted with no less warm hospitality, with Armenian brandy and champagne for the British prime minister.

As Vladimir Gurkovich notes, there is nothing unusual about Churchill's stop in Simferopol. He most likely needed time to "come to his senses, think and once again smoke a cigar." And he stayed in the guest house for no more than an hour, and indeed, going out onto the balcony, according to one of the state security officers, he smoked a traditional cigar.

Gurkovich also cites information that the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Joseph Stalin, after his arrival in Crimea, stayed in Alushta - at the so-called "Golubka" dacha of the retired tsarist general Golubov, on the first floor. "Here he rested and shaved," evidenced an archival record found by Gurkovich.

"Dove" is also notable for the fact that it was here that the future heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich (Nicholas II) and his future wife Alexandra Feodorovna stayed in 1894, after the blessing of their marriage by Emperor Alexander III, who was dying in Livadia.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt from Sak went straight to the Livadia Palace without stopping.

After the conference, Roosevelt and Churchill visited Sevastopol, which lay in ruins. And the British prime minister visited Balaklava, where one of his ancestors died in the Crimean War (the first defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855). However, in his memoirs, he does not mention this trip.

Stalin to the Yusupovs, Roosevelt to the Romanovs, Churchill to the Vorontsovs

The main venue for the meeting was Livadia, the former estate of Russian emperors, starting with Alexander II. The well-known Livadia Palace was built in 1911 by the architect Nikolai Krasnov for the last of the Romanovs, Nikolai II.

It was the Livadia Palace that was designated as the main residence of the US negotiating delegation, headed by Roosevelt. The President of the United States has been wheelchair bound since 1921 due to polio and has been restricted from movement. Therefore, Stalin, in order not to jeopardize Roosevelt's health once again and to create comfortable conditions for him, appointed Livadia for work - both to accommodate the US delegation and the meetings of the Big Three summit.

Churchill and the British delegation got the no less luxurious palace of the Governor-General of Novorossiya, Count Vorontsov, in Alupka, which was built according to the design of the English architect Edward Blore.

Stalin chose Prince Yusupov's palace in Koreiz for his residence.

A number of researchers note that this location was not chosen by chance: Koreiz is located between Alupka and Livadia, and Stalin could observe all the movements of the allies.

To put it mildly, this is not so, or not quite so. The observation and wiretapping services of the Soviet state security worked at a high level, so it is unlikely that Stalin would have pulled back the curtain and observed how often the motorcade ply between the English and American residences.

Furniture and groceries were delivered by echelons

The palaces of the Southshore after the occupation looked very deplorable. The Germans tried to take out all the most valuable items of furniture and decoration. Therefore, colossal efforts were made on the Soviet side to make the conference as comfortable as possible.

Suffice it to say that for this purpose, over 1,500 carriages of equipment, building materials, furniture, sets, kitchen utensils and food were delivered to Crimea.

The repair of the Livadia Palace alone took 20 thousand working days. In Livadia, as well as in Koreiz and Alupka, bomb shelters were built, since the possibility of an enemy air raid was not ruled out.

Roosevelt, who rode cautiously to the summit, was nevertheless delighted with the design of his apartment. Everything was to his taste: the curtains on the windows, the draperies on the doors, the bedspreads on his and his daughter's beds, and even the telephones in all the rooms were blue. This color was Roosevelt's favorite color and, as he put it, "caressed his blue eyes."

In the White Hall of the palace, where the main sessions of the conference were held, a round table for negotiations of the Big Three was mounted. For the working needs of the members of the delegations, a former billiard room was prepared, where most of the documents were signed, an inner Italian courtyard and the entire garden and park ensemble.

In Livadia, where not only the American delegation was present, but also the main negotiations of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain took place, three power plants were installed. One working and two redundant. In Alupka and Koreiz - two each.

The publication was prepared on the basis of RIA Novosti's own materials (Crimea) and open sources

Reading time: 4 minutes

Yalta Conference of 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, 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 place. The conference lasted for 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 was attended by representatives of three member states of the anti-Hitler coalition: Winston Churchill from Great Britain, Joseph Stalin from the USSR, Franklin Roosevelt from the United States. Accordingly, all three delegates were leaders and leaders of their states.

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

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

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

Location of the conference

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 Yalta was chosen by the American president because of his state of health. As you know, Crimea is a resort and health resort, and Roosevelt at that time was experiencing serious health problems.

In February 1945, 9 months have passed since the moment when Crimea was liberated from the occupation of German troops. Yalta itself was not in the best condition. To this end, within the framework of preparations for the meeting of the coalition leaders, about 1,500 cars of construction materials, equipment, and furniture were delivered to the city in a few 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, a large round negotiating table was set up in its very center.

Agreements reached at the conference

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

1. The leaders decided to divide Germany into occupation zones. It was assumed that each side would withdraw a certain section of the country's territory, on which military bases would be created. It was decided to completely disarm Germany, completely eliminate the Nazi regime in it.
2. It was at the Yalta conference that the first agreements were reached on the creation of the United Nations, which would regulate international problems in a peaceful way. At the same time, a date was set for the first conference within the framework of the creation of the UN.
3. The parties signed the "Declaration on 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 victor countries to "help" them in this.
4. The question of the structure of Poland was actually resolved. On the initiative of the USSR, an alternative government was formed there, consisting of both communists and democrats. In fact, the USSR provided itself in the future with the opportunity to establish a convenient regime for itself in Poland.
5. Agreements were reached on the future borders between the countries. This question was fundamental and meant the division of spheres of influence in future Europe.
6. 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 compensations paid by Germany to Great Britain and the United States.
7. 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 use the base in the city of Port Arthur as a lease, as well as the Sino-Eastern Railway.
8. 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 the troops of the United States and Great Britain.
9. Finally, during the conference, the leaders of the so-called "Big Three" resolved the issue of the future structure of Yugoslavia and Greece.

The significance of the Yalta conference for history

The conference in Yalta has become a world-class event. Decisions that were fateful for millions of people were made there. The very meeting of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition showed that states of different ideology 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 this composition, as well as the last conference of the pre-nuclear world era.

It was the Yalta Conference that predetermined and actually shaped 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 very moment of the collapse of the USSR, but many decisions that were made at meetings within the framework of the conference are still in effect. So, 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, the independence of the two Koreas - South and North.

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

The code word for all meetings related to the organization of the conference and meetings at it was the word "Argonaut". This idea was proposed by the British Prime Minister Churchill. The word was not taken by chance, as 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 the Argonauts. Stalin reluctantly agreed to this version of the code word.
It is known that Churchill did not want to go to Yalta most of all, calling the Crimean climate and conditions in the city terrible.

There were no reporters at the conference itself. Churchill came up with an initiative to make the meeting unofficial. From each side, only a few war photographers were invited 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 take place in Odessa and be called the Odessa Conference. Odessa was considered as a fallback in case of bad weather in Crimea.

The very last leader to leave Yalta was Winston Churchill. The conference itself ended on February 11, and the British prime minister flew out of Crimea only on February 14, having visited. It was in this place in 1854-1855. within the framework 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 ​​erecting 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 will be erected in Livadia in the same 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 handed over to Crimea, and on February 5, 2015, it was solemnly unveiled as part of the 70th anniversary of the conference itself.

If you find a typo or inaccuracy, please select a piece of text and click Ctrl + Enter.