Yalta & Potsdam
Yalta Conference Potsdam Conference
Dates February 4-11, 1945 July 17-August 2, 1945
Leaders Pres. Franklin Roosevelt (US), PM Winston Churchill (UK),
Premier Josef Stalin (USSR)
Pres. Harry Truman (US), Winston Churchill & Clement Attlee
(UK), Premier Josef Stalin (USSR)
Location Livadia Palace (tsarist palace)
Yalta, Crimea, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Rep.
Cecilienhof (home of Hohenzollern Crown Prince)
Potsdam (suburb of) Berlin, Germany
Political/Military
situation at the
time
Red Army had recently liberated Poland and stood 65 miles to the
east of Berlin. Allied armies had recently liberated the Low
Countries and France and stood on the western border of
Germany. Soviet forces in Europe outnumbered Allied forces in
Europe 3:1.
Nazi Germany had surrendered on May 8, but the Pacific War
continued, with the prospect of an invasion of the home islands
looming. Red Army had liberated and occupied all of Eastern
Europe, and refugees were streaming westward to avoid Soviet
repression. Truman, president for only 3 months, was
inexperienced in foreign affairs but demonstrated far more
suspicion of Soviet intentions than Roosevelt and was determined
to get tough. In March, Stalin had invited non-communist
Polish leaders to Moscow and then arrested them.
Main Purpose To discuss the re-establishment of the states of Europe. To establish a post-war order for Europe and to address the
effects of the war.
US Goals 1. To obtain Soviet participation in the war against Japan.
2. To get the Soviet Union to join the United Nations.
1. To get the Soviets to implement their commitment to a
democratic Poland with free elections.
2. To strictly limit German reparations to the Soviet Union.
3. To stop the Soviets from attacking Japan since the US had just
tested the atomic bomb and was confident of victory.
British Goals 1. To obtain Soviet support for free elections and democratic
governments in Eastern Europe, especially Poland.
Soviet Goals 1. To obtain recognition of a Soviet sphere of influence in
Eastern and Central Europe.
To obtain generous German reparations, a permanently reduced
Germany capacity for war-making, and recognition of Soviet
hegemony in Eastern and Central Europe.
Polands borders Soviet Union will retain eastern portions annexed in 1939 (up to
the Curzon Line) and Poland will be compensated by extending
its borders westward at the expense of Germany.
Polands western border will be the Oder-Neisse Line and eastern
border will be the Curzon Line. Poland will receive the port of
Danzig and much of East Prussia.
Polands
government
Stalin promised free elections but insisted upon Allied
recognition of the pro-Soviet (communist) Lublin Government, on
the condition that the government be given a broader
democratic basis, understood by the Allies as including non-
communist political groups.
Recognition of the Provisional Government of National Unity (the
Soviet-backed Lublin Poles) in preference to the (Allied-backed)
Polish government-in-exile in London.
Governments of
liberated
countries
All liberated countries will be allowed to create democratic
institutions of their own choice. The Allies will assist in the
creation of interim governments that will organize free
elections on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot in
order to establish governments responsive to the will of the
people. However, the Soviet Union had already executed the
pre-war leaders of Romania and Bulgaria and insisted upon
recognition of the pro-Soviet Lublic Government of Poland.
Truman insisted upon free elections in all liberated countries.
Stalins reply was: A freely elected government in any of these
east European countries would be anti-Soviet, and that we cannot
allow.
Repatriation Citizens of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia will be involuntarily
repatriated to their home country.
Yalta agreements confirmed.
Pacific War Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of victory in Europe
in exchange for:
1. Recognition of the independence of Mongolia from China.
2. Recognition of Soviet interests in the Manchurian railways
and Port Arthur.
3. Return of the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands from Japan.
Insisted on the unconditional surrender of Japan to forestall
prompt and utter destruction on the following terms:
1. Occupation of Japan by Allied forces
2. Limitation of Japanese sovereignty to the 4 home islands
3. Disarming and repatriation of all Japanese forces
4. War criminals to be put on trial
5. Establishment of democracy; free speech; human rights
Korea Once liberated, the nationality of the Korean peninsula shall
remain intact.
Yalta agreements confirmed.
United Nations
Soviet Union will join the UN on the condition that she will have
a permanent seat on the Security Council and veto power.
Stalin requested that all 16 Soviet Socialist Republics receive
independent UN membership, but the Allies agreed only to admit
the Soviet Union and Ukraine.
Yalta agreements most confirmed.
Only the Soviet Union and Ukraine would receive independent
UN membership.
Administration of
Germany
German will be divided into 4 zones of occupation and
administered by the Soviet Union, US, Britain and France, but
Stalin insisted that Frances zone be carved out of the American
and British zones. Austria to be divided and occupied similarly.
Berlin and Vienna to be divided and occupied similarly.
Yalta agreements confirmed.
Surrender of Nazi
Germany
All agreed to wage war until obtaining unconditional surrender. Same agreement made for Japan.
Post-war
Germany
Germany will undergo demilitarization, de-nazification,
democratization, decentralization and de-cartlization.
All shipyards and aircraft factories to be dismantled; all
metallurgical, chemical and machinery industries to be reduced
to a minimum; surplus manufacturing capacity to be dismantled
and transferred as reparations; all research and international
trade to be controlled; the economy to be reorganized with
emphasis on agriculture and consumer industries; all economic
activity to be placed under the authority of the Allied Control
Commission.
German
reparations
To be paid mostly in the form of forced labor the exact terms of
which will be determined by a Reparations Council to be located
in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union will be entitled to $10
billion worth of reparations.
Soviet Union will extract reparations from their zone of
occupation and will receive 10% of the industrial output of the
western zones. Soviet Union will satisfy Polands reparations
claims from its own share.
Nazi war crimes Will be captured and put on trial. Yalta agreements confirmed.
Germanys
borders
A Committee on Dismemberment of Germany will be established
to consider whether to divide Germany into 6 states.
All German annexations after January 1, 1938 to be nullified
(Austria, Sudetenland, Alsace-Lorraine, western Poland).
Germanys new eastern border set at the Oder-Neisse Line,
reducing Germanys 1937 territory by 25%. Germans living to the
east (in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) will be repatriated
westward in an orderly and humane way.
Contemporary
Reaction
In Britain, Parliament debated the merits of Churchills
agreements for 3 days and criticized his concessions on the
issue of Poland. In the end Churchill was given a vote of
confidence.
Soviet Union began deporting Poles living east of the Curzon
line to the west and to jail non-communist Polish political
leaders.
When Molotov told Stalin that the Yalta Agreement might
impede plans to establish Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe,
Stalins reply was Never mind. Well do it our own way
later.
Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged letters indicating a
recognition that the Soviet Union already seemed to be
violating agreements concerning Poland and other liberated
states.
Roosevelt died on April 12, two months after Yalta.
Churchills Tories lost the election of July 26 and Churchill
was replaced by Attlee, 5 months after Yalta.
Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be used against Japan at
the earliest possible date, in part, out of a desire to finish the
war with Japan before the Soviets could intervene and
become a party to the peace terms.
Almost all of the millions of Soviet POWs and civilians
repatriated to the USSR after 1945 were immediately sent to
the Gulag to pay for their surrender.
Plans to demilitarize and de-industrialize Germany were
reversed in future years once both sides realized the
importance of Germany in the Cold War.
Historiography
Alan Bullock (1991): Stalins diplomatic successes at Yalta
and Potsdam were as great as Hitlers in the 1930s.
Walter Lafeber: I think Potsdam marks the point at which
Truman and Stalin don't have a whole lot to say to each other
anymore. Their armies are essentially doing the talking.
Harry Truman (1957): What a show that was! In spite of the
setup a great number of agreements were accomplished only
to be broken when the Dictator of all the Russias, without a
conscience returned to his home dunghill. And I liked the
little son of a bitch - self made of course, no reflection on his
mother. He was a good six inches shorter than I am
