On February 7, 1945, a secret meeting of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition was held - Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
There, the post-war world order was finally decided. The spheres of influence of the Allies in Europe were discussed, as well as the inclusion of the USSR in the war against Japan.
The second of the three major meetings of the victors of the war was organized by the Soviet Union in the resort of Livadia, in the vicinity of Yalta. The conference began on February 4 and ended on February 11, 1945.
Enormous difficulties accompanied the achievement of a standard suitable for the three most powerful men on the planet. The palaces, which had been converted into sanatoriums, were partially destroyed and looted during the war. The Soviet Union even had difficulty delivering food for the meeting.
The three delegations stayed in three different mansions - the Russians in the Yusupov Palace, the British in the Vorontsov Palace, and the Americans in the Livadia Palace. The negotiations took place in the palace where the American delegation was housed. Churchill was 15 kilometers away, and Stalin was 7. Every day, the Russian leader had a few minutes alone with Roosevelt while they waited for Churchill.
The Yalta Conference decided the fate of defeated Germany. According to the agreements, it was to be divided into 4 zones, occupied by the USSR, Great Britain, the USA, and France. Representatives of the Allied High Commands formed a Control Council with headquarters in Berlin, which would coordinate and coordinate the actions of the Allies. The amount of reparations that Germany must pay was also specified - 20 billion dollars. It was agreed that half of this amount would be received by the USSR. In order to be able to pay these unaffordable reparations, it was planned to seize part of Germany's national wealth, such as machines, tools, means of transport, etc.
Some of the conference's clauses also apply to Poland.
The Yalta Conference adopted the structure and initial composition of the United Nations. It was decided to convene a United Nations conference in San Francisco on April 25, 1945 to establish the UN.
The opinion of historians about the Yalta Conference today is very critical. Most of them assess the decisions taken as "catastrophic". Churchill and Roosevelt are believed to have capitulated to Stalin and allowed the enslavement of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe.