On February 4, 1945, 80 years ago, one of the key diplomatic meetings of World War II—the Yalta (Crimean) Conference—began at the Livadia Palace near Yalta. The leaders of the Allied nations—U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin—gathered in Crimea to determine the post-war world order.
This was not the first meeting of the “Big Three.” As early as 1943, they had convened in Tehran to agree on opening the Second Front in Europe. However, by early 1945, the situation had shifted: the war in Europe was nearing its end, the Red Army had already entered German territory, and Allied forces controlled most of Western Europe. The world leaders faced critical questions: what to do with defeated Germany, how to construct a new system of international security, and how to divide spheres of influence in Europe and beyond.
On February 3, 1945, at the Saky airfield, the planes carrying President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill landed one after another. Exhausted from their journey, the guests were received by the Soviet side in specially prepared tents before departing for Livadia.
“When we crossed the mountains and descended to the Black Sea, we suddenly felt warmth and bright sunlight. The climate here is very mild,” Churchill wrote, describing his impressions of the journey to Crimea.
Negotiations between the leaders took place from February 4 to 11, 1945. Each participant arrived at the conference with distinct objectives:
🔹 The Soviet Union aimed to consolidate its influence in Central and Eastern Europe and secure economic assistance for post-war reconstruction. Controlling Eastern Europe gave the USSR a strong bargaining position.
🔹 The United Kingdom was primarily concerned with preserving its colonial empire and shaping the post-war order in Germany.
🔹 The United States sought to establish the United Nations (UN) and secure Soviet participation in the war against Japan.
The Outcomes of the Yalta Conference:
Military Operations Against Germany – The Allies agreed to coordinate the final military offensives to accelerate the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Post-War Status of Germany – Germany was to be divided into four occupation zones: American, British, and Soviet, with the potential inclusion of a separate French zone.
Nuremberg Trials – The leaders agreed to prosecute war criminals, annul Nazi legislation, and ban the National Socialist Party.
Soviet Entry into the War Against Japan – The USSR pledged to declare war on Japan within two to three months after Germany’s surrender.
Creation of the United Nations – It was decided that the organization would not include all 16 Soviet republics, as Stalin had proposed, but only the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Belarusian SSR.
“Declaration of a Liberated Europe” – This document guaranteed that all countries liberated from Nazi occupation would have the right to determine their own government.
The Ukrainian Question.
Although the Ukrainian question was not a separate agenda item at the Yalta Conference, it was nonetheless raised during discussions. It was in Yalta that the future western borders of Ukraine were determined, marking significant changes compared to the pre-war period.
Stalin leveraged ethnic arguments to justify his territorial claims. However, this did not prevent him from carrying out forced deportations of entire populations. Just a few months before the conference, all Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled from Crimea under the Soviet regime’s fabricated accusations of “treason.”
The Yalta Conference created an illusion of unity among the three Allied powers. However, it soon became evident that the Soviet Union had no intention of fulfilling certain commitments.
The most striking example was the Polish question. Stalin promised to include representatives of “various anti-fascist forces” in Poland’s new government, meaning members of the London-based government-in-exile. Although this condition was formally met, and a new government was established with the participation of exiled officials, power gradually concentrated in the hands of communist forces. Similarly, in the Eastern European countries liberated from Nazi occupation, the Soviet Union imposed communist regimes, turning them into Soviet satellite states.
The consequences of the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences became one of the primary precursors of the Cold War—a prolonged geopolitical confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Western world that lasted nearly fifty years. The invention of nuclear weapons only further escalated this rivalry.
Today, the Yalta Conference is often seen as a symbol of the division of the world into spheres of influence. It demonstrated that agreements with the Soviet Union were often declarative and not always honored.
This historical lesson remains relevant today, as Russia once again seeks to impose its will on neighboring states through ultimatums and force. Just as it did eighty years ago, Ukraine continues its struggle for the right to independently determine its future.