Yalta/Potsdam Conference

• What was the Yalta conference?

  The big three met at Yalta to make plans about post-war world.

  (4-11 February 1945)

  (Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt)
• Agreements at Yalta


  1. Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan
  2. Nazi war criminals would be tracked down and made to pay for crimes
  3. To help Stalin ensure the USSR would not get invaded again
  4. Germany to b split into four zones
• Disagreements at Yalta


  1. Stalin wanted the border of the USSR to move westwards into Poland.
  2. Stalin argued that Poland would then move its own border westwards into German territory.
  3. Churchhill and Roosevelt both disapproved of the plan but later agreed for in return Stalin agreed not to interfere with Greece (where the British were attempting to prevent communists taking over)
• What was the Potsdam Conference?


  The Potsdam Conference was a meeting held in 1945 between the leaders of the Allied powers to discuss the post-World War II settlement of Germany and Europe.

  (April 1945)
• Disagreements at Potsdam


  1. Stalin wanted to cripple Germany completely
  2. Truman didn’t want to repeat the Treaty of Versailles
  3. Stalin wanted Germany to pay compensation (20 million Russians died in the war)
  4. At first Truman agreed but later changed his mind, Stalin felt Truman was trying to protect Germany
  5. Stalin wanted to assert dominance in Eastern Europe as a defensive measure (pro-soviet governments)
  6. Truman became suspicious of Soviet intentions and chose to become more alert.
• What Stalin wanted


  1. 10 billion dollars in reparations
  2. plus factories and machinery
  3. Stalin terrorised his people
  4. Soviets spied on their own citizens
  5. Not all Soviet citizens liked communism
• Why was there Tension at Potsdam?

  1. Disagreements about how many reparations Russia could take
  2. Truman was angry because Stalin had arrested the non-communist leaders of Poland
  3. USA and Britain alarmed because communists were coming into power.
  4. Truman dropped atomic bomb in Japan to force Japan to surrender before Russian troops could go into Japan (America had this bomb July 1945 but didn’t tell Stalin, Stalin was furious)