The Cold War

• Yalta Conference


  Meeting of Allied leaders (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill) in February 1945 to plan post-war Europe
• Agreements at Yalta Conference

  1. Stalin agreed to enter war against Japan after Germany surrendered

  2. Agreed on division of Germany and Berlin into four zones

  3. Agreed to hunt down and punish war criminals

  4. Agreed liberated countries could hold free elections

  5. Agreed to join new United Nations Organisation

  6. Agreed Eastern Europe was a 'Soviet sphere of influence'

  7. Disagreed on Poland's border
• The general public in 1945 would have seen few signs of the tensions which you have just read about
• The Soviet Union had suffered terribly in the war, with an estimated 20 million Soviet people having died
• Stalin was concerned about the future security of the USSR
• Churchill persuaded Roosevelt to accept Stalin's plan for Poland's border, as long as Stalin accepted this
• It seemed that, although they could not all agree, the Allied leaders were still able to negotiate and do business with one another