Agony of the Third Reich. 75 years ago, on February 4, 1945, the Yalta Conference of Heads of State of the anti-Hitler coalition opened. The post-war structure of Europe and the world is over.
The need for a new conference of great powers
With the development of hostilities and the successful offensive of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe, the need for a new meeting of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition has matured. A number of political problems that arose in connection with the approaching end of the war and the organization of the post-war world order demanded an immediate solution. So, it was necessary to agree on plans for the final defeat of the German armed forces and the post-war structure of Germany. London and Washington needed to get Moscow's confirmation on the Japanese issue. The three great powers had to decide how to implement the basic principles proclaimed by the United Nations on the organization of post-war peace and international security in order to avoid the outbreak of a new world war.
American President Franklin Roosevelt in July 1944 officially proposed to the leader of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, to arrange a new summit meeting. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill fully supported this idea. Roosevelt and Churchill proposed to meet in September 1944 in Scotland. However, Moscow rejected this proposal under the pretext of active hostilities at the front. At this time, the Red Army successfully crushed the enemy, Stalin decided that it was necessary to wait so that decisions could be made on the basis of the 1944 campaign.
After the conference in Quebec on September 11-16, 1944, Roosevelt and Churchill sent a new proposal to Stalin for a trilateral meeting. The Soviet leader again expressed a "great desire" to meet with the leaders of the United States and Great Britain, but postponed it under the pretext of health problems: "Doctors do not advise me to undertake long trips." In connection with Churchill's trip to Moscow in early October 1944, Roosevelt again expressed his desire to hold a meeting of the Big Three. During the Moscow issues, many issues were discussed, but no specific decisions were made. However, the sides clarified each other's positions.
After the Moscow talks, the three great powers continued negotiations on a new conference. Preliminarily, it was planned to hold a meeting in November 1944 on the Russian coast of the Black Sea. This meeting was postponed until late January - early February 1945 at the request of Roosevelt (in November 1944, presidential elections were held in the United States).
The situation at the fronts. Meeting in Malta
The Red Army won one victory after another. The Soviet armies liberated Eastern Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from the Nazis. There were battles on the territory of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The German high command concentrated the main and best formations on the Russian front. The Western Allies were able to successfully advance on the Western Front. However, the Allied offensive failed.
Hitler believed that the forced and unnatural union of the USSR with the democracies of the West was short-lived and would soon collapse. That the Reich can still reach an agreement with the West, preserve the remnants of influence in Europe. That Germany, together with the United States and Britain, can oppose the USSR. But for this it was necessary to prove their usefulness to the masters of London and Washington. In December 1944, the Wehrmacht dealt a powerful blow to the Allies in the Ardennes. The allies found themselves in a difficult position. On January 6, 1945, Churchill asked Moscow for help. Stalin gave a positive answer. On January 12, 1945, the Vistula-Oder strategic operation began, on January 13, the East Prussian operation. Soviet troops with successive blows broke into enemy defenses from the Baltic to the Carpathians. The German command was forced to stop the offensive on the Western Front and transfer divisions to the East.
Thus, the Allies in 1945 planned to complete the defeat of Nazi Germany. Decisive operations were being prepared on the Eastern and Western Fronts. In the Pacific Theater, the Empire of Japan was also losing the war. Military operations shifted to the South China Sea and to the near approaches to the Japanese islands. The Japanese were retreating in Burma, they started having problems in China. However, Japan was still a strong adversary, had more numerous ground forces in the Asia-Pacific region than the allies, and the war with her could drag on for many years, leading to large human and material losses. The military believed that the operation to capture Japan would lead to huge losses, and even then the Japanese would be able to continue fighting in Asia. Therefore, England and the United States needed Moscow's guarantees that the Russians would oppose Japan.
On the way to Crimea, the leaders of the United States and Britain held a meeting on February 2, 1945 in Malta. Churchill noted that it was necessary to prevent the Russians from occupying more territories in Europe "than necessary." Churchill also noted the need for the occupation by Anglo-American troops of most of Western Europe by attacking in the northern direction of the Western Front. The US military was not opposed to this idea, but wanted to maintain independence in the direction of other operations. In addition, a common line of behavior was developed for the Western powers at the Crimean Conference.
Yalta conference
On the night of February 3, 1945, Roosevelt and Churchill, accompanied by a large retinue, set off for the Crimea. First we landed at the Saki airfield, then arrived in Yalta by car. The Soviet side received the guests with all the hospitality. The seriously ill Roosevelt was given the Livadia Palace, where the Big Three met. The British were accommodated in the former Vorontsov palace. The Soviet delegation stopped at the former Yusupov palace. Stalin arrived on the morning of February 4. On the same day, at 4:35 pm, the opening of the conference took place. In addition to the heads of state, Foreign Ministers Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (England), their deputies, USSR ambassadors to the USA (Gromyko) and to England (Gusev), the US Ambassador to the USSR (Harriman), the British Ambassador to USSR (Kerr), heads of military departments, diplomatic and military advisers. At Stalin's suggestion, Roosevelt became the chairman of the conference. The conference lasted until 11 February.
The conference began with a discussion of military issues. The situation at the fronts, plans for future operations were considered. The Soviet side announced that the offensive launched in January along the entire front would be continued. The Western Allies reported that their armies would make a breakthrough in a narrow stretch of 50-60 km, first north of the Ruhr, then south. The military agreed to coordinate the actions of strategic aviation. The Anglo-Americans recognized the importance of interaction between the two fronts, but evaded the request of the USSR General Staff about the need to take measures to prevent the Germans from further transferring forces to the Russian front from Italy and Norway.
Stalin saved Germany from dismemberment
The most important question was the future of Germany after the liquidation of the Hitler regime. The political leadership of England and the United States, on the one hand, wanted to eliminate a competitor in the person of Germany, on the other hand, they wanted to use the Germans against Russia again in the future. Therefore, London and Washington planned to dismember Germany into several parts, to return it to the days before Bismarck, who united the German lands. There were also plans to gradually strengthen Germany so that she would be an ally in the fight against the USSR. In the official position of the West, the need was noted for the elimination of German militarism, Nazism and the reorganization of the country on a democratic basis. The period of the general occupation of Germany was not limited. Tough exploitation of German resources was planned.
At the Crimean Conference, the Americans and the British raised the issue of dismembering Germany for the sake of "international security." It was proposed to separate Prussia (the center of German militarism) from the rest of Germany. Create a large German state in the south, possibly with a capital in Vienna, to counterbalance Prussia. Churchill proposed raising the question of the Ruhr's ownership, the Saar, and the internal fragmentation of Prussia. The Soviet side did not want Germany to be dismembered. The question was postponed to the future. A commission was created to study this issue. Later, thanks to the efforts of the USSR, it was possible to avoid the dismemberment of Germany into several independent states.
The key issues were resolved: decisions were made on the unconditional surrender of the Reich, on the complete disarmament of the German Armed Forces, SS, other forces and auxiliary organizations; demilitarization of industry; the elimination of the Nazi regime; punishment of war criminals; on the zones of occupation - the eastern part of the country was occupied by Soviet troops, the southwestern - by the American, the northwestern - by the British; on the joint management of "Greater Berlin". The supreme power in Germany during the occupation was exercised by the commanders-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, the USA and England - in their occupation zone. General issues were resolved jointly in the supreme control body - the Control Council. A Coordination Committee was created under the Control Council.
Also discussed was the question of France's obtaining equal rights with the big three, its participation in the post-war structure of Germany. Earlier, the United States and England opposed the recognition of France as a great power and objected to the participation of the French in German affairs. However, under pressure from Moscow, France was included among the great victorious powers: the French received their zone of occupation (at the expense of the Americans and British) and their representative was a member of the Control Council.
The issue of reparations occupied an important place. The Soviet Union suffered the most terrible damage from the Nazi invaders: many millions were killed, hundreds of destroyed and burned cities, tens of thousands of villages and villages, material damage was estimated at about 2 trillion 600 billion rubles. Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece and other countries also suffered great losses in people and material values. However, taking into account the real situation (that is, Germany's inability to fully compensate for this damage) and taking into account the vital interests of the German people, who also suffered greatly from the Nazi regime, Moscow put forward the principle of partial compensation in the form of reparations. The Soviet government did not want to plunge the Germans into poverty and misery, to oppress them. Therefore, the Soviet government announced at the conference the amount of reparations at 20 billion dollars, half was to be received by the Soviet Union, which was an insignificant part of direct and indirect losses to Russia. The sum of 10 billion dollars was only slightly higher than the annual military expenditures of the Reich in the pre-war years. It was decided to levy reparations in three forms: 1) a one-time withdrawal from the national wealth (industrial enterprises, equipment, machine tools, rolling stock, German investments abroad); 2) annual commodity deliveries from current products; 3) the use of German labor. For the final solution of the question of reparations in Moscow, an Inter-Union Commission on Reparations was established. At the same time, they agreed on the amount of $ 20 billion and that the USSR would receive 50%.
The question of international security. Polish question
In Crimea, the issue of creating the United Nations (UN) was considered to ensure international security in the future. This issue has already been discussed earlier. As a result of preliminary negotiations, the main provisions of the Charter of the future international organization were developed, its main principle is the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states. The main organs of the organization were to be: the General Assembly, the Security Council (it was based on the principle of unanimity, the great powers, permanent members of the Security Council, had the right to veto), the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council. The main responsibility for maintaining peace and security was assigned to the Security Council in the USSR, the USA, England and China (hereinafter France), six more non-permanent members of the Security Council were elected for 2 years. In Yalta, an agreement was reached to convene a United Nations conference in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, with the aim of finalizing the Charter.
Much attention at the conference was paid to the Polish problem: the composition of the Polish government and the future borders of Poland. Stalin emphasized that for the USSR the question of Poland is not only a question of honor, but also a question of security - "because the most important strategic problems of the Soviet state are connected with Poland." Throughout the history of Russia-Russia, Poland was "a corridor through which the enemy attacked Russia passed." Stalin noted that only the Poles themselves could close this "corridor". Therefore, the USSR is interested in creating a strong and independent Poland. Moscow proposed new borders for Poland: in the east - the Curzon line, in the west - along the Oder and Western Neisse. That is, the territory of Poland has grown significantly in the west and north.
The question of Poland's eastern borders did not provoke resistance from Britain and the United States. The Anglo-Americans were not opposed to the expansion of Poland at the expense of Germany. The question was about the size of the increase in Polish territory in the west. The Westerners were against the borders of the Oder and Western Neisse. As a result, it was decided that Poland's borders would be expanded to the north and west. But the definition of the boundaries was postponed for the future.
A bitter struggle unfolded over the future of the Polish government. Washington and London ignored the creation of a provisional government in the liberated Red Army in Poland. The Allies sought to create a new government in Poland with the inclusion of "their own people". Obviously, Britain and the United States wanted to restore a pro-Western, Russophobic government in Poland in order to make the Poles their own weapon in the thousand-year war against Russia-Russia again. Therefore, the Soviet delegation opposed the proposals of the West. As a result, the parties agreed to a compromise. The Provisional Polish Government was replenished by several democrats in Poland itself and by émigrés. A government of national unity was formed. England and the United States were to establish diplomatic relations with him. The Polish émigré government stopped working.
Victory in the Far East
The Western allies insistently asked Moscow to confirm its consent to the war with Japan. The United States and Britain did not want to fight Japan and incur heavy losses while the USSR was rebuilding. In Yalta, the Soviet side made it a condition of entering the war against the Japanese Empire to eliminate the consequences of the Japanese aggression against Russia in the Far East (and almost to Pearl Harbor the West supported this aggression) and to ensure the security of our Far Eastern borders.
On February 11, 1945, the Big Three signed an agreement under which the Soviet Union pledged to oppose Japan. In response, the "world community" recognized the Mongolian People's Republic as an independent state. The rights of Russia, violated by the attack of Japan in 1904, were restored. That is, the USSR returned to South Sakhalin with the adjacent islands, the Kuril Islands, Port Arthur became the Union's naval base. The Union received an economic advantage in the Dairen-Dalny port. The joint operation with China of the Chinese-Eastern and Yuno-Manchurian railways was resumed on the basis of a mixed Soviet-Chinese society with the advantage of the interests of the USSR.
Great victory for Russian arms and diplomacy
The "world community", frightened by the power of Russian arms and spirit, manifested during the Great Patriotic War, recognized Russia-USSR as the right to control Eastern Europe. The lands formerly inhabited by the ancestors of the Russians, the Slavic Russians. It took months and hundreds of thousands of lives to secure this right. The Soviet Union has reached the historical and natural borders. Since ancient times, the Laba River has united Slavic-Russian tribes, and the ancestors of the Germans lived beyond the Rhine. In the Far East, we regained positions lost during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
Unfortunately, in 1985-1991. the feat of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers was trampled upon by the traitorous rulers. Moscow agreed to the "withdrawal" of troops from Eastern Europe - in fact, it was a retreat, a defeat. We surrendered our positions in Eastern and Central Europe without a fight, for which the Russian people paid with millions of lives. Now our western "partners" are again in Kiev and Odessa, Vilno and Tallinn. Again, the cruel enemy comes to the close lines to strike at Kaliningrad, Leningrad-Petrograd, Moscow and Sevastopol.
The balance of equilibrium on the planet was lost, which again caused a series of violent conflicts, revolutions and wars. Now the world is again on the brink of a military-political catastrophe, a big war. The first hotbed of world war is already blazing in the Middle East.
