75 years ago, on November 28, 1943, the Tehran Conference opened. This was the first meeting of the "Big Three" during the Second World War - the heads of the three great powers of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain: Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Background
The leaders of the great powers gathered in Tehran to resolve a number of difficult issues related to the continuation of the war against Nazi Germany, the post-war structure of Europe, and the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan. In Western Europe, there was nowhere to hold a meeting of the Big Three or it was dangerous. The Americans and British did not want to hold the conference on Soviet territory either. In August 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill informed Stalin that, in their opinion, neither Arkhangelsk nor Astrakhan were suitable for such a conference. They offered to hold a meeting in Alaska, Fairbanks. But Stalin refused to leave Moscow at such a distant distance at such a tense time. The Soviet leader proposed to hold a meeting in a state where there were representations of all three powers, for example, in Iran. In addition to Tehran, Cairo (proposed by Churchill), Istanbul and Baghdad were considered as "conference capitals". But they stopped at Tehran, since at that moment it was controlled by Soviet and British troops, there was also an American contingent here.
The Iranian operation (Operation Consent) was carried out by the Anglo-Soviet troops at the end of August - the first half of September 1941. Allied forces occupied Iran for a number of military-strategic and economic considerations (). Thus, the Iranian leadership in the pre-war years actively cooperated with the Third Reich, in Persia the ideology of Iranian nationalism was gaining strength. As a result, there was a real threat of Iran being drawn to the side of Germany as an ally in World War II and the appearance of German troops here. Iran became a German intelligence base, which threatened the interests of Great Britain and the USSR in the region. It became necessary to take control of the Iranian oil fields, preventing their possible seizure by the Germans. In addition, the USSR and Great Britain created a southern transport corridor through which the allies could support Russia as part of the Lend-Lease program.
Parts of the Red Army occupied Northern Iran (The myth of the "conquest war" of the USSR with the aim of capturing Iran). The intelligence departments of the Soviet 44th and 47th armies were actively working to eliminate German agents. British troops occupied the southwestern provinces of Iran. American troops, under the pretext of protecting cargo supplied to the Soviet Union, entered Iran at the end of 1942. Without any formalities, the Americans occupied the ports of Bandar Shahpur and Khorramshahr. An important communication line ran through Iranian territory, along which American strategic cargo was transferred to the USSR. In general, the situation in Iran was difficult, but controlled. In the Iranian capital, the Soviet 182nd Mountain Rifle Regiment was stationed, which guarded the most important objects (before the start of the conference, it was replaced with a more prepared unit). Most of the common Persians treated the Soviet people with respect. This facilitated the actions of Soviet intelligence, which easily found volunteers among the Iranians.
Stalin refused to fly by plane and left for the conference on November 22, 1943 on the letter train # 501, which proceeded through Stalingrad and Baku. Beria was personally responsible for traffic safety; he was traveling in a separate carriage. The delegation also included Molotov, Voroshilov, Shtemenko, the corresponding employees of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the General Staff. We took off from Baku on two planes. The first was controlled by an ace pilot, the commander of the 2nd Special Forces Air Division Viktor Grachev, Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov flew in the plane. Long-range aviation commander Alexander Golovanov personally flew the second aircraft.
Churchill left London for Cairo, where he was waiting for the American president, in order to once again coordinate the positions of the United States and Britain on the main issues of negotiations with the Soviet leader. Roosevelt crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the battleship Iowa, accompanied by a significant escort. They managed to avoid collisions with German submarines. After a nine-day sea passage, the American squadron arrived at the Algerian port of Oran. Then Roosevelt arrived in Cairo. On November 28, the delegations of the three great powers were already in the Iranian capital.
Due to the threat from German agents, large-scale measures were taken to ensure the safety of high-ranking guests. The government delegation of the USSR stopped at the territory of the Soviet embassy. The British settled on the territory of the British Embassy. British and Soviet diplomatic missions were located on opposite sides of the same street in the Iranian capital, no more than 50 meters wide. The American president, in connection with the terrorist threat, accepted the invitation to settle in the building of the Soviet embassy. The American embassy was located on the outskirts of the city, which seriously impaired the ability to create a tight security ring. The meetings were held at the Soviet embassy, where Churchill walked along a specially constructed covered corridor that connected the Soviet and British missions. Around the Soviet-British diplomatic complex united by this "security corridor", the Soviet and British special services created three rings of reinforced protection, backed up by armored vehicles. The entire press in Tehran stopped its activities, the telephone, telegraph and radio communications were cut off.
Germany, relying on numerous agents, tried to organize an assassination attempt on the leaders of the Big Three (Operation Long Jump). However, Soviet intelligence knew about this operation. In addition, Soviet intelligence officers, together with British colleagues from MI6, took bearings and deciphered all messages from German radio operators who were preparing a bridgehead for the landing of a sabotage group. The German radio operators were intercepted, and then the entire German spy network (more than 400 people) was taken. Some of them were recruited. The assassination attempt on the leaders of the USSR, the USA and England was prevented.
The leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Tehran Conference November 28-December 1, 1943.
From left to right: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR I. V. Stalin, US President F. D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill.
Soviet leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Standing from left to right: Adviser to the President of the United States Harry Hopkins, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov. Second from right is British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. Photo source:
Negotiation
Among the most important issues discussed in Tehran were: 1) the problem of opening a "second front" by the allies. This was the most difficult question. Britain and the United States in every possible way delayed the opening of a second front in Europe. In addition, Churchill wanted to open a "Balkan Front", with the participation of Turkey, so that, advancing across the Balkans, cut off the Red Army from the most important centers of Central Europe; 2) the Polish question - about the borders of Poland after the war; 3) the question of the entry of the USSR into the war with the Japanese Empire; 4) the issue of the future of Iran, granting it independence; 5) issues of the post-war structure of Europe - first of all, they decided the fate of Germany and ensuring security in the world after the war
The main problem was the decision to open the so-called."Second front", that is, the landing of Allied troops in Europe and the creation of the Western Front. This should have greatly accelerated the fall of Germany. After the strategic radical change in the Great Patriotic War, which took place during the Stalingrad and Kursk battles, the situation on the Eastern (Russian) front was favorable for the Red Army. German troops suffered irreparable losses and could no longer make up for them, and the German military-political leadership lost its strategic initiative in the war. The Wehrmacht went over to strategic defense. The Red Army pressed the enemy. However, victory was still far away, the Third Reich was still a formidable enemy with powerful armed forces and strong industry. The Germans controlled vast territories of the USSR and Eastern, South-Eastern, Central and Western Europe. The defeat of Germany and her allies could be accelerated only by the joint efforts of the three great powers.
The Allies promised to open a second front back in 1942, but a year passed and there was no progress. Militarily, the Allies were ready to start the operation by July-August 1943, when the fierce battle on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge was fought on the Eastern Front. In England, 500 thousand people were deployed. the expeditionary army, which was in full combat readiness, was provided with everything necessary, including ships and vessels for combat cover, fire support and landing. However, the front was not opened for geopolitical reasons. London and Washington were not going to help Moscow. Soviet intelligence found out that in 1943 the Allies would not open a second front in northern France. They will wait "until Germany is mortally wounded by the Russian offensive."
It must be remembered that London and Washington were the instigators of World War II. They nurtured Hitler, allowed the Nazis to take power, restore the military and economic might of the Reich, and allowed Berlin to crush most of Europe. The Third Reich was a "ram" of the masters of the West to crush Soviet civilization. London in secret negotiations promised Hitler that there would be no "second front" if Germany went "on a crusade to the East." Hence the wait-and-see policy of Britain and the United States in 1941-1943. The masters of the West planned that Germany would be able to crush the USSR, but during this duel of the titans it would be weakened, which would allow the Anglo-Saxons to appropriate all the fruits of victory in the world war. Only after it became obvious that Hitler's Germany would not be able to defeat Russia-USSR, London and Washington rushed to strengthen the alliance with Moscow in order to find themselves in the camp of victors in a scenario where the victory in the war is won by the Russians.
In addition, it became known that London and Washington have developed a strategic plan for an offensive from the south, on the approaches to Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. They planned to pull Italy out of the war by holding backstage talks with Italian politicians. Force Turkey to take its side and with its help open the way to the Balkans, launching an offensive in the fall. And wait until autumn, watch what is happening on the Russian front. The Anglo-American leadership believed that the Germans would launch a new strategic offensive on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1944, but after some successes they would again be stopped and driven back. Germany and the USSR will suffer huge losses and bleed their armed forces. At the same time, plans were being drawn up for the landing of allied forces in Sicily, Greece and Norway.
Thus, the masters of the West, until the last moment, expected that the USSR and Germany would be drained of blood during the titanic battle. This will allow Britain and the United States to act from a position of strength and dictate the terms of the post-war world order
The USA and England wanted to convince the USSR that the landing in the north of France was complicated by a lack of transport, which made it impossible to supply large military formations. Involvement of Turkey in the war and an offensive across the Balkan Peninsula is a more profitable scenario that will allow the allies to unite on Romanian territory and strike at Germany from a southern direction. Thus, Churchill wanted to cut off most of Europe from the USSR. In addition, the pace of the war slowed down, Germany was no longer threatened in the central strategic direction. This made it possible to work out new anti-Soviet scenarios and weaken the importance of the Red Army at the final stage of the war, when the battles will take place on German territory. In particular, the scenario of an anti-Hitler coup in Germany was being worked out, when the new German leadership realizes the hopelessness of the situation, capitulates and lets the Anglo-American troops in to save the country from the Red Army. After the war, they planned to create an anti-Soviet buffer from regimes hostile to the USSR in Finland, the Baltic States, Poland, Romania, and new Germany. In addition, the allies were hiding from Moscow their atomic project, which was not directed against the Third Reich and was supposed to make the Anglo-Saxons the complete masters of the planet after the end of World War II. However, in Moscow they knew about this, and prepared reciprocal moves.
After a long debate, the problem of opening a second front was at an impasse. Then Stalin expressed his readiness to leave the conference: “We have too many things to do at home to waste time here. Nothing good, as I see it, is turning out. Churchill realized that the issue could not be heated up any more, and he made a compromise. Roosevelt and Churchill promised the Soviet leader to open a second front in France no later than May 1944. The final time of the operation was planned to be determined in the first half of 1944. To mislead the German command about the place and the beginning of the landing of Anglo-American troops in Western Europe, it was planned to conduct an amphibious operation in southern France. Soviet troops during the Allied operation were to launch an offensive to prevent the transfer of German troops from east to west. Also, the allies agreed to take measures to provide assistance to the Yugoslav partisans.
I. Stalin, W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt at a banquet during the Tehran Conference. In the photo in the lower right corner there is a cake with candles on the table - 1943-30-11 in Tehran, Churchill celebrated his 69th birthday
Poland's future has also caused serious controversy. However, on a preliminary basis, they managed to agree that the eastern border of the Polish state would pass along the "Curzon Line". This line basically corresponded to the ethnographic principle: to the west of it there were territories with a predominance of the Polish population, to the east - lands with a predominance of the Western Russian and Lithuanian population. They decided to satisfy the territorial appetites of Warsaw at the expense of Germany (Prussia), which occupied significant Polish lands in the Middle Ages. Stalin rejected the claims of Roosevelt and Churchill for the recognition by Moscow of the Polish émigré government in London. The USA and England planned to plant their puppets in Poland. Moscow did not agree to this and declared that the USSR was separating Poland from the émigré government in England.
The Big Three adopted the Iran Declaration. The document underlined the desire of Moscow, Washington and London to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran. It was planned to withdraw the occupation troops after the end of the war. I must say that Stalin was not going to leave Iran in the clutches of the Anglo-Saxons. During his stay in Tehran, Stalin studied the general condition of the Iranian political elite, the influence of the British on it, and familiarized himself with the state of the army. It was decided to organize aviation and tank schools, transfer equipment to them in order to organize the training of Iranian personnel.
During the discussion of the post-war structure of Europe, the American president proposed to divide Germany after the war into 5 autonomous state formations and establish international control (in fact, England and the United States) over the most important German industrial regions - the Ruhr, Saar and others. Churchill also supported him. In addition, Churchill proposed to create the so-called. "Danube Federation" from the Danube countries, with the inclusion of the South German territories. In practice, Germany was offered to return to the past - to dismember it. This laid a real "mine" for the future structure of Europe. However, Stalin did not agree with this decision and proposed to transfer the German question to the European Consultative Commission. After the victory, the USSR received the right to annex a part of East Prussia as an indemnity. In the future, Stalin remained in the position of preserving the unity of Germany. Thus, Germany should be grateful to Russia for preserving the unity of the state and people.
American President Roosevelt proposed to create an international organization (this issue was previously discussed with Moscow) on the principles of the United Nations. This organization was supposed to provide a lasting peace after the Second World War. The committee, which was supposed to prevent the start of a new war and aggression from Germany and Japan, included the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China. Stalin and Churchill generally supported this idea.
We also agreed on the Japanese question. The Soviet delegation, taking into account the repeated violations by the Japanese Empire of the Soviet-Japanese treaty of 1941 on neutrality and assistance to Germany (plus the need for a historical revenge for 1904-1905), as well as meeting the wishes of the allies, declared that the USSR would enter the war with Japan after the final defeat of the Third Reich.
Thus, Stalin won a convincing diplomatic victory at the Tehran Conference. He did not let the "allies" push through the "southern strategy" - the allied offensive across the Balkans, forced the allies to promise to open a second front. The Polish question was resolved in the interests of Russia - the restoration of Poland was at the expense of the ethnically Polish regions, once occupied by the Germans. The emigrant Polish government, which was "under the hood" of England and the United States, Moscow did not recognize as legitimate. Stalin did not allow the killing and dismemberment of Germany, which was a historical injustice and created a zone of instability on the western borders of the USSR. Moscow benefited from a neutral, unified German state as a counterbalance to England and France. Stalin allowed himself to be “persuaded” about Japan, but, in fact, the lightning-fast operation against the Japanese was in the strategic interests of Russia-USSR. Stalin took a historical revenge on Russia for the war of 1904-1905, returned the lost territories and strengthened the military-strategic and economic positions of the USSR in the Asia-Pacific region. During the war with Japan, the Soviet Union gained powerful positions on the Korean Peninsula and in China.
