Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Meeting between stalin , churchill , and President Roosevelt February 4–11, 1945. Following the tehran conference of 1943, these negotiations in the Crimea occurred when victory in Europe at the end of world war ii was in sight. Although coordination of the final advances into Germany formed part of the agenda, the “Big Three” were now beginning to focus more sharply on the political and diplomatic issues surrounding their impending defeat of hitler . They made some progress on the zonal occupation arrangements for Germany and Austria, including reversal of the anschluss and provision for French participation in the relevant Allied Control Commissions. With much of eastern Europe already controlled by the red army , the soviet union won acquiescence for a reconfigured map of poland , bounded by the 1920 curzon line to the east and (at least as a de facto expedient) by the oder-neisse line to the west. The Americans and British also agreed that all Soviet citizens falling into their hands be returned to Russia – a potentially murderous concession that continued to fuel recriminations long after the war's end. Yalta also produced a Declaration on Liberated Europe. While this reflected the Allied leaders’ shared rhetorical commitment to democracy, it could not bridge the gulf that existed in the practical meaning of popular authority and “free elections” as between ... log in or subscribe to read full text