The Three Conferences

Question 1

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

In what order, including the dates and attenders, did the conferences occur?

Answer 1

1. Tehran Conference, November 1943: Roosevelt (USA), Churchill (Britain), Stalin (USSR).
2. Yalta Conference, February 1945: Roosevelt (USA), Churchill (Britain), Stalin (USSR).
3. Potsdam Conference, July/August 1945: Truman (USA), Churchill ⟶ Attlee (Britain), Stalin (USSR).

Question 2

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the tensions before, during and after the Tehran conference?

Answer 2

Before

• Stalin was annoyed and convinced that Britain and USA were delaying a ‘second-front’, waiting for the Soviet Union to become seriously damaged before intervening.
• Churchill was suspicious, of Stalin’s intentions towards eastern Europe, especially Poland, and convinced that Soviet troops would remain in German-liberated countries.

During

• Stalin was mostly satisfied as Roosevelt ended up siding with Stalin more often than Churchill (e.g. Allied invasion through Balkans, preventing the Red Army from taking over Eastern Europe, was rejected).

After

• August 1944: Soviet troops halted and watched, at the fringe of Warsaw, Poland get brutally crushed by German troops, after an attempted revolt against German occupation, leaving the Poles defenceless against Soviet occupation.

Question 3

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the main consequences (agreements) made in the Tehran conference?

Answer 3

• Britain and the USA agreed to open a second-front by invading France in May 1944.
• The USSR was to wage war against Japan once Germany had been defeated.
• A United Nations organisation was to be formed after the end of the war.
• An area of Eastern Poland was to be added to the Soviet Union; Post-war Poland’s border were to be at the border of the oder and Neisse River, as insisted by Stalin.

Question 4

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the tensions before and after the Tehran conference?

Answer 4

Before

• Stalin insisted that Germany were to pay huge reparations, but both Churchill and Roosevelt agreed that it was not sensible to punish Germany too harshly.
• Churchill felt isolated for most of the conference as Stalin and Roosevelt seemingly had a warm relationship.

After

• This was the last conference with the Big Three as Roosevelt died and Churchill had lost a general election.

Question 5

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the main consequences (agreements) made in the Yalta conference?

Answer 5

• The USSR would enter the war against Japan once Germany surrendered.
• Germany and Berlin was to be divided into four zones, occupied by the USSR, the USA, Britain, and France.
• Nazi war criminals were to be found and tried in an international court of justice.
• German-liberated countries allowed to have free elections to choose the government they wanted.
• The USA, USSR, and Britain would join the United Nations organisation to maintain post-war peace.
• Eastern-Europe would be a Soviet ‘sphere of influence’.

Question 6

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the main consequences (disagreements) made in the Yalta conference?

Answer 6

• Reparation costs couldn’t be agreed on and were delayed until the next conference as Stalin wanted higher reparation costs than both Churchill and Roosevelt.
• Stalin wanted the Polish/German borders to be much further west than the western powers.
• Stalin wanted a ‘friendly’ Polish government, which the western powers feared to be a Soviet-controlled government, to protect his country - they induced him to agree to allow free elections in Poland.

Question 7

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the tensions before and during the Potsdam conference?

Answer 7

Before

• Soviet troops liberated German-occupied countries but did not remove their military presence occupying Hungary, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, and Romania (etc.) by July.
• Stalin set up a communist government in Poland as a defence from any future invasions, going against most of the Poles’ wishes and the agreements made at the Yalta Conference.
• The USSR refused to cut down his armed forces, continuing to expand them after the war, even though there was demilitarisation in the West.
• (April 1945): Roosevelt died and was replan by his vice-president, Truman who distrusted Stalin, wiling to stand up to him, convinced that the USSR wanted to take over all Europe.
• A day before the conference, the USA successfully tested atomic bomb.

During

• Churchill lost the general election and was replaced by Attlee
• Truman informed Stalin of their successful atomic bomb testing; Stalin was furious not to have been told before hand.

Question 8

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the main consequences (agreements) made in the Potsdam conference?

Answer 8

• Germany and Berlin was to be divided into four zones, occupied by the USSR (in the East) and the USA, Britain, and France (in the West), as agreed before.
• Germany was to be demilitarised.
• Democracy was to be re-established in Germany (e.g. free elections, a free press, and freedom of speech).
• Germany was to pay reparations to the Allies in material and equipment; The USSR would receive 25% of the industrial goods made in the western zones in exchange of coal and food in the Soviet zones.
• The Nazi Party was banned; Nazis were removed from leading positions, and leading Nazis were charged of war crimes (Nuremberg, 1946).
• Full participation in the United Nations organisation.
• Poland’s frontiers to be moved westwards to the Oder and Neisse river.

Question 11

^{The Grand Alliance; The outcomes of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.}

What were the main consequences (disagreements) made in the Potsdam conference?

Answer 11

• Stalin wanted Germany to pay massive compensations for the casualties, and to keep them weak, preventing future threats; Truman disagreed, wanting Germany to be ‘revived’, so that it may be a possible barrier to future Soviet expansion, and to not suffer like they did with the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which many Germans hated.
• Stalin refused Truman’s want for free elections in the eastern countries occupied by Soviet troops, seeing it as an unwelcome interference; Truman was furious and began a ‘get tough’ policy against the USSR.