Yalta Conference The Yalta Conference , sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference , held February 4 – 11 , 1945 , was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States , the United Kingdom , and the Soviet Union , represented by President Franklin D . Roosevelt , Prime Minister Winston Churchill , and General Secretary Joseph Stalin , respectively , for the purpose of discussing Europe ' s post - war reorganization . The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta , in Crimea . The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re - establishment of the nations of war - torn Europe . Within a few years , with the Cold War dividing the continent , Yalta became a subject of intense controversy . To some extent , it has remained controversial . Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three ( Britain , United States , and Soviet Union ) which were respectively represented by Churchill , Roosevelt and Stalin . It had been preceded by the Tehran Conference in 1943 , and was followed by the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 , which was attended by Stalin , Churchill ( who was replaced midpoint by the newly elected British Prime Minister Clement Attlee ) , and Harry S Truman , who had replaced the late President Roosevelt . The conference . All three leaders were trying to establish an agenda for governing post - war Europe . On the Eastern Front , the front line at the end of December 1943 remained in the Soviet Union , but , by August 1944 , Soviet forces were inside Poland and parts of Romania in their relentless drive west . By the time of the Conference , Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov ' s forces were from Berlin . Stalin ' s position at the conference was one which he felt was so strong that he could dictate terms . As U . S . delegation member and future Secretary of State James F . Byrnes commented , " [ i ] t was not a question of what we would let the Russians do , but what we could get the Russians to do . " Moreover , Roosevelt had hoped for Stalin ' s commitment to participate in the UN . Premier Stalin , insisting that his doctors opposed any long trips , rejected Roosevelt ' s suggestion to meet at the Mediterranean . He offered , instead , to meet at the Black Sea resort of Yalta , in the Crimea . Each leader had an agenda for the Yalta Conference : Roosevelt wanted Soviet support in the U . S . Pacific War against Japan , specifically invading Japan , as well as Soviet participation in the United Nations ; Churchill pressed for free elections and democratic governments in Eastern and Central Europe ( specifically Poland ) ; and Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Eastern and Central Europe , an essential aspect of the USSR ' s national security strategy . Poland was the first item on the Soviet agenda . Stalin stated that " For the Soviet government , the question of Poland was one of honor " and security because Poland had served as a historical corridor for forces attempting to invade Russia . In addition , Stalin stated regarding history that " because the Russians had greatly sinned against Poland " , " the Soviet government was those sins . " Stalin concluded that " Poland must be strong " and that " the Soviet Union is interested in the creation of a mighty , free and independent Poland . " Accordingly , Stalin stipulated that Polish government - in - exile demands were not negotiable : the Soviet Union would keep the territory of eastern Poland they had already annexed in 1939 , and Poland was to be compensated for that by extending its western borders at the expense of Germany . Comporting with his prior statement , Stalin promised free elections in Poland despite the Soviet sponsored provisional government recently installed by him in Polish territories occupied by the Red Army . Roosevelt wanted the USSR to enter the Pacific War with the Allies . One Soviet precondition for a declaration of war against Japan was an American recognition of Mongolian independence from China , and a recognition of Soviet interests in the Manchurian railways and Port Arthur ; these were agreed without Chinese representation or consent . Stalin agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the Pacific War three months after the defeat of Germany . Furthermore , the Soviets had agreed to join the United Nations , given the secret understanding of a voting formula with a veto power for permanent members of the Security Council , thus ensuring that each country could block unwanted decisions . At the time , the Red Army had occupied Poland completely and held much of Eastern Europe with a military three times greater than Allied forces in the West . The Declaration of Liberated Europe did little to dispel the sphere of influence agreements that had been incorporated into armistice agreements . All three leaders ratified previous agreements about the post - war occupation zones for Germany : three zones of occupation , one for each of the three principal Allies : The Soviet Union , the United Kingdom , and the United States . They also agreed to give France a zone of occupation , carved out of the US and the UK zones . Also , the Big Three agreed that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries ( with the exception of the French government , which was regarded as collaborationist ; in Romania and Bulgaria , where the Soviets had already liquidated most of the governments ; the Polish government - in - exile was also excluded by Stalin ) and that all civilians would be repatriated . Key points . Key points of the meeting are as follows : Democratic elections . The Big Three further agreed that democracies would be established , all liberated European and former Axis satellite countries would hold free elections and that order would be restored . In that regard , they promised to rebuild occupied countries by processes that will allow them " to create democratic institutions of their own choice . This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter – the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live " . The report that resulted stated that the three would assist occupied countries to form interim government that " pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of the Governments responsive to the will of the people " and to " facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections . " The agreement called on signatories to " consult together on the measures necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in this declaration . " During the Yalta discussions , Molotov inserted language that weakened the implication of enforcement of the declaration . Regarding Poland , the Yalta report further stated that the provisional government should " be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and secret ballot . " The agreement could not conceal the importance of acceding to pro - Soviet short - term Lublin government control and of eliminating language calling for supervised elections . According to President Roosevelt , " if we attempt to evade the fact that we placed somewhat more emphasis on the Lublin Poles than on the other two groups from which the new government is to be drawn I feel we will expose ourselves to the charges that we are attempting to go back on the Crimea decision . " Roosevelt conceded that , in the words of Admiral William D . Leahy , the language of Yalta was so vague that the Soviets would be able to " stretch it all the way from Yalta to Washington without ever technically breaking it . " The final agreement stipulated that " the Provisional Government which is now functioning in Poland should therefore be reorganized on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland and from Poles abroad . " The language of Yalta conceded predominance of the pro - Soviet Lublin Government in a provisional government , albeit a reorganized one . Aftermath . Poland and the Eastern Bloc . Although suspicious of Stalin , even Churchill believed that , because of Stalin ' s strong promises and admission of guilt over Poland , that Stalin might keep his word regarding Poland , remarking " Poor Neville Chamberlain believed he could trust Hitler . He was wrong . But I don ' t think I ' m wrong about Stalin . " At that time , over 200 , 000 soldiers of the Polish Armed Forces in the West were serving under the high command of the British Army . Many of these men and women were originally from the Kresy region of eastern Poland including cities such as Lwow and Wilno . They had been deported from Kresy to the eastern regions of Russia , or sent to Gulags when the USSR occupied this region of Poland in 1939 . Two years later , when Churchill and Stalin formed an alliance against Hitler , the Kresy Poles were released from the Gulags in Siberia , formed the Anders Army and marched to Persia to create the II Corps ( Poland ) under British high command . These Polish troops were instrumental to the Allied defeat of the Germans in North Africa and Italy , and hoped to return to their homes in Kresy in an independent and democratic Poland at the end of the War . But at Yalta , Roosevelt and Churchill largely conceded to Stalin ' s demands to annex the territory which in the Nazi - Soviet Pact he and Hitler had agreed to the Soviet Union controlling , including Kresy , and to carry out Polish population transfers ( 1944 – 1946 ) . Consequently , they had agreed that tens of thousands of veteran Polish troops under British command should lose their Kresy homes to the Soviet Union . In reaction , thirty officers and men from the II Corps ( Poland ) committed suicide . Churchill defended his actions at Yalta in a three - day Parliament army debate starting February 27 , 1945 , which ended in a vote of confidence . During the debate , many MPs openly criticised Churchill and passionately voiced loyalty to Britain ' s Polish allies and expressed deep reservations about Yalta . Moreover , 25 of these MPs risked their careers to draft an amendment protesting against Britain ' s tacit acceptance of Poland ' s domination by the Soviet Union . These members included : Arthur Greenwood ; Sir Archibald Southby , 1st Baronet ; Sir Alec Douglas - Home ; James Heathcote - Drummond - Willoughby , 3rd Earl of Ancaster and Victor Raikes . After the failure of the amendment , Henry Strauss , 1st Baron Conesford , the Member of Parliament for Norwich , resigned his seat in protest at the British treatment of Poland . When the Second World War ended , a Communist government was installed in Poland . Most Poles felt betrayed by their wartime allies . Many Polish soldiers refused to return to Poland , because of the Soviet repressions of Polish citizens ( 1939 – 1946 ) , the Trial of the Sixteen and other executions of pro - Western Poles , particularly the former members of the AK ( Armia Krajowa ) . The result was the Polish Resettlement Act 1947 , Britain ' s first mass immigration law . March 1 , Roosevelt assured Congress that " I come from the Crimea with a firm belief that we have made a start on the road to a world of peace . " However , the Western Powers soon realized that Stalin would not honor his free elections promise regarding Poland . After receiving considerable criticism in London following Yalta regarding the atrocities committed in Poland by Soviet troops , Churchill wrote Roosevelt a desperate letter referencing the wholesale deportations and liquidations of opposition Poles by the Soviets . On March 11 , Roosevelt responded to Churchill , writing , " I most certainly agree that we must stand firm on a correct interpretation of the Crimean decision . You are quite correct in assuming that neither the Government nor the people of this country will support participation in a fraud or a mere whitewash of the Lublin government and the solution must be as we envisaged it in Yalta . " By March 21 , Roosevelt ' s Ambassador to the USSR Averell Harriman cabled Roosevelt that " we must come clearly to realize that the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism , ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it . " Two days later , Roosevelt began to admit that his view of Stalin had been excessively optimistic and that " Averell is right . " Four days later , on March 27 , the Soviet Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs ( NKVD ) arrested 16 Polish opposition political leaders that had been invited to participate in provisional government negotiations . The arrests were part of a trick employed by the NKVD , which flew the leaders to Moscow for a later show trial followed by sentencing to a gulag . Churchill thereafter argued to Roosevelt that it was " as plain as a pike staff " that Moscow ' s tactics were to drag out the period for holding free elections " while the Lublin Committee consolidate their power . " The fraudulent Polish elections , held on January 16 , 1947 , resulted in Poland ' s official transformation to communist state by 1949 . Following Yalta , in Russia , when Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov expressed worry that the Yalta Agreement ' s wording might impede Stalin ' s plans , Stalin responded " Never mind . We ' ll do it our own way later . " While the Soviet Union had already annexed several occupied countries as ( or into ) Soviet Socialist Republics , other countries in eastern Europe that it occupied were converted into Soviet - controlled satellite state s , such as the People ' s Republic of Poland , the People ' s Republic of Hungary , the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic , the People ' s Republic of Romania , the People ' s Republic of Bulgaria , the People ' s Republic of Albania , and later East Germany from the Soviet zone of German occupation . Eventually the United States and the United Kingdom made concessions in recognizing the then Communist - dominated regions , sacrificing the substance of the Yalta Declaration , while it remained in form . Potsdam and the atomic bomb . The Potsdam Conference was held from July to August 1945 , which included the participation of Clement Attlee , who had replaced Churchill as Prime Minister . At Potsdam , the Soviets denied claims that they were interfering in the affairs of Romania , Bulgaria , and Hungary . The conference resulted in ( 1 ) the Potsdam Declaration regarding the surrender of Japan , and ( 2 ) the Potsdam Agreement regarding the Soviet annexation of former Polish territory east of the Curzon Line , and , provisions , to be addressed in an eventual Final Treaty ending World War II , for the annexation of parts of Germany east of the Oder - Neisse line into Poland , and northern East Prussia into the Soviet Union . Four months after the death of Roosevelt , President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 , 1945 .