Yalta Conference

Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin sitting together at the Yalta Conference, on 11 February 1945.

Strategic conference held 4-11 February 1945 in Yalta (a Soviet holiday resort in the Crimea) by the main Allied leaders in World War II. At this, the second of three key meetings between the ‘Big Three’ - Winston Churchill (UK), Franklin D Roosevelt (USA), and Joseph Stalin (USSR) - plans were drawn up for the final defeat and disarmament of Nazi Germany, the post-war partition of Europe (see Cold War), and the foundation of the United Nations.

Other matters openly discussed at Yalta included the trial of Nazi war criminals, the future border between Russia and Poland, and the composition of a post-war Polish government. In addition, a secret protocol guaranteed the entry of the USSR into hostilities against Japan once the war in Europe was over. The other major series of talks between the Allied leaders during World War II took place in Tehran, Iran (November to December 1943), and Potsdam, Germany (July to August 1945).