The Japanese name for Japan, Nihon (日本), consists of two parts - ni (日) and hon (本), both of which are Sinicisms. The first word (日) in modern Chinese is pronounced rì and, as in Japanese, means “sun” (represented in writing by its ideogram). The second word (本) in modern Chinese is pronounced bӗn. Its original meaning is "root", and the ideogram representing it is the ideogram of the tree mù (木) with a dash added at the bottom to indicate the root. From the meaning of “root” the meaning of “origin” developed, and it was in this sense that it entered the name of Japan Nihon (日本) – “origin of the sun” > “land of the rising sun” (modern Chinese rì bӗn). In ancient Chinese, the word bӗn (本) also had the meaning of “scroll, book.” In modern Chinese it is replaced in this sense by the word shū (書), but remains in it as a counting word for books. The Chinese word bӗn (本) was borrowed into Japanese both in the sense of "root, origin" and "scroll, book", and in the form hon (本) means book in modern Japanese. The same Chinese word bӗn (本) meaning “scroll, book” was also borrowed into the ancient Turkic language, where, after adding the Turkic suffix -ig, it acquired the form *küjnig. The Türks brought this word to Europe, where it from the language of the Danube Turkic-speaking Bulgars in the form knig entered the language of the Slavic-speaking Bulgarians and, through Church Slavonic, spread to other Slavic languages, including Russian.

Thus, Russian word book and the Japanese word hon "book" share a common root of Chinese origin, and the same root appears as the second component in the Japanese name for Japan Nihon.

I hope everything is clear?)))

From February 4 to February 12, 1945, a conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - took place in Crimea. The Soviet delegation was headed by I.V. Stalin, American - F. Roosevelt, English - W. Churchill. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. took part. Molotov, US Secretary of State E. Stettinius, British Foreign Secretary A. Eden, as well as the chiefs of general staff and advisers of the countries participating in the conference.

The question of a summit meeting was first raised by F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill in July 1944. The final date and place of the meeting were determined in further correspondence between the leaders of the three powers. F. Roosevelt's nomination of his candidacy for a new presidential term, his participation in the election campaign and taking office made it impossible to open the conference before the beginning of February 1945.

The US President suggested Northern Scotland, Cyprus, Athens or Malta as a meeting place, the British Prime Minister - Alexandria or Jerusalem. I.V. Stalin vigorously defended his proposal: the southern coast of Crimea, and in the end he managed to convince the allies that the Soviet government was able to ensure complete security for the conference.

Meeting " big three"took place at the final stage of the Second World War. As a result of the successful offensive actions of the Red Army, the territory of our country, most of Poland, was completely liberated, our divisions entered German territory. On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed in northern France, the long-awaited second front opened, the anti-fascist movement in the occupied countries was gaining strength, and the situation in the Pacific theater of operations changed for the better.

On Crimean Conference The Allied powers agreed on joint military measures for the final defeat of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, determined their attitude towards Germany after its unconditional surrender and outlined the basic principles of a common policy regarding the post-war organization of the world.

The leaders of the Allied Powers solemnly declared: “It is our unyielding goal to destroy German militarism and Nazism and to ensure that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world. We are determined to disarm and disband all German armed forces, to destroy once and for all the German General Staff, which has repeatedly contributed to the revival of German militarism, to confiscate or destroy all German military equipment, to liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for military purposes. production; to subject all war criminals to just and speedy punishment... to wipe out the Nazi Party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions from the face of the earth; eliminate all Nazi and militaristic influence from public institutions, from the cultural and economic life of the German people...”

It was emphasized that after the eradication of Nazism and militarism, the German people would be able to take their rightful place in the community of nations.

The most important issue at the Crimean Conference was the creation of the United Nations. The agreement on the voting procedure in the Security Council (the “Yalta Formula”) took into account the principle of unanimity of the permanent members of the Council, defended by the Soviet delegation, when making decisions on all issues related to ensuring peace and security. The communiqué adopted at Yalta emphasized that the United Nations would play an important role “both in preventing aggression and in eliminating the political, economic and social causes of war through close and constant cooperation of all peace-loving peoples.”

In the context of discussing UN issues, the Soviet delegation obtained the consent of the United States and Great Britain for the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR to become founding members of the international organization being created.

The “Declaration of a Liberated Europe” emphasized the desire of the Allied powers to coordinate their actions in solving the political and economic problems of a liberated Europe. The declaration stated: “The establishment of order in Europe and the reconstruction of national economic life must be achieved in such a way as will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last traces of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice.” It was stated that, in accordance with the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they would live, the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government should be ensured to those peoples who had been deprived of this by aggressive states through violence. The determination, together with other peace-loving countries, to create an international legal order consistent with peace, security, freedom and the general welfare of mankind was confirmed.

At Yalta, the Allied Powers reaffirmed their desire to see Poland strong, free, independent and democratic and to guarantee its security. As a result of decisions taken in Yalta and later in Potsdam, Poland received a significant increase in its territory in the north and west.

At the Crimea Conference, the Soviet Union committed itself to entering the war against Japan two to three months after the end of the war in Europe. At the same time, the following conditions were set: maintaining the status of Outer Mongolia (Mongolian People's Republic); restoration of Russian rights violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904, including the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of Sakhalin Island and all adjacent islands; transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union. The leaders of the three great powers agreed that these conditions of the Soviet Union "must be unconditionally satisfied after the victory over Japan."

The conference communique noted “the determination to preserve and strengthen in the coming period of peace that unity of purpose and action which has made victory in modern war possible and certain for the United Nations.”

The Crimean Conference, along with the Potsdam Conference, marked the end of the largest historical geopolitical conflict and determined the political appearance of the world in the second half of the 20th century. A system of international relations emerged, which, based on a new balance of forces, predetermined the need to take into account the interests of the two superpowers, which, in turn, gave international processes a high degree of controllability.

The decisions of the Crimean Conference reflected the reasonable and realistic policy of statesmen of the three powers. They showed high negotiability, made compromises without hiding political differences, agreed on rules of conduct and achieved a relative balance that kept the world in relative stability for almost fifty years.

The Yalta agreements are an invaluable methodological experience from the point of view of harmonizing the current and future international order. The decisions adopted in Yalta in concentrated form embodied the many years of experience of peoples in their struggle against fascism and militarism. The success of the conference was greatly facilitated by the measures taken by the Soviet leadership aimed at enhancing international relations, which contributed to the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition, the growth of trust in the Soviet Union and its international authority.

A major role in this process was played by the Soviet diplomatic service, whose activities during the war, according to the well-known expression of I.V. Stalin, was equal to the efforts of 20 divisions at the front. The struggle for the comprehensive and complete implementation of the decisions of the Crimean Conference became one of the main tasks of Soviet diplomacy not only in wartime, but also in the post-war years.

In conditions when the controversy surrounding the Yalta agreements remains part of the modern political struggle on the cardinal problems of war and peace, Russian diplomacy makes full use of its resources, repelling fabrications about alleged Soviet and Russian “violations” of the Yalta agreements or about the “unilateral benefit” of the Yalta decisions for our country. She is actively promoting a course to strengthen international peace, general security and stability in order to establish a fair and democratic international system based on collective principles in solving international problems, on the supremacy of international law, primarily on the provisions of the UN Charter, as well as on equal and partnership relations between states with the central coordinating role of the UN as the main organization regulating international relations.

Letter from the US Ambassador to the USSR W.A. Harriman to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov with a proposal to J.V. Stalin to designate the upcoming meeting of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in Yalta with the code name "Argonaut".
January 8, 1945

Letter from the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov to the US Ambassador to the USSR W.A. Harriman about J.V. Stalin's agreement with the choice of the code name "Argonaut" for the upcoming meeting of the leaders of the three allied powers.
January 10, 1945

List of persons accompanying I.V. Stalin at the Crimean Conference.
January 1945

List of people who attended dinner with I.V. Stalin in the Yusupov Palace.
February 8, 1945

Lunch menu at the Vorontsov Palace with autographs of J.V. Stalin, W. Churchill and F.D. Roosevelt.
February 10, 1945

Protocol of the Crimean Conference" with signatures - E.R. Stettinius, V.M. Molotov and A. Eden (first and last page).
February 11, 1945

Or the meeting of the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, all researchers and historians call historical. It was there, from February 4 to February 11, 1945, that a number of decisions were made that determined the structure of Europe and the world as a whole for decades to come.

Not Malta, not Sicily, not Rome. To Yalta!

The first meeting of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill took place in November 1943 in Tehran. It determined the preliminary dates for the Allied landings in Europe in 1944.

Immediately after Tehran-43 and the landing of allied troops in France in June 1944, the heads of the three states began to test the waters about holding a meeting in personal correspondence. According to historians, he was the first to raise the topic of new conference, or as they say now, the summit, US President Franklin Roosevelt. In one of his messages to Stalin, he writes: “a meeting should soon be arranged between you, the Prime Minister and me. Mr. Churchill completely agrees with this idea.”

The meeting was originally supposed to be held in Northern Scotland, Ireland, then on the island of Malta. Possible meeting places also included Cairo, Athens, Rome, Sicily and Jerusalem. However, the Soviet side, despite the objections of the Americans, insisted on holding the conference on its territory.

Churchill, like the Americans, did not want to go to Crimea and noted in a letter to Roosevelt that “the climate and conditions there are terrible.”

Nevertheless, the southern coast of Crimea and specifically Yalta, which was less destroyed after the occupation, were chosen as the meeting place.

"Eureka" and "Argonaut"

What Stalin allowed the British Prime Minister, who did not want to go to Crimea, was to give the code name for the conference, which was mentioned in secret correspondence. Namely "Argonaut". Grumpy Churchill proposed this name, as if drawing a parallel between the ancient heroes of ancient Greek myths, who went to the Black Sea region for the Golden Fleece, and the participants of the Yalta Conference, who went to almost the same places, but the “Golden Fleece” for them would be the future of the world and the division of spheres of influence .

Greek mythology hovered invisibly in the relations of the Big Three. It is no coincidence that the Tehran meeting of 1943 was held under the code name “Eureka”. According to legend, it was with this legendary exclamation (“Found!”) that Archimedes of Syracuse discovered the law that “on a body immersed in a liquid...”.

It is no coincidence that Tehran-43 showed a convergence of the positions of the heads of the three great powers, who really found mutual language and ways to full cooperation.

Airplanes, anti-aircraft guns, ships and armored trains: safety comes first

Although in February 1945 the war was in its final stages, increased attention was paid to the security of the participants in the Yalta Conference.

According to the Russian writer and historian Alexander Shirokorad, which he cites in his publication in the Independent Military Review, thousands of Soviet, American and British security and safety officers, ships and aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet and the US Navy were involved to ensure the safe conduct of the meeting. Great Britain. On the US side, Marine Corps units took part in protecting the President.

The air defense of the Saki airfield alone, which hosted the delegation, consisted of more than 200 anti-aircraft guns. The batteries were designed to conduct seven-layer fire at a height of up to 9000 m, aimed fire at a height of 4000 m and barrage fire at a distance of up to 5 km to the airfield. Over 150 Soviet fighters covered the sky above him.

In Yalta, 76 anti-aircraft guns and almost 300 anti-aircraft machine guns and heavy machine guns were deployed. Any aircraft that appeared over the conference area was to be shot down immediately.

Highway security was provided by personnel at seven checkpoints consisting of more than 2 thousand people.

As motorcades of delegations participating in the conference passed along the entire route, all other traffic was stopped, and residents were evicted from residential buildings and apartments overlooking the route; state security officers took their place. About five NKVD regiments and even several armored trains were additionally transferred to Crimea to ensure security.

To protect Stalin, together with the Soviet delegation in the Yusupov Palace in the village of Koreiz, 100 state security officers and a battalion of 500 NKVD troops were allocated. For foreign delegations arriving with their own guards and security services, the Soviet side allocated external guards and commandants for the premises they occupied. Soviet automobile units were allocated to each foreign delegation.

There is no reliable information that Hitler intended to assassinate his opponents in Crimea. And he had no time for that then, when Soviet troops were already a hundred kilometers from the walls of Berlin.

Russian hospitality: caviar with cognac, but without bird's milk

Saki airfield became the main airfield for receiving delegations arriving in Crimea. The airfields of Sarabuz near Simferopol, Gelendzhik and Odessa were considered as reserves.

Stalin and a delegation of the Soviet government arrived in Simferopol by train on February 1, after which they went by car to Yalta.

Churchill's and Roosevelt's planes landed in Saki about an hour apart. Here they were met by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov and other high-ranking officials of the USSR. In total, 700 people who were part of the official delegations of the United States and Great Britain at meetings with Stalin were brought to Crimea from Malta, where the meeting between the American president and the British prime minister took place the day before.

According to the first researcher of informal nuances Yalta meeting, Crimean historian and local historian Vladimir Gurkovich, with whom a RIA Novosti correspondent (Crimea) spoke, the allied delegations were greeted with great fanfare. In addition to the mandatory guards of honor and other honors in this case, the Soviet side also arranged a grand reception not far from the airfield.

In particular, three large tents were set up, where there were tables with glasses of sweet tea with lemon, bottles of vodka, cognac, champagne, plates with caviar, smoked sturgeon and salmon, cheese, boiled eggs, black and white bread. This is despite the fact that food cards were still in effect in the USSR, and Crimea was liberated from the occupiers less than a year ago.

Gurkovich's book about everyday and unofficial details of the Yalta Conference was published in 1995 and became the first such publication on this topic. The local historian collected evidence from participants in the events who were still alive at that time: security guards - NKVD employees, cooks, waiters, pilots providing " clear sky"over Crimea.

He says that, according to the testimony of one of the cooks who prepared dishes for the reception at the Saki airfield, there were no restrictions on food and drinks.

“Everything had to be at the highest level, and our country had to confirm this level. And the tables were really bursting with all kinds of delicacies,” notes the Crimean local historian.

And this is only on the tables of official delegations. And American and English pilots were received at the Saki military sanatorium named after Pirogov, where about 600 places were prepared for them. Russian hospitality was evident here too. They were prepared according to a menu approved by a special order of the Chief of Logistics of the Black Sea Fleet. According to eyewitnesses, the tables were also laden with abundance: they had everything on them except bird's milk.

Churchill smoked a cigar in Simferopol, and Stalin shaved in Alushta

In fact, this stop of the British Prime Minister in Simferopol, at 15 Schmidt Street, cannot be called secret. Along the route of the motorcades from Sak, several places for possible rest stops were provided. One of them was in Simferopol, and the second in Alushta. The first of them was used by Churchill on the way to Yalta, and the second by Stalin.

The house on Shmidt Street in Simferopol was previously a reception house, or otherwise the hotel of the Council of People's Commissars of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. During the occupation, high-ranking Wehrmacht officers lived there, so the building and interior were quite well maintained and ready to receive distinguished guests.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a famous lover of cognac and cigars, which he consumed without sparing his health. During the flight from Malta, which is quite a long journey, he sent a telegram to Stalin that he was already on the flight and had “already had breakfast.” And at the airfield in Saki, the allies were greeted with no less warm hospitality, with Armenian cognac and champagne for the British prime minister.

As Vladimir Gurkovich notes, there is nothing unusual about Churchill’s stop in Simferopol. He most likely needed time to “come to his senses, think and smoke a cigar once again.” And he stayed in guest house no more than an hour, and indeed, going out onto the balcony, according to one of the state security officers, he smoked a traditional cigar.

Gurkovich also cites data that the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, after arriving in Crimea, stayed in Alushta - at the so-called "Golubka" dacha of retired tsarist general Golubov, on the first floor. “Here he rested and shaved,” testified the archival recording found by Gurkovich.

“Dove” is also notable for the fact that it was here that the future heir to the throne Nikolai Alexandrovich (Nicholas II) and his future wife Alexandra Fedorovna stayed in 1894, after the blessing of their marriage by Emperor Alexander III, who was dying in Livadia.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt from Sac immediately went to the Livadia Palace without stopping.

Roosevelt and Churchill, after the conference, visited Sevastopol, which was in ruins. And the British prime minister visited Balaklava, where one of his ancestors died in the Crimean War (the first defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855). However, he does not mention this trip in his memoirs.

Stalin to the Yusupovs, Roosevelt to the Romanovs, Churchill to the Vorontsovs

The main venue for the meeting was Livadia, the former estate of Russian emperors, starting with Alexander II. The well-known Livadia Palace was built in 1911 by the architect Nikolai Krasnov for the last of the Romanovs, Nicholas II.

It was the Livadia Palace that was designated the main residence of the US delegation at the negotiations, headed by Roosevelt. The President of the United States had been confined to a wheelchair since 1921 due to polio and had limited mobility. Therefore, Stalin, in order not to once again put Roosevelt’s health at risk and to create comfortable conditions for him, appointed Livadia for work - both to accommodate the US delegation and the meetings of the Big Three summit.

Churchill and the British delegation received the no less luxurious palace of the Governor-General of Novorossiya, Count Vorontsov, in Alupka, which was built according to the design of the English architect Edward Blore.

Stalin chose the palace of Prince Yusupov in Koreiz for his residence.

A number of researchers note that this location was allegedly chosen not by chance: Koreiz is located between Alupka and Livadia, and Stalin could observe all the movements of the allies.

To put it mildly, this is not true, or not entirely true. The surveillance and wiretapping services of the Soviet state security worked at a high level, so it is unlikely that Stalin would have pulled back the curtain and observed the frequency with which motorcades traveled between the British and American residences.

Furniture and food were delivered in trains

The palaces of the South Coast looked very deplorable after the occupation. The Germans tried to take away all the most valuable furnishings and decorations. Therefore, enormous efforts were made on the Soviet side to make the conference as comfortable as possible.

Suffice it to say that for this purpose, over 1,500 wagons of equipment, building materials, furniture, sets, kitchen utensils and food were delivered to Crimea.

20 thousand working days were spent on repairing the Livadia Palace alone. Air-raid shelters were built in Livadia, as well as in Koreiz and Alupka, since the possibility of an enemy air raid could not be ruled out.

Roosevelt, who was wary of going to the summit, was nonetheless delighted with the design of his apartment. Everything was to his taste: the curtains on the windows, the draperies on the doors, the bedspreads on his and his daughter’s beds, and even the telephones in all the rooms were blue. This color was Roosevelt's favorite color and, as he put it, "caressed his blue eyes."

In the White Hall of the palace, where the main meetings of the conference took place, a round table was installed for negotiations between the Big Three. For the working needs of the members of the delegations, a former billiard room was prepared, where most of the documents were signed, the internal Italian courtyard and the entire garden and park ensemble.

In Livadia, where not only the American delegation was located, but also where the main negotiations between the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain took place, three power plants were installed. One working and two backup. In Alupka and Koreiz - two each.

The publication was prepared on the basis of RIA Novosti’s own materials (Crimea) and open sources

The Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the second meeting of the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - during the Second World War (1939-1945), occupies an important chapter in the history of not only our country, but the whole world. Interest in it does not wane, although 70 years have passed since it was held.

The location of the conference was not immediately chosen. Initially it was proposed to hold the meeting in Great Britain, as it was equidistant from the USSR and the USA. Among the names of the proposed venues were also Malta, Athens, Cairo, Rome and a number of other cities. I.V. Stalin insisted on holding the meeting in the Soviet Union so that the heads of delegations and their entourage could personally see the damage that Germany caused to the USSR.

The conference was held in Yalta on February 4-11, 1945 at a time when, as a result of successfully carried out strategic operations of the Red Army, military operations were transferred to German territory, and the war against Nazi Germany entered its final stage.

In addition to the official name, the conference had several codes. Going to the Yalta Conference, W. Churchill gave it the name “Argonaut”, drawing an analogy with ancient Greek myths: he, Stalin and Roosevelt, like the Argonauts, set off to the Black Sea shores for the Golden Fleece. Roosevelt responded to London with agreement: “You and I are the direct heirs of the Argonauts.” As you know, it was at the Yalta Conference that the division of spheres of influence of the three powers in the post-war world took place. The conference was codenamed “Island” to mislead opponents, since Malta was one of the possible venues for its holding.

The Conference was attended by the leaders of the three allied powers: Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR I.V. Stalin, Prime Minister of Great Britain W. Churchill, President of the United States of America F.D. Roosevelt.

In addition to the Heads of the Three Governments, members of delegations also participated in the Conference. From the Soviet Union - People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov, People's Commissar Navy N.G. Kuznetsov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General of the Army, Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.Ya. Vyshinsky and I.M. Maisky, Air Marshal S.A. Khudyakov, Ambassador to Great Britain F.T. Gusev, Ambassador to the USA A.A. Gromyko. From the United States of America - Secretary of State E. Stettinius, Chief of Staff to the President Fleet Admiral W. Legy, Special Assistant to the President G. Hopkins, Director of the Department of Military Mobilization Judge J. Byrnes, Chief of Staff of the American Army General of the Army J. Marshall, Commander in Chief of the Navy US forces Fleet Admiral E. King, Chief of Supply of the American Army Lieutenant General B. Somervell, Administrator of Naval Transport Vice Admiral E. Land, Major General L. Cooter, Ambassador to the USSR A. Harriman, Director of the European Department of State Department F. Matthews, Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs of the State Department A. Hiss, Assistant Secretary of State Charles Bohlen, along with political, military and technical advisers. From Great Britain - Foreign Secretary A. Eden, Minister of Military Transport Lord Leathers, Ambassador to the USSR A. Kerr, Deputy Foreign Minister A. Cadogan, Secretary of the War Cabinet E. Bridges, Chief of the Imperial General Staff Field Marshal A. Brooke, Chief of the Air Staff Forces Air Marshal C. Portal, First Sea Lord Fleet Admiral E. Cunningham, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense General H. Ismay, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater Field Marshal Alexander, Chief of the British Military Mission in Washington Field Marshal Wilson, Member of the British Military Mission in Washington Admiral Somerville, along with military and diplomatic advisers.

The USSR prepared to receive high-ranking guests in Yalta in just two months, despite the fact that Crimea was heavily damaged by military operations. Destroyed houses and the remains of military equipment made an indelible impression on all conference participants; US President Roosevelt was even “horrified by the extent of the destruction caused by the Germans in Crimea.”

Preparations for the conference were launched on an all-Union scale. Equipment, furniture, and food were brought to Crimea from all over the USSR, and specialists from construction organizations and the service sector arrived in Yalta. In Livadia, Koreiz and Alupka, several power plants were installed in two months.

Sevastopol was chosen as the site for the allied ships and vessels, where reserves of fuel, drinking and boiler water were created, berths, lighthouses, navigation and anti-submarine equipment were repaired, additional trawling was carried out in bays and along the fairway, and a sufficient number of tugboats were prepared. Similar work was carried out in the Yalta port.

The conference participants were located in three Crimean palaces: the USSR delegation headed by I.V. Stalin in the Yusupov Palace, the US delegation led by F. Roosevelt in the Livadia Palace and the British delegation led by W. Churchill in the Vorontsov Palace.

The host party was responsible for the safety of conference participants. Security on land was provided by aviation and artillery special groups, from the sea - by the cruiser Voroshilov, destroyers, and submarines. In addition, Allied warships joined them. Since Crimea was still within the range of German aircraft based in Northern Italy and Austria, an air attack was not ruled out. In order to repel the danger, 160 fleet aviation fighters and the entire air defense were allocated. Several air-raid shelters were also built.

Four regiments of NKVD troops were sent to Crimea, including 500 officers and 1,200 operational workers specially trained for security duties. Overnight, the park around the Livadia Palace was surrounded by a four-meter fence. Service personnel were prohibited from leaving the palace grounds. A strict access regime was introduced, according to which two rings of security were installed around the palaces, and with the onset of darkness a third ring of border guards with service dogs was organized. Communication centers were established in all palaces to ensure communication with any subscriber, and employees who spoke English were assigned to all stations.

Official meetings of members of delegations and informal ones - dinners of heads of state - were held in all three palaces: in Yusupovsky, for example, I.V. Stalin and W. Churchill discussed the issue of transferring people liberated from fascist camps. Foreign ministers met at the Vorontsov Palace: Molotov, Stettinius (USA) and Eden (Great Britain). But the main meetings took place at the Livadia Palace, the residence of the American delegation, despite the fact that this was contrary to diplomatic protocol. This was due to the fact that F. Roosevelt could not move independently without assistance. From February 4 to February 11, 1945, eight official meetings took place at the Livadia Palace.

The range of military and political issues discussed turned out to be very wide. The decisions that were made at the conference had a great influence on accelerating the end of the war and the post-war structure of the world.

During the conference, the Heads of the three powers demonstrated a desire for cooperation, mutual understanding and trust. It was possible to achieve unity on issues of military strategy and the conduct of a coalition war. Powerful strikes by the Allied armies in Europe and the Far East were jointly agreed upon and planned.

At the same time, the decisions made by the conference participants on the most complex issues of world politics, which were the result of compromises and mutual concessions, largely determined the development of international political events in the for a long time. Favorable opportunities were created for the effective operation of the post-war system of international relations, based on the principles of balance of interests, reciprocity, equality and cooperation, in order to ensure universal peace and security.

As a result of the conference, the most important international legal documents were approved, such as the Declaration of Free Europe, documents on the basic principles of the creation of the international United Nations Organization, which laid the foundation for relations between states.

The terms of the Allies' treatment of defeated Germany were worked out and questions about its future were resolved. The conference participants declared their unshakable determination to eliminate German militarism and Nazism, agreed on France's participation in resolving the German problem, on the borders of Poland and the composition of its government, and on the conditions for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan. The enormous growth in the international authority of the Soviet Union, which was facilitated by the outstanding victories of the Soviet Armed Forces, played an important role in the course and results of the negotiations.

However, there were serious disagreements between the conference participants on a number of issues. Representatives of the Western countries that were members of the anti-Hitler coalition had concerns related to the transformation of the USSR into a global power. However, the persistent desire of Soviet diplomacy to search for mutually acceptable solutions and adopt them on the basis of equality without imposing its opinion on others led to the fact that the documents approved at the conference were a reflection of the consent of its participants, and not the result of Soviet dictate.

The work of the Conference began with a consideration of the situation on the European fronts. The heads of government of the three powers instructed the military headquarters to discuss at their meetings the issues of coordinating the offensive of the allied armies from the east and west. During meetings on military issues, it was confirmed that on February 8, 1945, the Soviet offensive would begin on the western front. However, American and British military experts refused to comply with Soviet requests to prevent the transfer of German troops from Norway and Italy to the Soviet-German front. In general terms, the interaction of strategic aviation forces was outlined. The coordination of relevant operations was entrusted to the General Staff of the Soviet Army and the heads of the allied military missions in Moscow.

During the Conference, the issue of the USSR's entry into the war in the Far East was resolved. The secret agreement signed on February 11, 1945 stipulated that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan two to three months after the surrender of Germany. In this regard, the conditions for the USSR's entry into the war against Japan were agreed upon, which were put forward by I.V. Stalin: maintaining the status quo of the Mongolian People's Republic; the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of Sakhalin and all adjacent islands; internationalization of Dairen (Dalian) and restoration of the lease on Port Arthur as a naval lease USSR base; resumption of joint cooperation with China (ensuring preferential significant interests of the Soviet Union) operation of the East China and South Manchurian Railways; transfer of the Kuril Islands to the USSR.

This agreement concretized the general principles of allied policy, which were recorded in the Cairo Declaration, signed by the United States, England and China and published on December 1, 1943.

Since the prospect of the USSR entering the war with Japan implied its defeat in the near future, this political agreement determined the boundaries of the possible advance of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Far East.

The leaders of the three great powers discussed the political issues that were to arise after the defeat of Germany. They agreed on plans to enforce the terms of unconditional surrender and general principles for the treatment of a defeated Germany. Allied plans provided, first of all, for the division of Germany into occupation zones. The conference confirmed the agreements developed by the European Advisory Commission “On the zones of occupation of Germany and on the management of Greater Berlin,” as well as “On the control mechanism in Germany.”

According to the terms of the agreement “On the Zones of Occupation of Germany and on the Administration of Greater Berlin,” the armed forces of the three powers were to occupy strictly defined zones during the occupation of Germany. The eastern part of Germany was intended for the Soviet Armed Forces to occupy. The northwestern part of Germany was allocated for occupation by British troops, the southwestern part by American troops. The “Greater Berlin” area was to be occupied jointly by the armed forces of the USSR, the USA and England. The northeastern part of “Greater Berlin” was intended to be occupied by Soviet troops. The zones for British and US troops had not yet been determined.

The agreement “On the control mechanism in Germany,” signed on November 14, 1944, stated that supreme power in Germany during the period of its fulfillment of the basic requirements of unconditional surrender would be exercised by the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces of the USSR, the USA and England, each in its own zone of occupation according to instructions their governments. On matters affecting Germany as a whole, the Commanders-in-Chief would act jointly as members of the Supreme Control Authority, which would henceforth become known as the Control Council for Germany. Expanding these resolutions, the Crimean Conference decided to grant a zone in Germany also to France at the expense of the British and American occupation zones and invite the French government to join as a member of the Control Council for Germany.

When discussing the German question at the Crimean Conference, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain insisted on making a decision to create a commission to study the issue of the post-war structure of Germany and the possibility of its dismemberment. However, the Anglo-American plans for the dismemberment of Germany did not receive the approval of the Soviet delegation.

The Soviet Union's point of view on the future of Germany was well known from the very beginning of the war from the speeches of Soviet leaders. The USSR rejected the policy of revenge, national humiliation and oppression. At the same time, the leaders of the three powers declared their determination to implement important measures in relation to defeated Germany: to disarm and disband all German armed forces; destroy the German general staff; determine the punishment for Hitler's war criminals; destroy the Nazi party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions.

The issue of reparations to Germany, initiated by the USSR, occupied a special place at the conference. The Soviet government demanded that Germany compensate for the damage caused to the allied countries by Hitler's aggression. The total amount of reparations was supposed to be 20 billion dollars, of which the USSR claimed 10 billion dollars. The Soviet government proposed that reparations be levied in kind - in the form of a one-time withdrawal from Germany's national wealth and annual supplies of goods from current production.

The collection of reparations through a one-time withdrawal from national wealth (equipment, machines, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, etc.) was envisaged mainly for the purpose of destroying Germany's military potential. The conference took into account the experience of resolving the reparation problem after the First World War, when Germany was required to compensate for damages in currency and when the reparation issue ultimately contributed not to weakening, but to strengthening Germany's military potential.

During the discussion of this issue, the leaders of the United States and Great Britain were forced to admit the validity of Soviet proposals for reparations from Germany. As a result of the negotiations, a protocol was signed, published in full only in 1947. It outlined the general principles for resolving the reparations issue and outlined the forms of collecting reparations from Germany. The protocol provided for the establishment in Moscow of an inter-union commission on reparations consisting of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain. The protocol indicated that the Soviet and American delegations agreed to base their work on the Soviet government’s proposal on the total amount of reparations and on allocating 50 percent of it for the USSR.

Thus, despite the differences, the Allied powers made agreed decisions at the Crimean Conference not only on the complete defeat of Germany, but also on a common policy on the German question after the end of the war.

An important place among the decisions of the Crimean Conference was occupied by the Declaration of a Liberated Europe. It was a document on policy coordination in helping peoples liberated from fascist occupation. The Allied Powers declared that the general principle of their policy towards the countries of liberated Europe was the establishment of an order which would enable the peoples "to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and Fascism and to establish democratic institutions of their own choice." The Crimean Conference showed an example of the practical resolution of such problems in relation to two countries - Poland and Yugoslavia.

The “Polish question” at the conference was one of the most complex and controversial. The Crimean Conference was supposed to resolve the issue of the eastern and western borders of Poland, as well as the composition of the future Polish government.

Poland, which before the war was largest country Central Europe, decreased sharply and moved to the west and north. Until 1939, its eastern border passed almost under Kiev and Minsk. The western border with Germany was located east of the river. Oder, while most of the Baltic coast also belonged to Germany. In the east of the pre-war historical territory of Poland, the Poles were a national minority among Ukrainians and Belarusians, while part of the territories in the west and north inhabited by Poles was under German jurisdiction.

The USSR received the western border with Poland along the “Curzon Line”, established in 1920, with a deviation from it in some areas of 5 to 8 km in favor of Poland. In fact, the border returned to the position at the time of the division of Poland between Germany and the USSR in 1939 under the Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany, the main difference from which was the transfer of the Bialystok region to Poland.

Although Poland by the beginning of February 1945, as a result of the offensive of Soviet troops, was already under the rule of a provisional government in Warsaw, recognized by the governments of the USSR and Czechoslovakia (Edward Benes), there was a Polish government in exile in London (Prime Minister Tomasz Archiszewski), which did not recognize the decision of the Tehran Conference on the Curzon line and therefore could not, in the opinion of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, lay claim to power in the country after the end of the war. The instructions of the government in exile for the Home Army, developed on October 1, 1943, contained following instructions in the event of an unauthorized entry by the Polish government of Soviet troops into the pre-war territory of Poland: “The Polish government sends a protest to the United Nations against the violation of Polish sovereignty - due to the entry of the Soviets into Polish territory without the consent of the Polish government - at the same time declaring that the country will not interact with the Soviets. The government simultaneously warns that in the event of the arrest of representatives of the underground movement and any reprisals against Polish citizens, the underground organizations will switch to self-defense.”

The allies in Crimea realized that “a new situation was created in Poland as a result of its complete liberation by the Red Army.” As a result of a long discussion of the Polish issue, a compromise agreement was reached, according to which a new government of Poland was created - the “Provisional Government of National Unity”, on the basis of the Provisional Government of the Polish Republic “with the inclusion of democratic figures from Poland itself and Poles from abroad.” This decision, implemented in the presence of Soviet troops, allowed the USSR to subsequently form a political regime in Warsaw that suited it, as a result of which clashes between pro-Western and pro-communist formations in this country were resolved in favor of the latter.

The agreement reached in Yalta on the Polish issue was undoubtedly a definite step towards resolving one of the most controversial issues of the post-war world order. The conference did not accept the Anglo-American plan to replace the Polish Provisional Government with some new government. From the decisions of the conference it became clear that the core of the future Government of National Unity should be the existing Provisional Government.

At the proposal of the USSR, the Crimean Conference discussed the issue of Yugoslavia. The point was to speed up the formation of a unified Yugoslav government on the basis of an agreement concluded in November 1944 between the chairman of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia, I. Tito, and the Prime Minister of the Yugoslav exile government in London, I. Subasic. According to this agreement, the new Yugoslav government was to be formed from the leaders of the national liberation movement with the participation of several representatives of the exile Yugoslav government. But the latter, with the support of the British government, slowed down the implementation of the agreement.

Having discussed the Yugoslav question, the conference accepted the USSR proposal with amendments from the British delegation. This decision was a great political support for the national liberation movement of Yugoslavia.

The problem of ensuring international security in the post-war years occupied an important place in the work of the Crimean Conference. The decision of the three allied powers to create a general international organization to maintain peace was of great importance.

The leaders of the three powers managed in Yalta to resolve the important issue of the voting procedure in the Security Council, on which no agreement was reached at the Dumbarton Oaks conference. As a result, the “veto principle” proposed by Roosevelt was adopted, that is, the rule of unanimity of the great powers when voting in the Security Council on issues of peace and security.

The leaders of the three Allied powers agreed to convene a United Nations conference in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, to prepare a charter for an international security organization. The conference was intended to invite countries that signed the United Nations Declaration on January 1, 1942, and those countries that declared war on the common enemy by March 1, 1945.

During the Crimean Conference, a special declaration was adopted: “Unity in organizing peace, as well as in waging war.” It indicated that the states represented at Yalta reaffirmed their determination to preserve and strengthen in the coming period of peace that unity of action that made victory in the war possible and certain for the United Nations. This was a solemn commitment by the three great powers to preserve in the future the principles of the powerful anti-fascist coalition that emerged during the Second World War. One manifestation of this determination was the agreement to establish a permanent mechanism for regular consultation between the three foreign ministers. This mechanism was called the “Conference of Foreign Ministers”. The conference decided that ministers would meet every 3-4 months alternately in the capitals of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA.

The Crimean conference of the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain was of great historical significance. It was one of the largest international meetings during the war and the highest point of cooperation between the three Allied powers in waging war against a common enemy. The adoption by the Crimean Conference of agreed decisions on important issues serves as convincing proof of the possibility and effectiveness of international cooperation between states with different social systems. Given the presence of good will, the Allied powers, even in conditions of acute disagreement, were able to reach agreements imbued with the spirit of unity.

Thus, the decisions of the Crimean Conference strengthened the anti-fascist coalition final stage war and contributed to the victory over Germany. The struggle for the comprehensive and complete implementation of these decisions became one of the main tasks of Soviet foreign policy not only at the end of the war, but also in the post-war years. And although Yalta decisions were carried out precisely only by the Soviet Union, they, nevertheless, were an example of the military cooperation of the “Big Three” during the war.

All the work of the Crimean Conference took place under the sign of the immeasurably increased international authority of the Soviet Union. The results of the work of the heads of the three allied governments served as the basis for those democratic, peace-loving principles of the post-war structure of Europe, which were developed by the Potsdam Conference, shortly after the victory over Nazi Germany. The bipolar world created in Yalta and the division of Europe into East and West survived for more than 40 years, until the end of the 1980s.

Prokhorovskaya A.I.
senior researcher of the 3rd department of the Scientific Research
Institute (military history) of the Military Academy
General Staff of the RF Armed Forces
Candidate of Historical Sciences

On February 4, 1945, the second meeting of the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States of America - began in Crimea.

Operation Island

The Second World War was coming to an end, and another meeting of the top officials of the states of the anti-Hitler coalition was ripe. The location of the future conference caused a lot of controversy. One option was Great Britain, which was a state equidistant from both the United States and the Soviet Union. There were proposals to gather in Cairo, Athens or Rome, which had already been liberated from the Nazis. But he insisted that the meeting be held on the territory of the USSR, so that the leaders of the allied states could personally see the damage Germany caused to our country.

Head of the Soviet Government I.V. Stalin and
British Prime Minister W. Churchill in the palace during the Yalta Conference

In secret correspondence between the heads of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, the meeting in Crimea was codenamed “Argonaut”.

The territory of Crimea itself at the beginning of 1945 was risky for such a meeting. The peninsula was liberated from the Nazis only in May 1944; enemy agents could remain on its territory, and the front was not so far away, which made it possible to deliver a massive air strike on Yalta. The German threat was dealt with, and the conference itself was prepared in an extremely short time - in less than a month. The Soviet side ensured the safety and comfort of the participants in an exemplary manner.

Military advisers of the USSR at the Yalta Conference

The conference in Crimea turned out to be attractive for the allies as well. Franklin Roosevelt became the first American president to visit the Soviet Union, and Winston Churchill planned to visit the battlefields of the British army in order to raise his ratings ahead of the parliamentary elections.

Controversy and debate

On February 4, 1945, the heads of the three allied powers gathered at the Livadia Palace, the former summer residence of Emperor Nicholas II. The attention of the conference participants was occupied with the problems of ending the Second World War; they talked about the conditions of Germany's surrender, zones of its occupation, repatriation, reparations. Large and bitter disputes arose around the future of Poland. It was with difficulty that they managed to agree on the composition of its future government and its western borders. Stalin’s opinion turned out to be decisive, because quite recently, in January 1945, the Red Army liberated Warsaw. The decision to create an international organization, a successor to the League of Nations that had gone down in history, became fundamentally important. The conference participants agreed to hold a conference in April 1945 in San Francisco to establish the United Nations (UN). Roosevelt looked very pleased: in Yalta, an extremely important secret agreement for the United States was signed, according to which the USSR pledged to join the Allies 2-3 months after the victory over Germany.

I.V. Stalin in negotiations with US President F. Roosevelt

The discussions lasted a week, after which the participants, observing all safety measures, went home. On February 11, Stalin and the Soviet delegation left Simferopol for Moscow. Roosevelt visited Sevastopol, after which he flew out of Crimea. Churchill stayed the longest, and while visiting Sevastopol and Sapun Mountain, he paid tribute to the memory of the British soldiers who fought in these places during the Crimean War.

During the Crimean Conference, not a single serious incident involving the security department was registered.

Yalta Conference 1945 Meeting of Foreign Ministers. Livadia Palace

Heritage of Yalta

The Yalta Conference had and still has the most important historical significance. The adoption of agreed decisions there showed the whole world the possibility of cooperation between states with different social systems. The Yalta system of international relations lasted for more than 40 years, and only with the collapse of the Soviet Union did its basic provisions begin to collapse. But some mechanisms developed then in Crimea are still in effect 74 years later. The United Nations also continues its activities, where Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, consistently advocates the prevention of new armed conflicts in the world.

Signing of the protocol of the Yalta Conference

The Russian Military Historical Society has repeatedly addressed on the pages of its portal “History. RF" to the Yalta Conference and its results, and today you can familiarize yourself with the information on.

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