February 1945, the Livadia Palace above Yalta, once the Tsar's summer house. Roosevelt is a dying man. Churchill hopes to save Poland and the empire. Stalin's armies are on the Oder, less than fifty miles from Berlin. For eight days they argue over the peace.
Why then
Germany is beaten but not finished; Japan is not beaten at all, and the Americans want Soviet help against it. The Red Army already holds Poland and most of eastern Europe, so much of what is decided here has been decided on the ground.
What they wanted
Roosevelt is after a United Nations and the Soviets in the war against Japan. Churchill fights for France's return as a power, and for Poland. Stalin wants a Poland that can never again be a corridor into Russia, and reparations from Germany. Poland is not at the table.
What changed
A declaration promises free elections in liberated Europe; the United Nations is agreed; Germany will be divided into zones; Stalin will enter the Pacific war three months after Germany falls, and does. The elections in Poland are not free. Within two years the allies are in a cold war.
Still argued
A sell-out of eastern Europe, or a recognition of where the Red Army stood? Serhii Plokhy argues the second, without excusing what followed. The Poles who lived under the result have their own answer.