Major decisions of the Yalta conference
The Yalta conference resulted in many decisions which impacted on the Post War world, a major decision of Yalta was that Russia was given a 'sphere' of influence in Eastern Europe which gave them power of most of the countries in Eastern Europe, this resulted in the spread of communism across Eastern Europe which had an effect on the world as it created a strong divide between the Western allies and the Soviet Union which set the scene for the cold war between Eastern Communism and Western Capitalism. Another key decision made at Yalta was that Germany was to be divided into four Zones of occupation Soviet, British, USA and French with the Soviet Zone being half of Germany as they had lost the most in the war so had the biggest share of Germany. Although Berlin was deep in the Soviet Zone, it too was divided into four Zones of occupation "In 1945 Germany had been divided into American, British, French and Soviet zines of occupation. The capital, Berlin, geographically in the Soviet zone,was also split four ways." (1) The division of Germany was a significant decision of Yalta as it created increased tension between the Soviet Union and the Western allies which fueled the cold war and led to events such as the Berlin blockade where the allies flew in supplies to west Berlin after the Soviet Union stopped supplies getting in by road. The decision to shift Poland West to compensate them for the land The Soviet Union had taken during WW2 and refused to give back was extremely important for the Post war world, as while it looked good on paper as the country was still the same size, in real life it had an extreme impact on peoples lives as people who had previously been Polish became 'Russian' and Germans became 'Polish' even though they still saw themselves as Polish or German but had to answer to a new Government. Stalin would not give Poland away for anything as he felt thst Russia deserved to keep it "...Stalin made it clear that some of his demands regarding Poland were not negotiable: the Russians were to gain territory from the eastern portion of Poland and Poland was to compensate for that by extending its western borders." Another key decision of the Yalta conference was to establish the United Nations (UN) which was Roosevelt's main objective for the Yalta conference, Stalin had reservations about the United Nations as he thought it gave smaller nations too much power, to compensate for this Russia was given extra votes in the security council. "...the Soviets had agreed to join the United Nations given the secret understanding of a voting formula with a veto power for permanent members in the security council, there by providing the Soviets with more control in world affairs and greatly weakening the United Nations." (4) The discussions of Yalta also led to all the Governments taken by the Nazi's would be given free elections to restore their government to a non-Nazi regime."The Big Three had further decided that all original governments would be restored to the invaded countries...Democracies would be established, all territories would hold free elections." (4) This was a key decision for the future of Europe as it would ensure countries could have control over themselves again, however Stalin's view on 'Free elections' differed from the Western allies view which led to more tension in Europe, which eventually led to the outbreak of the cold war.