What is the Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945 in the Crimea, was a pivotal wartime summit where the "Big Three" Allied leaders U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met to plan the final defeat of Nazi Germany and shape the post-war global order. With Allied victory in Europe safely in sight, the leaders made critical decisions regarding the division and demilitarization of Germany into four occupation zones, the creation of the United Nations to maintain future world peace, and the Soviet Union's commitment to enter the war against Japan. However, the conference also exposed deep geopolitical fractures, particularly over the borders and political future of Poland and Eastern Europe, making Yalta a crucial turning point that transitioned the world from the cooperation of World War II into the ideological division of the Cold War.