The Crimean Conference
Crimea, the sunfish-shaped peninsula on the Northern Black Sea, connected to the Ukraine at the 鈥渉ead鈥濃�攂ut within a few miles of Russia at its eastern 鈥渢ail鈥濃�攈as been in the news lately. We associate the region with the Crimean War of the mid-19th century, which occasioned Tennyson鈥檚 鈥淐harge of the Light Brigade鈥� and Florence Nightingale鈥檚 efforts to improve battlefield medicine. But in February of 1945, in the seaport of Yalta, it was the site of a final meeting of the three chief Allied leaders throughout most of war鈥擟hurchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin鈥攚ho reached an agreement on the terms of the German surrender.
Reporting to Congress on the results of the conference on March 1, 1945, Roosevelt announced the plan for a 鈥渢emporary鈥� division of Germany into four zones, with France, Britain, the United States and Russia each administering one. He also announced what he called a 鈥渦nanimous鈥� agreement 鈥渢hat the political and economic problems of any area liberated from Nazi conquest, or any former Axis satellite, are a joint responsibility of all three Governments [Britain, the United States, and Russia]. They will join together during the temporary period of instability after hostilities, to help the people of any liberated area, or of any former satellite state, to solve their own problems through firmly established democratic processes.鈥� And he looked ahead to a preliminary meeting of the United Nations in San Francisco on April 25, 1945.
Six weeks later, Roosevelt collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
