The
Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference or the
Argonaut Conference, was the wartime meeting held from 4-11 February, 1945. The meeting was held between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, the heads of Government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union respectively. The Yalta Conference was the second of the large war time conferences. At the Yalta Conference, it was agreed to split up Germany among the Allies. It was preceded by Tehran Conference in 1943, and succeeded by Potsdam Conference (after Roosevelt's death) in 1945.
Stalin was in a strong negotiating position with all Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe. Though Roosevelt and Churchill tried their best to restrict post-war influence in this area but it did not work. However they managed obtain a promise that free elections would be held in these countries.
The decision to form a United Nations Organization was confirmed at Yalta. On this issue all three leaders enthusiastically agreed.
The main objective of Churchill and Stalin was to capture Berlin, the then capital of Germany. Roosevelt was not in harmony with this and General Dwight Eisenhower's (USA Military commander) decision ensured the fact that Soviet forces would be the first to reach Berlin.
