The Potsdam Conference:
July – August 1945
Between Yalta & Potsdam
• May 1945
–
–
–
–
Allied troops reached Berlin
Hitler committed suicide
Germany surrendered
The war in Europe was over
• July 1945
– Second conference arranged in Berlin
suburb of Potsdam
– In the five months after Yalta changes
had occurred that greatly affected
relationships between allied leaders
The upper left-hand picture is to be used in a
newspaper in April 1945. Write a caption to go with
it.
Changes
• Stalin’s armies were occupying Eastern
Europe
– S did not withdraw from ‘liberated’ countries
(Baltic States, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania)
– Civilians fled, fearing Communist take-over
– S set up Communist gov’t in Poland, against
Poles’ wishes
– USA, (E) protested but S said he needed buffer
from possible future attacks
• USA had a new president
– 12 April 1945: FDR died.
– Harry S Truman much more anti-communist
– Truman & advisors saw Soviet actions in
Eastern Europe as prep for take-over of all of
Europe
• USA had tested an atomic bomb
– 16 July 1945: A-bomb tested. Truman told Stalin
Explain how each of the three developments described above might
affect relationships at Potsdam.
Disagreements at Potsdam
• Began July 17, 1945
– 1/2 way through Churchill defeated in
election, replace by Clement Attlee
– Truman & S could not appreciate each
other’s point of view
• The disagreements
– Germany: S wanted to permanently
cripple (G) while T did not want to repeat
the mistakes of the Versailles Treaty
– Reparations: 20-27 million Soviet citizens
killed & Russia devastated. S demanded
compensation while T resisted as per
above
– Soviet policy in Eastern Europe: @Yalta
S got support to put in place pro-Soviet
gov’ts in Eastern Europe. ‘If the Slav
people are united, no one will dare
move a finger against them.’ T very
unhappy w/ S’s intentions, chose ‘get
tough’ policy toward Soviet Union, Stalin
‘Iron Curtain’
• Potsdam ended w/o
agreement on issues
• 1946: S tightened control
of Eastern Europe
– Poland, Hungary, Romania,
Bulgaria and Albania all had
Communist gov’ts loyal to S
– Churchill, speaking to the
Westminster College
(Fulton, Missouri) graduating
class of 1946 that border
between Soviet-controlled
countries and the West was
an ‘iron curtain’. The name
stuck.
A British cartoon commenting on Churchill’s ‘Iron
Curtain’ speech, in the Daily Mail, 6 March 1946
Eastern Europe 1945 - 1948
The allies had given the USSR
control of the eastern sector of
(G). It was run by the USSR
effectively under Red Army
control until the creation of the
German Democratic Republic in
1949.
After the war the Communists
joined a coalition gov’t, then
became outright leaders in 1947
when they forced the noncommunist leader into exile.
A left-wing coalition won
elections in 1945. In 1946
Communists became the largest
single party, but still in a
coalition. In 1948, when their
position was threatened, they
banned other parties and made
Czechoslovakia a Communist,
one-party state.
Both France and Italy had strong
Communist parties which
belonged to Cominform
Communists became the
largest single party in the
1947 elections. They
imprisoned opposition
politicians, and attacked
Church leaders.
In 1945 a Communist
was elected Prime
Minister within a
left-wing coalition.
In 1947 the
Communists also
abolished the
monarchy.
A left-wing
coalition won
elections in 1945.
The Communist
members of the
coalition then
executed the
leaders of the other
parties.
Marshall Tito had led war-time
resistance to the Nazis. He was
elected President in 1945.
However, he was determined to
apply Communism in his own
way and was expelled from
Cominform in 1948
Communists gained power
immediately after the war.
There was little opposition
(E) & the USA
supported the
royalist side in a
civil war which
defeated the
Communist
opposition
Stalin Tightens control
• Eastern Europe
– Secret police imprisoned anyone
opposing communist rule, or might
oppose it
• Oct 1947: Stalin set up Cominform
– Communist Information Bureau to
coordinate all communist parties in E
Europe
– E Europe leaders regularly brought to
Moscow to be briefed, watched by Stalin
– S replaced any independent thinkers
– Tito of Yugoslavia remained free of S’s
rule, thrown out of Cominform in 1948
– Tito would prove to be a painful thorn in
USSR’s flesh
Potsdam Conference
• This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also
imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own
system as far as his army has power to do so. It cannot be
otherwise.
– Stalin speaking, soon after the end of the Second World War, about the takeover of Eastern Europe
At Yalta, Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed with Stalin that eastern Europe would be a Soviet
‘sphere of influence’. Do you think Stalin’s idea is what they had in mind? Explain.
• If we see that Germany is winning we should help Russia, and if
Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them
kill as many as possible.
– Senator Harry S Truman, quoted in the New York Times on June 24, 1941, two
days after Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union
• Poland has borders with the Soviet Union which is not the case with
Great Britain or the USA. I do not know whether a truly
representative government has been established in Greece. The
Soviet Union was not consulted when this government was being
formed, nor did it claim the right to interfere because it realizes how
important Greece is to the security of Great Britain.
– Stalin, replying to Allied leaders about his plans for Poland in April 1945.
Britain had helped to prop up an anti-Communist government in Greece
Would Churchill and Roosevelt agree with Stalin’s views expressed in the first and third PSDs? Explain
Potsdam Conference
• A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied
victory. From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron
curtain has descended. Behind that line lie all the states of central
and eastern Europe. The Communist parties have been raised to
power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to
obtain totalitarian control. This is certainly not the liberated Europe
we fought to build. Nor is it one which allows permanent peace.
– Winston Churchill speaking in the USA, in the presence of President Truman,
March 1946
• The following circumstances should not be forgotten. The Germans
made their invasion of the USSR through Finland, Poland and
Romania. The Germans were able to make their invasion through
these countries because, at the time, governments hostile to the
Soviet Union existed in these countries. What can there be
surprising about the fact that the Soviet Union, anxious for its future
safety, is trying to see to it that governments friendly in their attitude
to the Soviet Union should exist in these countries?
– Stalin, replying to Churchill’s speech
How do the two PSDs above differ in their interpretation of Stalin’s actions?
Explain why they see things so differently.