The Crimean (Yalta) Conference

Abstract

The resolutions of the Crimean (Yalta) Conference (which took place from 4 February to 11 February 1945) signed by the leaders of the USSR, the United States, and Great Britain influenced the fate of millions of people and laid the foundations of a world order that lasted for almost fifty years. But whereas much attention has been and is being paid to the diplomatic and political history of the second meeting of the "Big Three"— Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill—little is known about the technical preparations, logistics, and the housing of the Allied delegations in Yalta. USSR deputy commissar of foreign affairs I.M. Maiskii recalled that:

the housing of the conference participants and their entourages was a difficult task under the conditions prevailing at that time. The Crimea had been liberated from the Germans only a short time before. The war had caused extensive destruction. The cities, roads, buildings, electricity stations, railroads, and telegraph lines were badly damaged. Much had to be repaired and restored to accommodate the conference. It was a massive, complex, and difficult job. Suffice it to say that to accomplish the task, more than fifteen hundred railroad cars loaded with equipment, building materials, furniture, and so on were brought to the Crimea, and it took twenty thousand workdays to repair the Livadia Palace alone.