The Crimean Conference

From the Editors:

The veracity of this journal can be neither verified nor vouched for. Russian Life received the leather-bound manuscript in a tattered, tea-stained condition, as payment for debts owed the magazine from an offshore publishing scheme gone wrong. The purveyor of the journal asserted that she had found it wedged under the foreshortened leg of a bedside table in a Crimean seaside cottage. By the looks of things, the journal had been in that location for quite some time.

It would be difficult to impossible to verify the identity of the author of this journal, who seems to be a well-placed NKGB officer, much less to validate much of what is written here. Nonetheless, most if not all of what is recounted rings true to events as we know them from extant historical documents. While the diarist obviously could not have been present at all the meetings and plenary sessions, the entries make clear that he was allegedly in a position to “listen in” to everything taking place in Yalta.

The selected entries are presented as close to the original as the inexact art of translation allows.

2 Feb ‘45

A grey and crisp morning. Yesterday’s flight from Moscow was long, but here on the coast there is a fresh smell of pine trees and sea air. A welcome change in February.

Desolation and carnage littered the road from the airport in Saki to Yalta. Ten months since the Nazi scum occupied this area and still we have not been able to clean it all up!

The ladies have arrived. They don’t know what they are doing here yet, but today S.N. will brief them on their vital task.1 I have personally overseen the placement of equipment at both locations.

We will miss nothing.

3 Feb ‘45

Back to the airport at Saki again today. R[oosevelt] and C[hurchill] arrived midday along with over 700 officers and officials. More than expected. We are not sure where to put them all.

R was put at Livadia. Alexander III died here and they say Nikolai2 contracted typhus here, so they razed the palace to build this new one. Perhaps the warm sea air here will do R some good. He appears very frail, even sick.

We were happy to see a sympathetic friend3 among the delegation. He is said to be moving on to Moscow next. S.N. informed his opposite number in the American party that one of R’s interpreters was the son of a White Terrorist. The interpreter was sent back to the ship in the Black Sea.

C is at Alupkinsky palace, Vorontsov’s old place which, appropriately, is mostly grey stone. He is much more energetic than R, but also less likeable. This evening, when we were showing him around the palace, C asked if I had served on the front. “Yes, in the defense of Moscow,” I told him. He praised our new offensive. “Yes, all the way to the Oder in two weeks,” I said. “Nothing can stop the glorious Red Army. We will chew up Hitler and spit him out into the sea!” C said nothing. Just puffed on his fat cigar. I worried perhaps I had somehow been undiplomatic, but I do not regret a single word.

No sessions to prepare for tonight. Tests on all devices show that our hearing is just fine.

4 Feb ‘45

Leader [Stalin] arrived by train. A noted slackening in the spines of the apparatchiks who have been here since the 2nd, acting as if they owned the place.

First, Leader called on C and proudly extolled the advances of the Red Army in recent weeks. He suggested to C that the English move on Vienna from the south, via Yugoslavia, to flank the Fascists in Northern Italy. C knowingly said they could not get there before Russian forces.

Leader also visited R. Not as tense. R suggested a bet that Americans will be in Manila before Red Army takes Berlin. Leader wisely laughed off such a crude bet with human lives. R commented on the destruction here in Crimea and Leader explained that this is nothing compared to what the Fascists have done in Western Russia and Ukraine. To say nothing of Leningrad or Moscow!

At five, the first session opened. Leader graciously suggested R chair the sessions. Agreed. General Antonov recounted the successes of the Red Army since January. 500 kilometers retaken and 400,000 Nazis killed. American General Marshall said an attack from the West is to begin in just days, with crossing of the Rhein in a month. Some rising tension as Leader probed C and R for more operational details. There seemed to be agreement that the war would continue until at least the summer.

Dinner was quite a show. R hosted at Livadia and at one point informed Leader that Americans often refer to Leader as “Uncle Joe.” Offended by such a peasant nickname, Leader made a show as if he were  leaving the dinner. C broke the tension by offering a toast, for which Leader had to stay. It was long and pompous. Then Leader played his hand perfectly, delivering an eloquent speech about how the strong must rule over the weak and not be distracted by their petty squealing.

5 Feb ‘45

Had to discipline Alexandrov this morning for fraternizing with a secretary. Even good Chekists can go astray.

Afternoon session at the palace took up the German Question. Leader pointed out that German dismemberment had been agreed by all at Teheran,4 but that now it was time for specifics. C waffled and said this problem should be studied more. As if our troops would not be in Berlin in a matter of weeks! R supports C in the idea that there should be four occupation zones and that France should have one of them. Unbelievable. Capitulation is a ticket to enter the top ranks among nations!

C suggests France must be rebuilt, because we cannot count on America in Europe forever, to maintain a power balance. Yes, R, said, in fact, America will probably not have troops in Europe for more than two years after the war is over. A shocking admission of weakness!

Next, Comrade Maysky described a very well-thought-out plan for reparations and dismantling of German industry, to castrate their war-machine. C waffled again, claiming none gained from a Germany reduced to poverty. Leader suggested rightly that those who suffered most should get the largest share of reparations. C tried to prove his knowledge of Marx by saying that war was about something less than “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Leader was of course ready with a retort: No, he said, “to each according to his deserts.”

6 Feb ‘45

It is head-spinning to see the fate of the world tossed about in this unlikely setting. Wishes become words and words become orders and the future of the world is decided by speeches across a table. But that is better than with bullets on a bloody field.

Much of the morning was spent discussing the new Security Council in this world peacemaking body. Leader insisted that the Great Powers should control this body and that they must arrive at unanimous decisions. The Americans presented a new proposal for complex voting in this Council, depending on the type of decision at hand. Such bandying about parliamentary procedure is a typical bourgeois malady. They are so weak, and Leader was so skillful at dividing them at every available opportunity.

Poland was another matter entirely. R insisted, despite the fact that America had nothing to do with Polish liberation, that there should be something called a “government of national unity” in Poland – meaning the London Poles should be in charge. Leader quietly pointed out that Poland already has a legitimate government, which rose up in Lublin after the Germans left.5 Leader then let the two visiting leaders posture about the need to change things to something more to their liking. As to the borders of Poland, C proposed returning to the pre-war border, instead of the Curzon Line,6 but Leader adroitly replied that he could not show his face in Russia asking for less than Curzon, who was not even Russian. It must be the Curzon line in the East, he said. And let us compensate the Poles by moving their western border to the Oder-Neisse.

Leader’s performance before these weak and vacillating parliamentarians was brilliant. Clearly the Soviet Union is now a leader among the nations of the world. Our blood has proven our mettle!

7 Feb ‘45

Early this morning, I took a walk in the limestone-covered hills. Extraordinary to see cypress trees and green grass in February. The Massandra vineyards are a mess, but it is quite something to stand on the cliffs and look out over the azure waters.

Leader once again proved his superior negotiating skills today. He began by making a concession, saying the Soviet Union no longer demanded 16 seats in this new League of Nations, but just 3, which R and C quickly accepted. Leader then turned this situation to Soviet advantage, saying he had strived for unity among the three Great Powers on this issue; they should come around to his point of view on Poland. To sweeten the pot, Leader made inconsequential concessions to R, agreeing to some slight border shifts on Poland and to include in the Polish government some émigré leaders from London.

It was a masterful stroke!

8 Feb ‘45

Alexandrov was at it again, so we sent him back to Moscow. It will be a painful homecoming for him, I am afraid. We sent him by train, so he will have plenty of time to think about his actions.

Colder this morning. Frost on the grass as we drove up to Livadia.

Poland, Poland and more Poland. Today C is calling for “free elections,” that the nations of the world will settle for “nothing less than a free and independent Poland.” Leader and M[olotov] made it clear that freedom is good, but Russian security is an even greater imperative. Besides, Leader pointed out, Poland has a government. It may not have been elected, but neither was Charles de Gaulle.

R looked even more tired than usual today. Leader helped end discussions by stating that elections in Poland were just a month away.7

After lunch, R met privately with Leader to discuss the war with the Japanese. Leader said the Soviet Union would join in the war with Japan after the Nazis were destroyed, Meanwhile, he offered bases on Kamchatka for American bombers. R suggested a continuation of Lend-Lease after the war, to help our Soviet Union buy ships. There was also agreement on the current situation in China. It was an amicable meeting. So much easier than when C is around.

10 Feb ‘45

The last two days have been a sleepless grappling with various practical military issues, the United Nations, voting procedures and, of course, Poland. It is so exhausting, I feel as if we are back in the capital during the Battle for Moscow, instead of in the sleepy south on the eve of victory.

Today, there was finally agreement on the vacuous Declaration on Liberated Europe that R & C were so desirous of. Leader directed M to sign the declaration. “We can fulfill it in our own way,” he said. “What matters is the correlation of forces.”

True! The Americans and the British are so concerned with there being a positive spirit for negotiations, that they do not see how the Soviet Union has repeatedly triumphed here. Our glorious Red Army’s continuing victories in the West – news arrives daily of new exploits – made much of this diplomatic posturing so much nonsense. There is so much ambiguity in what was “decided” here. It is clear that the “correlation of forces” truly is everything.