Footnotes

(1) “S.N.” is likely Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov, an imposing NKGB general, whose job it was to supervise intelligence gathering at the conference, and who did an admirable job of distracting the guests with parties and banquets. At one point, Sarah Churchill (the British Prime Minister’s daughter) mentioned that lemon went well with caviar. Kruglov saw to it that a lemon tree was surreptitiously planted in the Vorontsov Estate gardens, where the Churchills were staying. The ladies referred to are likely the stenographers and transcribers which the NKGB secretly flew in to Yalta for the conference. Both Livadia and Alupkinsky (Vorontsov) palaces were well-bugged for the conference.

(2) Tsar Nicholas II indeed contracted typhoid at Livadia in 1900. But the palace, a popular southern retreat for the tsars since it was built in the 19th century by Alexander II for his wife Maria, was torn down not for this reason, but in order to make way for a more modern, comfortable palace. It stands to this day and is a shimmering white palace of marble and local stone, surrounded by lush gardens, nestled at the foot of the Crimean mountain range, and looking out onto the Black Sea.

(3) Most likely Alger Hiss, the high-ranking US State Department official who was allegedly part of a US informant ring in the 1930s for the GRU (Soviet Military Intelligence), a rival intelligence body to the NKGB. Hiss took part in the Yalta Conference and did in fact go on to serve in the US Embassy in Moscow, then served as temporary Secretary General at the San Francisco conference which established the UN. Hiss was accused of being a spy by Whittaker Chambers in August 1948, and Hiss denied the charge in front of Congress, which led, after almost two years of legal wrangling, to Hiss being convicted of perjury and serving five years in jail.

(4) Teheran Conference – it was the first summit between the Big Three: Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. Held November 28 to December 1, 1943. The date for the opening of the Second Front in Europe was set and there was discussion about the future of Germany, Poland, and the United Nations.

(5) When Poland fell in September, 1939, a Polish government in exile was set up first in Paris, then in London. It was recognized by all parties as the legitimate government of Poland until disputes arose between the Polish and Soviet leaderships over the Katyn massacre, leading to a break in relations. The Soviets then established their own puppet government led by Polish Communist Boleslaw Bierut, and installed in Lublin after the Soviets cross
into Poland.

(6) The Curzon Line was proposed as the border of Poland during mediation between Russia and Poland, which warred during 1920 and 1921. Poland gained some 52,000 square miles of territory east of the Curzon Line during further hostilities and the Soviet Union lost it under the Treaty of Riga (1921). It was a sore point until 1939. Thus, those who argued for a return to pre-war borders were arguing that the USSR border should not be the Curzon Line, but east of it, minus those 52,000 square miles. In the end, the Yalta Conference codified the Curzon Line, with a few minor adjustments, as the eastern border of Poland. In exchange, additional territory was added to Poland in the West, taken from Germany, as Stalin had proposed.

(7) Polish elections were not actually held until January 19, 1947, by which time Bierut had plenty of time to wipe out political opposition.