ABSTRACT
In February 1945 Winston S. Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met Stalin at Yalta in the Crimea, pausing on the way to confer at Malta about their own strategic plans. When the triumvirate met at Yalta there was close Russo-American discussion about the rewards Russia should receive for joining the war against Japan. These included the return of all territories lost by Russia in 1904, particularly Port Arthur and Dairen; together with the Kurile Islands and a sphere of influence in Manchuria. On Eastern Europe, all that emerged from Yalta was a regurgitation of the Four Nation Declaration made at Moscow in 1943. The decisions made at Yalta on the German question went no further than an agreement on zones of military occupation, which had first been discussed at the Quebec Conference in 1944. On 12 April 1945, Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage; in July 1945, Churchill ceased to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
