At Yalta and Potsdam the Big Three agreed on general principles but split over Poland, Germany and reparations.
At Yalta in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that Germany would be divided into zones of occupation. Stalin promised to join the war against Japan after Germany's defeat. They signed a Declaration on Liberated Europe that promised free elections.
Poland showed the gap. The Western leaders accepted that the Soviet-backed government would be widened "on a broader democratic basis", with free elections to follow. Stalin read this as approval for a friendly government. The West expected genuine elections.
At Potsdam in July and August 1945, the mood was colder. Truman had replaced Roosevelt, and Attlee replaced Churchill during the conference. The leaders agreed to disarm Germany and remove Nazis. But they could not agree on a common policy for Germany's economy.
Reparations were settled zone by zone: each power would mostly take reparations from its own zone. This was a practical compromise, but it pushed the zones apart. Truman also told Stalin about a powerful new weapon. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 changed the balance of power and fed Soviet suspicion.
- Yalta
- February 1945: zones for Germany, Declaration on Liberated Europe, Polish compromise.
- Potsdam
- July-August 1945: disarm and denazify Germany; reparations zone by zone.
- Hiroshima
- 6 August 1945: the atomic bomb changes the balance of power.
Worked example: Using Yalta as evidence in a source question
A source shows Stalin claiming that the West broke the Yalta agreement on Poland.
- Context: the Yalta wording on Poland was vague.
- Each side could claim the other broke it: Stalin pointed to the agreed reorganisation; the West pointed to the promise of free elections.
- So the source shows a real disagreement over meaning, not simply Soviet lies or Western bad faith.
Watch out for this
At Yalta the West handed Eastern Europe to Stalin.
The Red Army already occupied the region. Yalta promised free elections; the problem was that the vague wording let each side interpret it differently.
Check your understanding
Why did the reparations agreement at Potsdam increase division over Germany?
- Each power took reparations mainly from its own zone, so the zones were run separately.
- Germany paid nothing, angering the USSR.
- The USA took all reparations for itself.