Stalin was a one of a kind political poker player, constantly increasing the stakes, calling the opponents hand whenever they were bluffing, bluffing the bluff, and relentlessly raking in the chips. Imagine what he could have achieved as a force for good instead of the murderous despot he was, or is that hoping for the impossible? Can you do good while being this dishonest at the negotiating table?

I love Indys nonverbal gestures when Sparty is talking.

Stalin had such a strong position to negotiate from because he had the Red Army occupying Poland already. It wasnt that he outsmarted the West, its that they really were powerless to oppose the USSR in Eastern Europe without triggering another massive war. A war that it would have been seen that they started.

Anthony Eden and the Suez canal, I'm sure that won't become an issue later...

During their first meeting on January 22 1943, Roosevelt told de Gaulle that he could not recognize him as the sole political leader of France, because he had not been elected by the French people. To which de Gaulle replied that Joan of Arc had derived her legitimacy only from her action, when she had taken up arms against the invader. On the morning of January 24, when Macmillan reported to Roosevelt that de Gaulle had proposed to Giraud to be Foch, while he, de Gaulle, would be Clémenceau, the President exclaimed: “Yesterday he wanted to be Joan of Arc, and now he wants to be Clémenceau…!” Roosevelt then told Hull that de Gaulle had told him: “I am Joan of Arc, I am Clémenceau!”; then he will entrust to the ambassador Bullitt that he said to de Gaulle: “General, you told me the other day that you were Joan of Arc and now you say that you are Clémenceau. Which of the two are you?” To which de Gaulle would have replied: “I am both.” Then, the President will tell that he retorted to de Gaulle: “We must choose; you still can’t be both.” When this story reaches the ears of Vice-Consul Kenneth Glow, it was further amplified: “President Roosevelt confided to de Gaulle that France was in such a critical military situation that it needed a general of Napoleon’s caliber.” But I’m that man," de Gaulle replied. “Financially,” the President continues, “France is in such a state that it would also need a Colbert” - “But I am that man,” de Gaulle said modestly. Finally, the President, concealing his astonishment, declares that France is so politically devastated that it would need a Clémenceau. De Gaulle stands up with dignity and says: ‘But I am that man!’". When the press seized on the story, de Gaulle also became Louis XIV, Foch, Bayard, etc. Before leaving Anfa, General de Gaulle will hear some of the first versions. They won’t make him laugh at all… De Gaulle and Churchill - The Cordial Disagreement” - François KERSAUDY

I think Stalin's 'manouvering' on the subject of Poland might be a tad... overstated. The fact of the matter was not that Stalin put himself in such a negotiating position as to be immovable by his oratory skill or arguments, but by the simple fact that Poland had, at the time, the full brunt of 2 or 3 Soviet Fronts operating within or near its borders, with over 2 million active Soviet personell. That is without counting any and all garisons, reserves, replacements and so on. I doubt it was the Churchill ran out of arguments. He simply understood that Poland's fate was sealed when the Red Army pushed beyond its borders, leaving it far out of reach of the Western allies and any hope of help.

Possession is nine-tenths of the law. Add some infantry and armored divisions and it becomes one hundred percent.

Stalin and Molotov's tactics during the conference reminded me of a quote from Thomas Jackson: "Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit" Both of them were masters of misleading, of veiling, and stalling (pun intended) in order to achieve their goals.

Sparty's closeing statment is chilling. The words and banter of these three men left effects on our world that we are still coming to terms with to this day.

This reminds me of one Polish comedy sketch on Jalta conference and why Poland became part of Soviet influence sphere. In short - no one wanted to have Poles on their side, so Churchill and Roosevelt outvoted Stalin 2:1 and made him to take Poland. This group (Kabaret Moralnego Niepokoju) in fact made a whole series of sketches on history of the world and history of Poland.

During the negotiations in Vienna following the Napoleonic wars in 1814 and 1815, discussions about the fate of Poland also dominated the whole conference. It's so fascinating that Poland occupies so much import in history.

the gaulle as john of arc gives me life 😂😂😂

Really cool seeing Indy and Sparty on screen together

Maybe it's myth but I seem to recall Churchill making a crack about the comparison de Gaulle made between himself and Joan of Arc that went something like: "Yes, but unfortunately I can't have him burned at the stake." I don't recall exactly what he was supposed to have said but it was something along those lines. Like I say, it may be urban legend, but it would b a very Churchillian comment.

Damn poor de Gaulle, everytime his name was mentioned everyone decided to collectively talk shit about him

I can only repeat time after time how thankful I am for all your efforts to make us 'never forget' about WW2 and all that went on before and after. Will you also do a special episode about the UN itself and the conceptualisation of the post-war economic system (Bretton Woods conference)?

Indy's supportive gesturing and pointing is on point 🤌

Veto power for permanent members in the UN is saying "All countries are equal in the UN, but some are more equal than others." A very Soviet solution.

Many biographies of Stalin describe him as lacking charisma and intelligence but he appears to be very witty and a great tough negotiator. The Soviet eastern territorial gains for just a few months of war against Japan is an insane return.

Could you guys do a special on Vyacheslav Molotov, he is a very important person in the USSR and we barely know anything about him, unlike Zhukov and Stalin.

Spartacus comes off the top rope with the full Sparty slam to finish this episode.

The Yalta Conference was one of the first events in WW2 that I learned about and y’all KILLED IT. As always such an amazing job by the WW2 team 🙌🏽

Stalin surely knew how to play his counterparts. He outsmarted the Western Allies. Yes, Roosevelt was sick but Churchill was a brilliant tactician himself. And whenever you think this channel cannot get better - it does.

Say what you will about Stalin, and righfully so given we know today what his reign was like. But having now watched this episode and all others before it....the man was a master diplomat and negotiator. Love the content Indy and crew 😁

Greets from Poland !

Man, what a great sequel to the first Yalta episode. Thank you again for such fantastic work!

This is a strictly tongue in cheek comparison, but Indy’s gestures while Sparty is talking kind of remind me of Steve McQueen’s antics at the beginning of “The Magnificent Seven” when Yul Brynner was saying his lines.

Thank you for another great Special video as always. This will be very interesting where all these will lead to postwar...

Another excellent episode, and with the complementary episode on War Goals these are two of the best videos I've watched for somewhile. As ever thanks to the whole team.

Extremely valuable episode, and presented so well! Thank you for taking the time to make these specials and going over the intimate details of negotiations and decisions. Incredible work!

Sparty's and Indy's sartorial splendor is simply smashing! Thank you for your superbly vivid team presentation of the conference at Yalta.

What a fascinating and far reaching conference. Thank you for the Video

What a FABULOUS Channel I found Here. When I was Stationed at Nuremberg in W.Germany From 1980-1984, I had to do a Thesis on WW2 for my PLC Class & The E-5 Board. You are so SPOT on. I still have my Thesis from that time. I was Offered by the VII Corp at the time to be part of the Military’s Historic Project but I wanted to stay in my Field unit at the Time, (210th FA BDE, Herzo base). Thank you for a GREAT JOB.

It's odd to say that "Stalin split the world,"when the world was already split between capitalists and communists long before WW2. So split, Hitler thought the west would approve of his invasion of Russia and would negotiate a peace at Russia's expense. Stalin simply understood that this animosity would continue after WW2 and he wasn't going to leave Eastern Europe in capitalist's hands. A perfectly reasonable position for him to take at the time.

Thank you both ,yet again a brilliant and extremely interesting explanation, ...... As per usual.

It was an informative and amazing introduction..

Great episode

Shame, missed a perfect chance to open with a sentence "Flying from Malta to Yalta".

Brilliant!!!!

Love the footage of Churchill wearing that Astrakhan hat!

i wish we had a way of knowing what would have come out of the conference if Roosevelt was in better physical shape or if the conference had taken place somewhere that didn't require him to travel so far. At the time of the conference, he is only 2 months away from the coffin. Also i wonder how talented he was at international negotiation. America just came out of 2 decades of isolationism, one can wonder how good his diplomatic army was, and how good was their leader in this field.

I need to watch this again

When is the man of steel not suspicious?

I cannot beleive how hectic yalls production schedule must be, keep uo tthe good work folks!! Yall are truly an inspiration to a lowly graduate student.❤❤

Was at the Livadia Palace last year

Very well spoken pretty nice video

I like how Indy gestulates.

Funniest quote from Yalta after Roosevelt and Stalin agree to split Korea in half: ‘Don’t tell Churchill… he’ll kill us!’ 35:34 ‘…brink of war to this day’ - I thought Korea is still at war, just in a state of ceasefire since 1953? I.e. technically the in-progress Korean War is still a continuation of WW2 - as it was literally started at Yalta.

Thank you.

Last night I watched the Canadian National Film Board production Paris 1919. It's sad to hear so many of the issues passed over at Versailles; Poland, Indo-China, Korea, still lingering. It's as if WW2 could be more clearly seen as WW1-2.0.

It's interesting that this meeting will (to a greater or lesser degree) influence the dropping of the first atomic bomb, even though that weapon hasn't been finished - to say nothing of its influence on the world even now. "The strong must rule the weak", indeed...

I always laugh at those who say the Western Allies could have fought Germany by bombing without the need for ground forces. I always reply with “So the only Allied ground forces on the European continent would be Stalin’s Red Army”. Those Air Power advocates are usually silent afterwards.

Indy's hand signal gestures are distracting, yet amusing!

I always appreciate the immaculate drip you guys wear

Hi Indy and Sparty Great explanation. Now I can understand this yalta conference . Stalin got everything he want. And the cold war started. Thanks for the video.

Hi indy and Spartacus i really love your show (show's)!!

Yalta, When Stalin Split The World reads a lot like a line from the TNG episode Darmok. (Darmok and Jalad, at Tanagra)

To quote great Jacek Kaczmarski on Yalta: "So the delegations flew away, In Crimea the tsar's castle fell silent. And when the guns thundered in the West, Transports of people went to the East. The free world celebrated its triumph, The fronts suddenly laid deserted - The president's grave is already covered in flowers, And there are transports after transports. The night turns into red dawn - By the will of the voters, Churchill left! And there are transports of living people, And there are camps of the the long death."

Awe man I won't get my assignments done on time

Excellent work. Well done!

Indy looking sharp again with the sleeves

Stalin: The Man of Steel, or Man of Steal depending where you are from.

It was 90 days after the surrender of Germany that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. By then events have changed also The U.S has successfully tested “ Trinity “ On August 6th the bomb was dropped to show the world the atomic age. It’s no coincidence that on August 9th the same day the Soviet Union declared war on Japan that the United States dropped their second atomic bomb. The second bomb was also a warning to Stalin. That the west had the ability to destroy cities let alone armies with a single bomb. That this was the means to an end.

Shaka, when the walls fell Stalin, when the world split

It’s crazy that in this conference you can see signs of what becomes the Korean and Vietnam wars

I love indy and sparticus’ suits ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

wow-this all comes back to haunt us..

In fact there are no formal meeting notes or agendas for any of these meetings. Each side took its own notes. After the fall of the USSR their internal notes became available for the first time. According to Harvard Professor Plokhi there are differences in the notes. You have covered the agenda and meetings extremely well. It is interesting that Stalin was unaware that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent even though he was sitting there in the room with the Big Three. Hiss worked in GRU intelligence, and only KGB was involved in setting up the Conference. This is clear from the Soviet notes according to Plokhi

Yalta destroyed 600+ years of History, population patterns and civilizations in North East Central Europe. Plus forced communism on People who hated the ideology. Poland lost half of its pre-war territory with undestroyed historic cities in the East and got ruined substitutes in the West. Germany lost everything East of the Oder Neisse rivers. Yalta was the worst for both of Central Europe's most powerful countries. Poland for instance was the only Allied country to shrink in 1945 due to the Soviet Union. Despite being the first Victim of both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union with the biggest percentage loss of People compared to any country from 1939.

You two are so impressive. Thanks for all of your hard work. And your "invisible team" too!

It’s interesting how similar the USSR leader was compared to the Russian Empire after the Napoleonic Wars over Poland. In the end Troops on the ground are the final truth. Just look at where the Iron curtain came down and look where the eastern and western fronts ended up. Almost identical. The paperwork after war tends to me formally legalizing those front lines in terms of geopolitics.

We are surely in the war's endgame now

I know it’s a very minor thing but a trusteeship over Indochina wouldn’t kick the French out of Asia as they would still possess Pondicherry, the status of which alongside Goa is at this point still up in the air as while the INC claims them as part of any independent India, Britain will not define the borders of any independent India not only regarding the European outposts but also regarding the Princely States and a theoretical Muslim nation.

Both Yalta 1945 and Congress of Vienna 1814 both had long talks over Poland, which Russia/USSR won on.

5:35 how many of the world leaders knew enough of secondary languages to converse in the other leaders languages?

One of the conferences cementing Stalin's legacy as a top 3 politician of the 20th century imo

FDR talks about executing 50,000 random German officers but also authorizes Operation Paperclip…

I am always surprised by how supportive fdr was of Stalin.

We’re in the end game. Begun the Cold War has

Did Pogue Admiral Leahy ever make a tactical decision of any kind, or was he just clinging to the President's coattails? (He may be a distant relative and I've just never heard of him doing "admiral stuff" that hurts enemies on the high seas).

What was internationalized (at 28:12)? Diurin?

This is so weird I have never heard of this again we are always told that big three and France had close relationship but FDK is like super super against France and is trying to stick it to them every chance he gets I can’t imagine that Churchill of all people is fighting for France wow thank you this is so incredibly interesting and important to know cheers and greetings from Kuwait

Indy, I didn't know nations had a view port.

…[exhales deeply] wow… it’s gonna take a minute to unwrap my brain from this. Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves .

👍👍👍!

8:59 were these conferences ever used to try and turn other representatives into spies or as seats for spies?

Such a shame that a select few can decide the future of people living in nations for generations, they not need even set foot in those place, just decide it over some tea in a resort town in Crimea.

well done. wow suits

Me too

Hindsight is 20-20 of course but the pretensions that US/UK believed they were negotiating the Poland situation with anything close to powerful enough to counter the Soviet’s occupation of Poland seems very silly. Seems this was a vain attempt to avoid the embarrassment of making promises to the Polish government in exile which they were inevitably going to be powerless to keep.

I was great!

Even now, us 'westerners' do not understand Russian political norms which reach far back in history. Much of what is seen as acceptable there is seen as the opposite here. I doubt the Roosevelt or Churchill had a deep understanding of this either, but Stalin understood how things work in the 'west' and took advantage of that. Stalin was something of a 'Hitler' in another form but took (successful) pains to ensure that facet remained hidden to his 'allies'. Once he got what he wanted from us and rebuilt Russia's strength he forgot his previous words and simply did as he wanted to do. We're seeing something similar now.

excellent

Veto power, what could possibly go wrong with that?

I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

No discussion on Stalin’s spying on Rosevelt and Churchill during the conference? Really no surprise you didn’t.

Wait I thought the three arrived in a vw up, a ford fiesta, and a dacia sandero

28:10 what's Dire-Inn

The commencement of Russia's Manchurian Blitzkrieg & Nagasaki coincided leading to Japanese Korea's military conquest (& postwar occupation lines) before Hirohito made his infamous Radio Proclamation. At Yalta, with Okinawa still in planning stages (& before the Trinity implosion) the USA was in possession of only ONE viable U235 Atomic device. FDR simply traded the Kurile archipelago north of the Japanese Home islands, (returning former) Russian territories, for exclusive US military occupation of the Japanese Home Islands after hostilities creased.

Well at least they’re talking …