The Tehran conference briefly about the main thing. Tehran conference: preparation, goals, outcome

Tehran Conference, Tehran Conference 1943
November 28-December 1, 1943

Place
holding

Tehran, Iran

Members

USSR USSR
USA USA
UK UK

Issues covered

The opening of a second front in Western Europe.

Subsequence

← Cairo Conference

Second Cairo Conference →

at Wikimedia Commons

The first conference of the "Big Three" during the years of World War II - the leaders of three countries: F. D. Roosevelt (USA), W. Churchill (Great Britain) and J. V. Stalin (USSR), held in Tehran on November 28 - December 1, 1943 of the year.

• 1 Preparation
• 2 Aims of the conference
  • 2.1 Opening a "second front"
  • 2.2 Polish question
  • 2.3 Post-war world order
  • 2.4 Security issues in the post-war world
• 3 Attack on the leaders of the "big three"
• 4 Memory of the conference
• 5 Notes
• 6 Literature
• 7 Links

Training

In addition to Tehran, options were considered for holding a conference in Cairo (at the suggestion of Churchill, where earlier and later inter-allied conferences were held with the participation of Chiang Kai-shek and Ismet Inonu), Istanbul or Baghdad. As usual, Stalin refused to fly anywhere by plane. He left for the conference on November 22, 1943. His letter train No. 501 went through Stalingrad and Baku. Stalin rode in an armored twelve-wheeled spring car.

In the memoirs of Air Marshal A. Golovanov, there are references to the flight of Stalin and all the Soviet representatives of this conference, prepared by him personally. Two planes were flying. Golovanov personally managed the second. On the first, which was controlled by Viktor Grachev, Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov flew.

Conference Goals

The conference was called upon to develop a final strategy for the struggle against Germany and its allies.

Wikisource has texts on the topic
Declaration on joint action in the war against Germany and on the post-war cooperation of the three Powers

The conference became an important stage in the development of international and inter-allied relations, it considered and resolved a number of issues of war and peace:

• the exact date for the opening of a second front by the allies in France was set (and the “Balkan strategy” proposed by Great Britain was rejected),
• issues of granting independence to Iran were discussed (“Declaration on Iran”)
• the beginning of the solution of the Polish question
• about the beginning of the USSR war with Japan after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
• the contours of the post-war structure of the world were outlined
• a unity of views has been achieved on issues of ensuring international security and lasting peace

The opening of the "second front"

The main issue was the opening of a second front in Western Europe.

After much debate, the Overlord issue was at an impasse. Then Stalin got up from his chair and, turning to Voroshilov and Molotov, said with irritation: “We have too much to do at home to waste time here. Nothing worthwhile, as I see it, does not work. The critical moment has come. Churchill understood this and, fearing that the conference might be disrupted, he compromised.

O. B. Rakhmanin

Polish question

W. Churchill's proposal was accepted that Poland's claims to the lands of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine would be satisfied at the expense of Germany, and the Curzon Line should be the border in the east. On November 30, a reception was held at the British Embassy on the occasion of Churchill's birthday.

Post-war world order

• de facto, the right was assigned to the Soviet Union as an indemnity to annex part of East Prussia after the victory
• on the question of incorporating the Baltic republics into the Soviet Union, a plebiscite should take place at the appropriate moment, but not under any form of international control
• also, F. Roosevelt proposed dividing Germany into 5 states.

During a conversation between I. V. Stalin and F. Roosevelt on December 1, Roosevelt believed that world public opinion would consider it desirable that sometime in the future the opinion of the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the issue of incorporating the Baltic republics into the Soviet Union was expressed. Stalin noted that this does not mean that the plebiscite in these republics should be held under any form of international control. According to the Russian historian Zolotarev, at the Tehran conference in 1943, the United States and Great Britain actually approved the entry of the Baltic states into the USSR. The Estonian historian Myalksoo notes that the United States and Great Britain never officially recognized this entry. As M. Yu. Myagkov writes:

As for the further American position regarding the entry of the Baltic states into the USSR, Washington did not officially recognize this fait accompli, although it did not openly oppose it.

Security Issues in the Post-War World

US President Roosevelt presented at the conference the American point of view regarding the creation of an international security organization in the future, about which he had already spoken in general terms to V. M. Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, during his stay in Washington in the summer of 1942, and which was the subject of discussion between Roosevelt and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in March 1943.

According to the scheme outlined by the president in a conversation with Stalin on November 29, 1943, after the end of the war, it was proposed to create a world organization on the principles of the United Nations, and military issues were not among its activities, that is, it should not be similar to the League of Nations. The structure of the organization, according to Roosevelt, was to include three bodies:

• a common body of all (35 or 50) members of the United Nations, which will only make recommendations and will meet in different places where each country can express its opinion.

• an executive committee consisting of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, China, two European countries, one Latin American country, one country in the Middle East and one of the British dominions; the committee will deal with non-military matters.

• a police committee consisting of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China, which will monitor the preservation of peace in order to prevent new aggression from Germany and Japan.

Stalin called the scheme outlined by Roosevelt a good one, but expressed his fear that the small European states might be dissatisfied with such an organization, and therefore expressed the opinion that it might be better to create two organizations (one for Europe, the other for the Far East or the world). Roosevelt pointed out that Stalin's point of view partially coincides with the opinion of Churchill, who proposes the creation of three organizations - European, Far Eastern and American. However, Roosevelt noted that the United States would not be able to be a member of a European organization and that only a shock comparable to the current war could force the Americans to send their troops overseas.

On December 1, 1943, Stalin, in a conversation with Roosevelt, said that he had considered the issue and believed that it would be better to create one world organization, but at this conference no special decision was made to create an international organization.

Attack on the leaders of the "Big Three"

For security reasons in the Iranian capital, the US president did not stay at his own embassy, ​​but at the Soviet one, which was located opposite the British one (the American embassy was much further away, on the outskirts of the city in a dubious area). A tarpaulin corridor was created between the embassies so that the movements of the leaders were not visible from the outside. The diplomatic complex thus created was surrounded by three rings of infantry and tanks. For three days of the conference, the city was completely blocked by troops and special services. Tehran suspended the activities of all media, turned off the telephone, telegraph and radio communications. Even the families of Soviet diplomats were temporarily "evacuated" from the zone of upcoming negotiations.

The leadership of the Third Reich instructed the Abwehr to organize an assassination attempt on the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in Tehran. The secret operation, codenamed "Long Jump", was developed by the famous Nazi saboteur No. 1, head of the SS secret service in the VI department of the imperial security headquarters, Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, who since 1943 was Hitler's special agent for special assignments (he was called "the man with the scar ”, at one time he rescued Mussolini from captivity, carried out a number of high-profile operations, such as the assassination of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in 1934 and the arrest of Austrian President Miklas and Chancellor Schuschnigg in 1938, followed by the invasion of the Wehrmacht and the occupation of Austria). Later, in 1966, Otto Skorzeny confirmed that he was instructed to kill Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt or steal them in Tehran by entering the British Embassy from the side of the Armenian cemetery, from which the spring began.

On the Soviet side, a group of professional intelligence officers took part in disclosing the assassination attempt on the leaders of the Big Three. Information about the impending terrorist attack was reported to Moscow from the Volyn forests by scout Nikolai Kuznetsov, and in the spring of 1943 a radiogram came from the center stating that the Germans were planning to carry out sabotage in Tehran during a conference with the participation of the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, with the aim of sabotage is the physical elimination of conference participants. All members of the group of Soviet intelligence officers under the leadership of Gevork Vartanyan were mobilized to prevent a terrorist act.

At the end of the summer of 1943, the Germans dropped a team of six radio operators into the region of Lake Qom near the city of Qom (70 km from Tehran). After 10 days, they were already near Tehran, where they transferred to a truck and got to the city. From a villa specially prepared for this by local agents, a group of radio operators established radio contact with Berlin in order to prepare a springboard for the landing of saboteurs led by Otto Skorzeny. However, these ambitious plans were not destined to come true - Vartanyan's agents, together with the British from MI6, took direction finding and deciphered all their messages. Soon, after a long search for a radio transmitter, the entire group was captured and forced to work with Berlin "under the hood". At the same time, in order to prevent the landing of the second group, during the interception of which it was impossible to avoid losses on both sides, they were given the opportunity to convey that they had been discovered. Upon learning of the failure, Berlin abandoned its plans.

A few days before the start of the conference, arrests were made in Tehran, resulting in the arrest of more than 400 German agents. The last to be taken was Franz Mayer, who had gone deep underground: he was found in the Armenian cemetery, where he, having dyed and let go of his beard, worked as a gravedigger. Of the large number of agents found, some were arrested and most were recruited. Some were handed over to the British, others were deported to the Soviet Union.

Memory of the conference

• "Tehran-43" - a 1980 feature television film about the prevention of the Tehran terrorist attack
• Monument to Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill (Sochi)
• Serial film "Death to spies. Crimea"
• Documentary-feature film "True story. Tehran-43"

Notes

1. followed by the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
2. pravda54
3. RECORD OF THE CONVERSATION OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONERS OF THE USSR STALIN WITH US PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT December 1, 1943
4. V. A. Zolotarev The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: military-historical essays in four books. - M.: Nauka, 1999. - ISBN 978-5-02-008655-5
5. Mälksoo L. Soviet annexation and state continuity: the international legal status of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940-1991. and after 1991 = Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Case of the Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR. - Tartu: Tartu University Press, 2005. - P. 149-154. - 399 p. - ISBN 9949-11-144-7.
6. M. Yu. Myagkov in search of the future: an American assessment of the participation of the USSR in the post-war structure of Europe in 1941-1945. // Bulletin of MGIMO (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. - 2008. - No. 3.
7. 1 2 The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Collection of documents. - M.: Politizdat, 1984. - V. 2. Tehran conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - S. 32-33. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
8. 1 2 3 Recording of a conversation between I. V. Stalin and F. Roosevelt on November 29, 1943 at 2 p.m. 30 min. // The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Collection of documents. - M.: Politizdat, 1984. - V. 2. Tehran conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - S. 101-105. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
9. Recording of a conversation between I.V. Stalin and F. Roosevelt on December 1, 1943 at 15:00. 20 minutes. // The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Collection of documents. - M.: Politizdat, 1984. - V. 2. Tehran conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - S. 151-152. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
10. Great Patriotic War: Opportunities are real, but unrealized
11. Tehran-43: “We were not like that!..” Zavtra newspaper. No. 44 (728) dated October 31, 2007
12. Illegals. // "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", No. 3487 of May 28, 2004
13. From the diary of the German intelligence officer F. Mayer. Iran. 1941-1942 // "Domestic Archives" No. 3, 2003
14. Materials of the Tehran Conference of 1943 Electronic Library of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University
15. TV series on Channel One
16. True story. Tehran-43.

Literature

• Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Allied Powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain / Gromyko A. - (The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945). - 100,000 copies.
• Karpov V. Generalissimo. Book 2. - M.: Veche, 2011. - 496 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9533-5891-0.
• Berezhkov V. Tehran 1943. - M.: Press Agency News Publishing House, 1968. - 128 p. - 150,000 copies.
• Churchill, Winston Spencer. Closing the Ring. - Boston: Mariner Books, 1986. - Vol. 5. - 704 p. - (The Second World War). - ISBN 978-0395410592.
• Foster, Rhea Dulles. The Road to Tehran: The Story of Russia and America, 1781 - 1943. - Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944. - 279 p.

Links

• Materials of the Tehran Conference
• Tehran-Yalta-Potsdam
• "Three Power Declaration" and "Three Power Declaration on Iran"
• Schwanitz V. G. 4-2010 Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in Iran (Stalin, Roosevelt und Churchill in Iran, Webversion (German))

Tehran conference, Tehran conference 1943, Tehran conference 1943, Tehran conference briefly

Tehran Conference Information About

The Tehran Conference was an important milestone in uniting the Allies against the Axis forces. The leaders of the three leading states participating in the conference were able to discuss goals and wars and the further course of action, and also began to act together to bring the day of victory closer and reduce losses.

The Tehran Conference is one of the key political and historical events in the first half of the 20th century, as well as the first conference during the Second World War, which was attended by the political leaders of the so-called "Big Three" - the three leading states of the 20th century.

In total, during the Second World War and after its completion, the Yalta, Tehran and Potsdam conferences took place, which decided the fate of the post-war world and laid the foundation for an organization that would be responsible for maintaining order in the second half of the twentieth century.

The 1943 Tehran Conference was attended by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (USSR), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA) and Sir Winston Churchill (Great Britain).

The meeting of the leaders of the "Big Three" took place from November 28 to December 1, 1943 and was practically not accompanied by conflicts between the three representatives, although they had rather different visions of the further strategy of military operations and the organization of the post-war world.

The Tehran Conference got its name from the city of sunny Tehran, which is located in the country of Iran, where it was held.

I.V. Stalin, W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt at the negotiating table at the Tehran Conference

Between the allies, relations during World War II until the Tehran Conference were quite tense. That is why the members of the union could not previously work together with maximum efficiency. The meeting in Tehran corrected this situation, and world leaders agreed to act together against a common powerful enemy in the form of the Third Reich regime, as well as fascist regimes in Europe and Japan.

Like any such important political event, the Tehran Conference, on which the future fate of mankind depended, caused a large-scale resonance in the media and quickly became the main news of authoritative publications.

Training

Initially, it was difficult to decide where the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition would meet - the Tehran Conference could well be called Cairo, Baghdad or Istanbul.

It is worth noting that it was not very convenient for Roosevelt and Churchill to hold a conference in Tehran. The first wanted to hold it somewhere in North Africa (at that moment there was a huge American army there, which would not have given the Germans a chance to disrupt the meeting). And Churchill believed that it was best to spend it in London or Cairo, which was under the protection of the British army. Roosevelt and Churchill also said that they would not be able to fly to the Soviet Union and were ready, for example, to hold a conference in Alaska. Stalin said that he would not fly so far from the front, because his country is now in a difficult situation, soldiers and civilians needed a powerful leader.

And yet it was Stalin who had the right to dictate his own terms, which he achieved through major victories over Germany during and after Stalingrad. The leaders of the United States and Great Britain could not oppose anything to such an argument. He told Roosevelt and Churchill that a country was needed for holding all three embassies: British, American and Soviet - Iran was ideally suited for this. At that time, this country was under the control of Soviet, British and partly American combat units. Consequently, the leaders of the "Big Three" could not be afraid of disrupting the conference - the danger came only from secret agents.

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill nevertheless agreed that the conference should be held in Tehran. Although after it there were also small conferences in Cairo, which took place without the participation of the Soviet leader.

Before the Tehran conference, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Cairo, but then went to Iran. Stalin himself left Moscow by train in November 1943. The leader of the USSR personally selected Soviet representatives, and his journey was labeled "secretly". Only a few from the high command, as well as some political figures, knew about the date of the departure of the general secretary and his route.

Upon arrival in Tehran, Roosevelt accepted Stalin's offer to settle in the Soviet embassy, ​​guided by security concerns. Churchill refused and settled in the British Legation. It was decided that the conference should take place in the Soviet-British diplomatic complex.

Conference Goals

The main purpose of the Tehran conference was as follows: "develop a final strategy in the fight against Nazism and fascism, break Germany, her European allies and Japan."

It is possible to determine the main provisions (questions) of the Tehran Conference, which were raised for discussion by the leaders of the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition. Among the key decisions taken at the Tehran conference, the following can be distinguished:

1. The opening of the "second front" in France. The final date was adopted for the start of a large-scale military operation, which was called "Overlord" (later it was postponed to June 6, 1944).
2. At the Tehran conference, the heads of government of the USSR, the US and the UK discussed whether to grant independence to Iran. At that time, the military forces of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union were located in this country.
3. The problem of the so-called "Polish question" began to be discussed, since this state was one of the first to suffer from the oppression of Germany and the USSR.
4. At the Tehran Conference, it was decided that the USSR would enter the war against Japan, but only after the threat from Germany in Europe disappeared, therefore, the Allies must first help defeat the Third Reich.
5. Among the main issues under consideration at the Tehran conference was the post-war structure of the world, namely the borders of states in Europe. At the conference, approximate first contours of the post-war world were indicated.
6. The participants in the Tehran Conference discussed issues of ensuring peace and international security in the post-war period.

The Tehran Conference also discussed the issue of Turkey's entry into the war against Germany and its European allies. The main initiator of Turkey's entry into the war was British Prime Minister Churchill.

Churchill also said that in the event of Turkey's entry into hostilities, Great Britain would provide significant support - it would provide new modern weapons, strengthen the Turkish army with two infantry divisions, and also provide air support. Otherwise, if Turkey refuses to enter the war on the side of the Allies, then Churchill will cut off military supplies, prevent the Turkish government from participating in a peace conference and talk about allowing the Soviet Union to pass through the Bosphorus.

At the Tehran conference, neither Stalin nor Roosevelt supported Churchill's point of view. They believed that the opening of a new front in the Balkans would only weaken the position of the Allies before the landing in Normandy, which at that time was already being actively prepared.

The opening of the "second front"

The main decision of the Tehran Conference was to approve the start date for Operation Overlord, which would mark the opening of a "second front" in Western Europe, namely in northern France. Initially, it was decided that the troops would launch an offensive around May 1944.

Stalin said that the USSR suffered more than others because of the Second World War of 1941-1945, since it was the Soviet people that held back the main forces of the Wehrmacht. He insisted on opening a "second front" as soon as possible.

Also, one cannot deny the fact that the USSR did not really need another front to open in Western Europe. The fact is that the victory over Stalingrad seriously undermined the military power of Nazi Germany and thereby strengthened the Red Army. Roosevelt and Churchill understood this very well and knew that the military power of the USSR would be quite enough to independently destroy the forces of the Wehrmacht and break the government of the Third Reich.

What was most interested in opening a "second front" was actually the United States. The United States, having started hostilities in Western Europe, could strengthen its position in Europe after the end of the war. To prevent the Soviet Union from suspecting such a goal of the United States, the American delegation at the Tehran conference took a wait-and-see attitude, thereby inflating its own worth.

The American delegation led by Roosevelt could not convince the Soviet leader about other dates for the start of the operation, and then Churchill took the initiative, saying that they would be ready in May.

In fact, the level of training of the allies was not at a sufficient level and it was decided to postpone the operation.

"Overlord" or as it is also called - "Norman operation", is still considered the largest amphibious operation in the history of mankind. According to the plans of the command, it was divided into two stages:

• Operation Neptune- its essence was to land troops on the Normandy coast and seize a bridgehead in Northern France for a further offensive on the occupied territories in Western Europe;
• Operation Cobra-breakthrough of the Nazi defenses and the liberation of France, which followed immediately after Operation Neptune.

Operation Overlord was strictly classified so that the enemy could not prepare for defense. In the military bases in which the soldiers participating in the operation were located, it was decided not to let the fighters go beyond their borders so that there would be no leakage of information.

In addition to Great Britain, the United States and their allies, French soldiers under the command of Charles de Gaulle also participated in the battle for France. At the beginning of the operation, the number of fighters ready for landing was almost 1.5 million. And by the time it was completed, the number of soldiers totaled almost 3 million. The Germans were more than twice outnumbered.

The operation was undertaken on a huge scale - the Allies landed on a coastline 80 kilometers long.

Post-war issues

The heads of government of England (Great Britain), the USA and the USSR at the Tehran conference expressed their opinion on the solution of post-war problems in Europe.

The most pressing issues were:

• "German question";
• "Polish question";
• recovery of the European economy - primarily France.

Question about Germany

The question of Germany or the "German question" is one of the key European geopolitical problems of the 20th century. The leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition could not agree on a common opinion.

For example, French leader Charles de Gaulle insisted on permanently dividing Germany into several independent states. Such a decision would completely save France from the further threat of Germany, which in the course of two world wars inflicted enormous damage on them.

US President Roosevelt said that the country also needs to be divided, because if this is not done, the ground for a new conflict may arise. Germany, in his opinion, must remain united under the control of the Allies until complete denazification takes place.

Soviet Union insisted that the country be divided into spheres of influence. This led to conflicts between the allies, and as a result, a single country was divided into the FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) and the GDR (German Democratic Republic). The first was under the control of France, Great Britain and the United States, and the second - under the control of the USSR. As a result, this division lasted until 1990. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany was unified into a single state.

Division of lands during the "German question"

For a complete solution of the "German question", four political principles were issued, which were included in historiography as "four D":

1. Denazification. A key principle that implied the complete liquidation of all Nazi organizations.
2. Demilitarization is the disarmament of the German army.
3. Democratization is the return of multi-party elections and all freedoms to the population.
4. Decartelization is the dissolution of all large economic enterprises (cartels) that controlled the country's economy and did not provide opportunities for the development of medium and small enterprises.

Polish question

The Polish government, which at that time was in exile and received political asylum in England, insisted that the lands of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus be returned to them.

The leaders of the Western powers considered the claims to these territories insufficient and decided that they would be solved at the expense of Germany.

Roosevelt and Churchill were unanimous in their opinion that Poland should abandon the idea of ​​a huge empire of Poland that existed several centuries ago. They believed that she should come to terms with the status of a small state.

Attack on the leaders of the "Big Three"

In 1943, it had already become clear to Hitler that the war would be almost impossible to win. The USSR launched a swift counteroffensive, and the Allied forces will soon be replenished with US troops, followed by the opening of a “second front”.

It was vital for the leadership of the Third Reich to disrupt the negotiations in Tehran and destroy the leaders of the USA, the USSR and Great Britain.

To this end, the Abwehr (the intelligence and counterintelligence agency of Germany) was instructed to organize an assassination attempt on Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. The best Nazi spy, Otto Skorzeny, was put in charge of the task, and he had already completed several difficult tasks, including saving Mussolini from captivity. The operation to eliminate the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition was codenamed "Long Jump".

Hitler's Spy Machine - Otto Skorzeny

The counterintelligence of the USSR was able to find out about Operation Long Jump, after which Stalin ordered the mobilization of all Soviet intelligence in Iran to counter the German agents.

Stalin also immediately reported the impending terrorist attack to Roosevelt and Churchill. Since the US embassy in Tehran was far from the Soviet one - on the very edge of the city, Roosevelt decided to settle in the Soviet one for greater security. Churchill did not have to do this, since the British and Soviet embassies were opposite each other.

In the summer in Tehran, before the start of the Tehran conference, the landing of German radio operators began, who established radio contact with Berlin in order to prepare a bridgehead for the landing of a sabotage group led by Skorzeny.

Since the Allies knew about the operation, the Americans, along with Soviet intelligence officers, intercepted German radio messages, which allowed them to find the radio operators and capture them.

Berlin found out about the capture of radio operators and stopped the operation to land the second group. At that time, there were already several hundred German agents in Tehran, who were safely found and also captured, also forcing them to work for the Allied intelligence. Thus, most of the agents were recruited.

Final agreements and documents

At the conference, it became obvious that Soviet-American relations during the Second World War were warm - both leaders adhered to a similar concept of seeing the world after the hostilities. Churchill continued to adhere to the policy of isolating the USSR.

Following the results of the Tehran Conference, the leaders of the "Big Three" decided to open a "second front". The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff said that the US army is fully prepared for the offensive. Based on the plan, at the time of the offensive in France, the USSR was obliged to launch an offensive on the Eastern Front on the same day, so that the German command could not transfer forces from the Eastern Front to the Western.

In the end, the Tehran Conference, Stalin accepted the demands of the allies for the USSR to enter the war against fascist Japan after the military power of Germany was completely broken.

The chairmen of the heads of government of the United States, Great Britain and the USSR at the Tehran Conference adopted the so-called "Declaration of the Three on Iran". According to this declaration, Iran should become a fully independent state after the end of hostilities.

The Big Three leaders also tried to convince the Turkish government to go to war against Germany. However, this was not achieved at the Tehran conference.

At a conference between the Soviet and British representatives a conflict arose around the "Polish question". The Polish government, which at that time was in exile and based in the UK under the protection of Churchill, brought charges against Stalin. Its essence was that the Soviet troops during the joint occupation of Poland, together with parts of the Wehrmacht, shot thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn forest. Stalin denied these accusations in every possible way and said that they simply wanted to blackmail him so that the USSR would make territorial concessions to Poland.

At the Tehran Conference, the leaders of the Western powers made territorial concessions to the USSR. It was also decided that the post-war world would be governed by an international organization, the main participants of which would be the USA, the USSR, Great Britain and France.

At the link http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/War_Conf/tehran.htm, you can view the materials of the Tehran Conference of 1943. Conference decisions, records of conversations between heads of government and working documents are posted at this address. Based on these documents, it will not be difficult to determine the main (specific) provisions of the Tehran Conference.

For comparison, one can also compare the decisions of the Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences.

Tehran	Yalta	Potsdam
1. The USSR agreed to take part in the war against Japan after the defeat of Germany. 2. The date of the opening of the "second front" was approved, although after it was changed. 3. Consideration of post-war problems began, such as the "German" and "Polish issues." 4. The participants decided on the fate of Iran - after the war, it should become completely independent. 5. The leaders of the "Big Three" came to a consensus on the creation of an organization that would maintain peace after the war.	1. The leaders of the "Big Three" came to an agreement on the division of Germany into four occupation zones. 2. The first agreements were reached on the creation of the UN (United Nations Organization). 3. The "Declaration on a Liberated Europe" was signed, which dealt with assistance to the states of Eastern Europe. 4. The issue of the post-war structure of Poland has been resolved. 5. The parties agreed on the amount of compensation to be paid by Germany to the victorious countries.	1. The leaders agreed on the goals of the occupation of Germany - the allies had to carry out denazification, democratization, decentralization and decartelization. 2. Stalin confirmed his promise to declare war on Japan after the victory over Germany. 3. At the same conference, a conflict began between the parties, which led to the Cold War. 4. Reparation payments were made. 5. The leaders of the "big three" came to a common opinion on the account of the borders of states in post-war Europe.

Post-war world order

As a result of the Tehran Conference, the leaders of the coalition managed to come to three agreements regarding the post-war structure of Europe:

1. At the Tehran Conference, the participating powers decided the fate of some Eastern European countries - the Baltic states were to become part of the USSR after the vote of the citizens of these countries.
2. The Soviet leader managed to convince the United States and Great Britain to transfer part of East Prussia to the USSR, namely the Kaliningrad region.
3. One of the decisions of the Tehran Conference regarding the arrangement of the world in the future was not accepted - Roosevelt proposed dividing Germany into five independent states.

Much controversy arose about the first agreement after the war. Historians claimed that they were officially allowed to annex the Baltic states to the USSR, although Washington then denied this fact. The United States at the conference did not openly support such a move, but did not oppose it, thereby giving Stalin the will.

After Tehran, the Yalta and Potsdam conferences added to the list of these agreements.

Security Issues in the Post-War World

US President Franklin Roosevelt expressed his point of view on the creation in the future of an international organization that would guarantee and maintain security in the world. He had already spoken about this before the start of the conference to the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov. He visited the US capital Washington in the summer of 1942. Roosevelt also discussed again in May 1943 with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.

Roosevelt outlined his plans to Stalin in November 1943. For security in the world, in his opinion, an organization that would work on the basis of the principles of the United Nations should be responsible. However, this organization should not be like the same League of Nations, which failed in its duties and allowed the Second World War. A new organization for the preservation of peace would not decide military matters.

According to Roosevelt, the new organization would have three bodies:

1. general organ, which consisted of all countries participating in the Organization. His powers included only the ability to make recommendations. At each meeting of the body, all participating countries can express their opinion on a particular issue.
2. Executive committee, which would include: one of the dominions of Great Britain, one country of the Middle East, one Latin American country, two European states, the USA, Great Britain, China and the USSR.
3. police committee, who will monitor the preservation of peace in order to avoid another aggression from Japan and Germany. It should include four states: the USA, China, Great Britain and the USSR.

Stalin and Churchill liked the idea put forward by Roosevelt. However, Stalin also objected that such a scheme was considered wrong on the part that such an organization would affect the rights of small European states, which also suffered greatly during the Second World War.

The leader of the USSR, in turn, suggested that the best solution would be to create two organizations at once - one for the Far East, and the second for Europe.

Churchill was in general agreement with the proposals of Roosevelt and Stalin, but considered that one or two organizations would not be enough - in his opinion there should be three. Roosevelt was against such an organization of the world after the war.

In December 1943, Roosevelt had a conversation with Stalin, and they came to the conclusion that the most rational would be to create one organization after all. Despite the fact that at the Potsdam Conference world leaders actively talked about the creation of an organization for the preservation of peace, it never made a formal decision on its creation.

Stalin refused to come to previous meetings, justifying the refusals with various reasons. Stalin did not attend the Cairo conference before Tehran for the reason that a representative of China was there. China was at war with Japan, and the Soviet Union remained neutral with Japan. In addition, it is also known that Stalin was afraid of airplanes. Even in Tehran, he, in the end, most likely, arrived by train through Baku.

Tehran was chosen as the meeting place for several reasons. The main one is that, in fact, Iran was occupied by Soviet and British troops and was ruled by a "puppet" government. De facto. Several parts of the Soviet troops were located in the capital of Iran. Cairo, Basra, Beirut were seen as compromise options, but Tehran was the most convenient.

Roosevelt and Stalin

Roosevelt was most interested in meeting with Stalin. It was fundamentally important for him to know the position of the USSR in the war with Japan. Roosevelt was going to "charm" Stalin, he was famous for his "courting". The American president viewed the Tehran conference not as a meeting of three, but as a meeting of "two and a half". Churchill was "half".

Security

Security issues at the Tehran conference were resolved at the highest level. The British embassy, ​​where the meetings were held, was surrounded by several security rings, during the conference in Tehran they cut off communications and banned the release of the media. Such "sterility" would not be possible elsewhere. The excellent organization of security made it possible to prevent the "assassination of the century" organized by Otto Skorzeny.

Churchill

Churchill solved his problems at the Tehran Conference. It was they who proposed a solution to the "Polish question". It was important to Churchill that both the USSR and the USA began to consider Great Britain as an equal power. Churchill was certainly an experienced politician, but during the Tehran conference, he played, by and large, second fiddle. The first were Stalin and Roosevelt. Neither one nor the other liked Churchill, and it was on the basis of dislike for Churchill that the rapprochement between Roosevelt and Stalin took place. Diplomacy is a delicate matter. By the way, on the occasion of Churchill's birthday, November 30, a solemn reception was arranged at the embassy.

"Long Jump"

Operation Long Jump was characterized by breadth of design and the same breadth of stupidity. Hitler planned to kill "three birds with one stone" with one blow, but the miscalculation was that the "hares" were not so simple. Eliminate Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt in Tehran was entrusted to a group led by Otto Skoceny. Kaltenbrunner himself coordinated the operation.

German intelligence learned of the time and place of the conference in mid-October 1943 by deciphering the American naval code. Soviet intelligence quickly uncovered the plot.

A group of militants Skorzeny was trained near Vinnitsa, where Medvedev's partisan detachment was operating. According to one version of the development of events, Kuznetsov established friendly relations with the German intelligence officer Oster. Having owed Kuznetsov, Oster offered to pay him off with Iranian carpets, which he was going to bring to Vinnitsa from a business trip to Tehran. This information, transmitted by Kuznetsov to the center, coincided with other data on the upcoming action. 19-year-old Soviet spy Gevork Vartanyan assembled a small group of agents in Iran, where his father, also an spy, posed as a wealthy merchant. Vartanyan managed to locate a group of six German radio operators and intercept their communications. The ambitious operation "Long Jump" failed, the "big three" remained unscathed. This was another failure of Otto Skorzenny, a great adventurer and not the most successful saboteur. The saboteurs wanted to enter the British embassy through a pipe leading from the Armenian cemetery.

Skorzeny's operation even helped Soviet intelligence: about four hundred people were detained in Iran. The German network was practically destroyed.

Stalin and Prince

According to the memoirs of Gevork Vartanyan, when the Tehran Conference ended, the only one of the three leaders of world powers, Joseph Stalin, went to express gratitude to the young Shah of Iran Mohammed Reza Pahlavi for the reception, and the British expelled Reza Shah from the country. Of course, the young shah was not ready for such a visit. When Stalin entered the shah's chamber, the young tsar jumped up from his throne, ran up, knelt down and wanted to kiss Stalin's hand, but the leader of the USSR did not allow this and raised the shah from his knees. This event itself, that Stalin expressed gratitude for the reception to the head of Iran, had a huge resonance. Neither Roosevelt nor Churchill did this.

Repartition of the world

At the Tehran conference, in fact, all the decisions that were developed during the Yalta and Postdam conferences were adopted. The Tehran conference was the most important of the three. It made the following decisions:
1. An exact date has been set for the Allies to open a second front in France (and the “Balkan strategy” proposed by Great Britain has been rejected).
2. The issues of granting independence to Iran ("Declaration on Iran") were discussed.
3. The beginning of the solution of the Polish question has been laid.
4. The question of the beginning of the USSR war with Japan after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
5. The contours of the post-war structure of the world were outlined.
6. A unity of views has been achieved on issues of ensuring international security and lasting peace.

On November 28, 1943, the famous conference began in Tehran, at which the leaders of the three great powers, Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill decided "the fate of the world." The director of the Center for International Studies of the Institute for the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Anatoly Ivanovich Utkin tells about how it happened.

The article is based on the material of the program "The Price of Victory" of the radio station "Echo of Moscow". The broadcast was conducted by Vitaly Dymarsky and Dmitry Zakharov. You can read and listen to the original interview in full here.

In late November - early December 1943, the allies of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union (more precisely, the leaders of these three great powers) gathered together in Tehran for the first time during the war years.

As for the choice of location, there is a separate story. It is known, for example, that Franklin Roosevelt did not want to go to Tehran. He was more suited to Cyprus, North Africa. At the last moment, the conference was even in jeopardy because the president wanted Basra. Why not Tehran? Let's start with the fact that in 1910 England and France divided Iran into two parts - northern and southern. And in early 1941, the British and Russians entered Iran. That is, northern Iran, including Tehran, was completely a zone of influence of Russia. The American president did not like this very much - he worked, as it were, on foreign territory. Moreover, he worked doubly, because he was settled on the territory of the Soviet embassy. He spent only the first night at the American embassy, ​​and then he agreed: after all, the tsarist embassy was chic, it was closer to the center, closer to the British embassy, ​​and besides, Stalin offered Roosevelt the central building, while he himself lived in a small neighboring apartment.

Many historians consider Tehran the pinnacle of the anti-Hitler coalition.

An important aspect in this story is the issue of security, because the Soviet embassy in Tehran, the former royal one, was essentially a citadel, and the number of people with a gun at Stalin was significantly greater than Roosevelt could bring with him. That is, as if everyone perfectly understood that there was a danger of an assassination attempt, and it was, to put it mildly, almost impossible to commit it on the territory of the Soviet embassy. The only thing that did not suit Roosevelt was that the frogs croaked very loudly under his window, preventing him from sleeping. In the end, the embassy security decided this issue radically, the president did not complain anymore.

In general, this great man had his oddities. For example, he loved blue, but hated anything green, hated closed rooms, air conditioners, and so on. There is a lot to talk about here.

Be that as it may, Roosevelt settled in the Soviet embassy. English was nearby, so positioning was convenient. Nevertheless, a significant part of the meetings took place on our territory, in the central room of the Soviet embassy. Heavy dark carpets, large armchairs... And, of course, Stalin suggested Roosevelt as chairman of the conference.

Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in Tehran, 1943

The Tehran Conference went down in the history of the Second World War as a meeting at which the issue of opening a second front was finally settled. The leaders of the three countries agreed that the landing would take place in May 1944. Ultimately, this happened on June 6, 1944 in Normandy.

There were again long discussions about the place, but at the very end of the conference, Roosevelt and Stalin managed to change the mood of Churchill, who constantly talked about Yugoslavia, the Balkans, the fate of Italy, that it was possible to go to the Pannonia valley, that is, he tried in every possible way to find alternatives landings in northern France.

How can this be explained? The fact is that in those days all the strength of Great Britain was in its fleet, which simply had to own the Mediterranean. If we recall what happened a year later, in October 1944, when Stalin and Churchill were negotiating, then, so to speak, the British minister asked for Greece for himself, since this gave him access to the Balkans, to which Great Britain has always been not indifferent.

The place of the conference - Tehran - was determined by Joseph Stalin

Let us say a few words about the reason for convening this conference, because it happened at the end of November 1943 for a reason. When the Soviet army crushed the Germans, or rather, did not let them through the fifteen lines of defense near Kursk and Orel, Stalin said the words that are often quoted: "We will do it ourselves." These words sounded the death knell for all plans for the unification of Western Europe, the metropolises, and so on. If Stalin thought that the Red Army could crush Germany and enter Europe as a whole, then the result is a situation in which England is again a “little boat”.

Of course, this is very significant for the position of the USA and Great Britain, but why, then, did Stalin agree to a second front? To answer this question, it is enough to imagine the losses of the country by this time. After all, there was a situation when the Red Army retreated to Stalingrad. There were 110 million left. Half of the population was occupied. Hitler still had 400 million there in Western Europe. It seemed that the Soviet Union had no chance. And now he appeared for the first time, such a glare, and Stalin was simply afraid. The losses would have been gigantic if the Red Army had gone to Berlin on its own way, without the help of the West, and so on. With all this, there is another very important point here, which, unfortunately, many people forget when it comes to the second front.

At the very beginning of the war, the first attempt to land was in Dieppe. Very unfortunate, very bloody. A relatively small contingent was landed, several thousand people, mostly Canadians, whom the Germans immediately took over and simply destroyed. It was a kind of call. After that, it became clear that it was absolutely pointless to land in small groups on the scale of a division, several divisions. The landing will be effective only when absolute superiority is achieved.

In order for the landing to be just that, it was necessary to accumulate gigantic human and military-technical resources. And to do this even within a year was unrealistic. Throwing a million people across the ocean is a very difficult task. At one time, Hans von Luke, speaking of American troops, said: “Never underestimate the Americans. If you hit them today, they will sit down, think and hit you a thousand times harder tomorrow.” And the Americans acted then, and subsequently, in precisely this way. That is, if you are already landing in Europe, then you need to have such an advantage over the German forces in France that they cannot even gasp. Therefore, it is probably not worth blaming the Allies for not landing in 1942, in 1943 - they simply did not want a repetition of Dieppe.

At the same time, one should not forget what the Allies did in the period between the once again given promise in Tehran and, in fact, the landing in Normandy. They captured Sicily, landed in the south of the Italian "boot", overthrew Mussolini with their pressure, forced Italy to capitulate. So the first ally of Germany on the European continent went into oblivion.

Soviet delegation at the Tehran Conference, 1943

But back to the Tehran conference. I wonder if Roosevelt offered Stalin to divide the world without the participation of England? Were there any separate negotiations in this trio? No, it never happened. To characterize the geopolitics of President Roosevelt, he would like England to watch Europe and America to watch England; Russia should be watched by a 400 millionth China, and weak China would be helped by America. In this situation, the keys to the world would be with the United States.

There were two important geopolitical issues. First, Roosevelt was categorically opposed to leaving zones of influence with the European metropolises. And secondly, he wanted the importance of China to be raised, so that China would become one of the four "cops" in this world.

The main issue at the Tehran conference was the opening of a second front

Curiously, how did the leaders of the three great powers get to Tehran? It is known that Stalin arrived by plane, but with one landing. He landed in Baku, where he was approached by the leaders of Soviet aviation: the commander of aviation, Marshal Novikov, and the commander of heavy bomber aviation, Golovanov, who offered him a choice of two flight options. According to the first, Stalin flew to Tehran together with Colonel General Golovanov, as for the second option, the colonel, unknown to the world, was supposed to bring Stalin to the conference on his plane. And then the "father of peoples" noted that generals rarely fly, and sat down with the colonel. Iosif Vissarionovich traveled to Baku by train. The return trip was the same. Yes, it is worth saying that these carpets, which so surprised Churchill and Roosevelt, were, of course, from Moscow hotels (later this “trick” would be repeated in Yalta and so on).

How did Roosevelt and Churchill travel? What didn't Churchill want? Churchill did not want a bilateral US-Soviet meeting. And so when it was finally decided that he would be present, the British minister rejoiced, even wrote poetry. In general, it was a flight to Cairo, because on the twentieth of November 1943, the Cairo Conference took place. There, unlike in Tehran, the Chinese were present, there was Chiang Kai-shek, who, as many note, behaved obsequiously. And, of course, Churchill and Roosevelt understood that Stalin did not like it when the Western allies agreed among themselves before meeting with him. This can largely explain the behavior of Churchill during this meeting, who all the time wanted to show that they did not have an a priori agreement.

The leaders of the "Big Three" celebrate the birthday of the British Minister. Tehran, November 30, 1943

What about the German leadership? What was his reaction? We will not focus on this topic, we will only note that at least one attempt was made to kill all three. A certain Schultz, whose last name was Belyaev, an Abwehr major and a major in Soviet intelligence, introduced by Germany in 1930, noticed that he had fallen into the zone of suspicion. Then he messed up the transmitter, the Soviet fighters shot down the plane, which was full of machine guns.

It is also worth saying that the materials of the conference came to Hitler at lightning speed, literally on the second day, because a certain Cicero was a lackey at the British ambassador in Ankara. He took out the keys from the sleeping ambassador, opened the safe and read all the materials. This data was sent to Berlin, so Hitler had a complete understanding of what awaited him in the event of a defeat.

But the Germans did not do very well with Cicero, at least in that they paid him with counterfeit pounds sterling. And when, after the end of the war, the poor man decided to retire and buy a house, he was seized and sent to prison. There was a whole tragedy when Cicero turned to Germany with the words: "I worked for your nation, for you, for eternal Germany, and you repaid me with this."

The foundation of the UN was laid at the Tehran Conference in 1943

A very important point that cannot be ignored is the routine phrase that "at the Tehran Conference the foundations for the redivision of the world in the post-war years were laid." As far as is known, Roosevelt insisted that Germany be divided into five parts, into five separate states. And these states were even named. For example, in the south there was to be a union of Hungary, Austria and Bavaria. Prussia was to be completely destroyed. Which, in fact, happened.

But not only the foundations of the post-war redistribution, but also the post-war structure were laid in Tehran. Roosevelt came with a certain scheme (a prototype of the United Nations), according to which somewhere between 10-11 large states were supposed to observe how the world behaves. The Police Committee (the prototype of the Security Council), according to the plan of the American president, consisted of four states: the USA, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China.

“But what about France? When did she join the big three powers?” – begs the question. Winston Churchill fought like a lion for France. He understood that they had a common destiny. Many people did not like Charles de Gaulle, but they understood that if France went down, then the same would happen to all of Western Europe. Therefore, by agreement at the Yalta Conference, France also received an occupation zone, and not just anywhere, but in West Berlin.

Presentation of the sword of Stalingrad during the Tehran Conference, 1943

At the very moment when the leaders of the Big Three were meeting in Tehran, the Cold War began. She had not yet manifested herself, but her ghost was already on the horizon. What happened? When the great fascist council removed Benito Mussolini from power and Field Marshal Badoglio came back to power, the question arose: how to govern Italy? The details were not agreed upon. In principle, it was clear that a military group would be created, consisting of American, British and Soviet generals. And so it happened. Stalin sent his general. And here (attention!) what happens. It's September 1943. Most of all, this situation was feared by Churchill, who knew that there were two million communists in Italy, and if they turned to the Soviet embassy, ​​then Italy would collapse for the West, disappear.

So, the Soviet general was offered a villa with wine, with all kinds of entertainment in wartime and non-wartime. And this turned out to be the way out. But history, as you know, is insidious: exactly one year later, namely on August 23, 1944, Soviet troops entered Bucharest, and almost automatically the British and French sent their generals. Then Stalin invites them to the Carpathians to walk, relax, to villas and so on.

Thus, the germ of the Cold War arose: how to manage the states that are liberated? Later, Stalin said: “I gave you France, Italy, Greece. Why are you taking Hungary away from me?” In general, Stalin managed to impose his will on both Roosevelt and Churchill: he did not give up either the Baltic states, which, as is well known, became part of the Soviet Union, or the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus.

Here we must not forget about the Polish question, which was discussed quite vigorously at the conference. Stalin had a phenomenal trump card. (Let's go back to the beginning, on the first day of the conference, remember some details). The Soviet leader was 1.59 m, large in the shoulders, with a large beautiful head. Roosevelt in a wheelchair was about the same height ... In general, even this mattered. Let us recall the words of Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, who, speaking with the Polish government in exile in London, said: “Well, all right, we will mobilize our forces, we will try, so to speak, to liberate Poland, the Red Army plus the British army. But you can imagine that the Russians will immediately put forward twice as powerful forces, that we cannot win here. We are creating a state for you, where from the center to the border there will be 500 km everywhere. These are the best borders in Europe. You will get a huge piece of Germany."

But at the peak moment, when everything was being decided, when his eyes were shining, Stalin asked for a ten-minute break. With Molotov, they brought out a mossy, old map, which at one time, in 1920, was sent to Moscow from the West. It was a map with the Curzon Line, the British Foreign Secretary at the time. And Stalin said words to which it was difficult to oppose anything: “Do you think that we are less patriots than Lord Curzon, who considered this border to be a national division of borders? We agree to withdraw 5-10 km to the east, but we cannot categorically reject Curzon. It was a strong argument.

At the Tehran conference, Stalin said words that he never repeated again. He said that "the current war is a war of motors." “The Americans produce 8-10 thousand aircraft per month, we produce 3 thousand aircraft, the British 3.5 thousand aircraft. This is a war of engines, and we won it only because our great ally, the United States of America, helped us.”

Posted on 04/23/2011 by Ramil

Control work plan

Introduction

Main part.

I. Preparations for the Tehran Conference

II. Military-Political Decisions of the Tehran Conference of Leaders of the "Big Three"

III. State-territorial and geopolitical decisions of the Tehran Conference

Conclusion

Notes

Sources and literature

Introduction

More than sixty years separate us from the events that are described in this work. Since then, much has changed in the world. The states that emerged as a result of the defeat of German fascism, which became part of the world socialist system, today have acquired democratic features, and the socialist system itself has turned into a myth. The Soviet Union also disappeared from the political map of the world. A whole generation has grown up that does not know what war is. But, despite all the political, economic, social transformations, the world remembers those who put their lives on the altar of victory in the name of triumph over the "brown plague".

The world has not forgotten those politicians, the leaders of the states of the anti-Hitler coalition, who during the years of the most severe war managed to overcome their class, antagonistic propositions and unite the efforts of their countries and peoples, of all progressive mankind in the struggle for the future of peace and civilization. Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin are a political monolith in the modern world, and their cooperation to this day remains the most important condition for the victory of mankind over Hitlerism and fascism.

Reading newspaper pages yellowed from time to time, modern studies of historians, political scientists, reading into the published and published documents of those times, we discover the behind-the-scenes ins and outs of diplomatic conferences, meetings and negotiations, which, in the end, became the basis of the military-political union of the three countries united one goal - to destroy fascism. Unfortunately, this alliance did not last long, and the contradictions between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition became an insurmountable obstacle to their further, post-war cooperation. At the same time, it can be said that many of the contradictions were a stumbling block during the war, as eloquently evidenced by the documents of the three conferences of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition - Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945) and Potsdam (1945).

The focus of this work is the first of three conferences - Tehran, held in the capital of Iran from November 28 to December 1, 1943. It was during this meeting and negotiations between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt that the military-political aspects of the post-war order of the world, and in particular the question of the United Nations, were touched upon. Naturally, at a time when the Second World War was in full swing, it was, first of all, about the provision of effective assistance to the Soviet people from the Allies, that is, about the opening of a second front. However, other major political issues were not left untouched.

The main purpose of this work is to show and evaluate the role of the Tehran Conference on the military-political cooperation of Great Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union in the war against Germany and its allies - Italy and Japan.

The main tasks of the work are:

Show the process of preparation for the Tehran Conference and the problems of a political, diplomatic nature related to this preparation;

To give the reader an idea of ​​the decisions made at the conference and how these decisions were made;

Assess the role and significance of the Tehran Conference in the history of the Second World War, and show its world-historical significance.

In the course of work on this topic, documentary materials were used: B. L. Tsybulevsky, Sh. P. Sanakoev "Tehran - Yalta - Potsdam: Collection of Documents", Winston Spencer Churchill "The Second World War (in 3 books)"; studies of modern authors: D.A. Volkogonov "Stalin", L. Mlechin "Foreign Ministers: Romantics and Cynics", J.P. Taylor "World War II", Charles Messenger "Encyclopedia of Wars of the 20th Century", as well as articles from encyclopedias: "World History: People , events, dates" by the Reader's Digest publishing house, the electronic edition of the "Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius" and other literature.

Main part

I.Preparations for the Tehran Conference

The meeting of the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition, which entered the historical annals as the Tehran Conference, was one of the culminating moments in the cooperation between Great Britain, the USA and the USSR during the Second World War. For the first time in recent history, the heads of states so different in all respects have come together to discuss fundamental military-political tasks. According to the doctor of historical and philosophical sciences, the author of the fundamental work "Stalin" D.A. Volkogonov (1928 - 1995), "these conferences (Tehran, Crimean, Berlin), as well as the cooperation itself as a whole, even then showed the priority of universal human values ​​over class and ideological" 1 . Therefore, it is difficult to overestimate what happened in Tehran from November 28 to December 1, 1943. British leader W.S. Churchill subsequently wrote in his memoirs of this meeting that the military conclusions determined mainly the future course of the war, while the political ones determined the possibility of creating a united Europe in which everyone - winners and vanquished - could find a reliable basis for the life and freedom of their entire exhausted population of many millions. 2.

Many historians consider Tehran the zenith of the anti-Hitler coalition. And this is fair. In the work "Pages of Diplomatic History" V.M. Berezhkov, in particular, notes that the path to this peak was not easy. From the moment Hitler attacked the USSR, the ruling circles of England and the United States showed restraint and at first were very reluctant to enter into military cooperation with the Soviet Union. While the Soviet government sought to establish allied relations with the Western powers as soon as possible, seeing this as a guarantee of a successful struggle against the powers of the fascist axis, London and Washington only under pressure of circumstances joined in joint actions against a common enemy, dragged in every possible way with the fulfillment of their obligations. obligations 3 .

Already in the course of preparations for the conference, certain contradictions emerged. First of all, they concerned the choice of the venue for the meeting. During intensive correspondence between I.V. Stalin, F.D. Roosevelt and W.S. Churchill, begun in the autumn of 1943, repeatedly discussed the issue of a joint meeting to develop a strategic plan for the speedy defeat of Germany and the post-war settlement of the geopolitical situation in Europe. The parties, after lengthy preliminary correspondence, agreed in principle on the need for such a conference. But there appeared, as it seemed at first, an insurmountable obstacle in choosing the venue for the meeting of the Big Three.

In a message addressed to Stalin dated September 6, 1943, Roosevelt stated that he "could go for a meeting in such a remote place as North Africa." Churchill, in turn, wrote that he would prefer to meet in Cyprus or Khartoum. However, already on September 8, Stalin suggested Iran as the most suitable meeting place for the Big Three. Two days later Churchill replied that he was "ready to go to Tehran" 4 . However, Roosevelt continued to insist that the choice of Tehran as the future site of the conference was unsuccessful, and offered Basra as an alternative, a city located in the southeast of Iraq, where he proposed to extend a telephone line from Tehran. Stalin continued to insist on Tehran and, as a weighty argument, said that military operations “require the daily leadership of the Main Headquarters and my personal connection with the command. In Tehran, these conditions can be ensured by the presence of a wire telegraph and telephone connection with Moscow, which cannot be said about other places. That is why my colleagues are insisting on Tehran as a meeting place” 5 . However, Roosevelt did not consider it possible to accept both Stalin's arguments and Churchill's consent. Meanwhile, Stalin, irritated by the intransigence of the American president, spoke in favor of holding the conference in any place proposed by Roosevelt, but at the same time declared that he himself did not intend to take part in the conference. The head of the Soviet Union informed the Secretary of State, who was in Moscow at that time, about this.

United States by Cordell Hallom. To him, Stalin proposed the idea of ​​replacing himself at the conference of V.M. Molotov. This meant that Roosevelt's continued insistence that Tehran was not a good choice for such a meeting could lead to the collapse of the meeting altogether. Seeing this and not wanting to miss the opportunity of personal contact with the head of the Soviet government, Roosevelt finally changed his mind and in a message dated November 8 informed Stalin that he had decided to go to Tehran.

Why, then, did Stalin insist so insistently that the meeting of the "Big Three" take place in Tehran. Here, both Stalin's psychological nature and strategic calculation may have played a role. Stalin by nature was a "homebody". He rarely left the borders of not only the country, but also Moscow and the Moscow region. For all the time of his many years at the top of state power, Stalin left the Kremlin only a counting time. One of his trips took place back in 1928 in Siberia. Tehran was the first trip abroad in his life. People who knew Stalin closely talked about his panicky fear of attempts on his life, especially from the German intelligence services, although he skillfully concealed this. Of course, Tehran did not insure against an assassination attempt either. Nevertheless, the presence of a contingent of Soviet troops on the territory of Iran, and the traditional friendly relations between the two countries that developed after October 1917 inspired Stalin with confidence in his security. At the same time, Tehran was the capital closest to the Soviet borders, from where a telegraph thread was extended to Moscow. This circumstance was cited as the main argument by Stalin in his correspondence with Roosevelt, insisting on Tehran as the only possible meeting place for the heads of state of the anti-Hitler coalition. As a result of long negotiations between the leaders of the Big Three, conducted mainly through correspondence between Stalin and Roosevelt, Roosevelt and Churchill and Churchill and Stalin, Tehran was chosen as the meeting place. In a similar telegram to the leaders of the Western powers, Stalin wrote: “I received your message from Cairo. I will be ready at your service in Tehran on November 28 in the evening” 7 . Thus, in the eyes of the Western allies, Stalin wanted to look like a gentleman, perhaps in order to win them over to his side. For the Soviet leader, the main issue of the meeting was, of course, the question of opening a second front in Europe. But not only. Stalin was also worried about the situation in post-war Europe, especially in Eastern Europe. In this regard, back in 1942, Stalin set several tasks for his diplomacy, the main of which were: to negotiate the adoption by the allies of specific obligations to open a second front, as well as to clarify the position of Churchill and American diplomatic circles regarding Eastern Europe. The Western allies, although they recognized the need to open a second front, but in 1942 and 1943 it was never opened. But aid from Great Britain and the United States under the Lend-Lease agreement continued to flow into the Soviet Union in increasing quantities, which ultimately helped the Soviet troops turn the tide of the war by defeating the German groupings of troops at Stalingrad and on the Kursk salient. At the end of 1943, no one in Europe, including most of the generals of the Wehrmacht, had no doubts about the final victory of the USSR and the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. In conditions of a radical turning point on the Eastern Front, the conference of the heads of state of the "Big Three" opened in Tehran.

II.Military-Political Decisions of the Tehran Conference of Leaders of the "Big Three"

As mentioned above, the main issue at the meeting of the leaders of the "Big Three" was the question of opening a second front in Europe. Stalin insisted that the Allies carry out the landing of Anglo-American troops in France as soon as possible. At first, Churchill came up with ideas about the need for offensive operations in southern France and Italy. In particular, Churchill at the first meeting, held on the evening of November 28, 1943, emphasized the need for the Allied forces to capture Rome. “If we take Rome,” said the British leader, “and blockade Germany from the south, then we can move on to operations in Western and Southern France, and also provide assistance to partisan armies” 8 . Roosevelt, like Churchill, at first believed that the landing of allied troops in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea was more appropriate. However, under pressure from Stalin, the leaders of the British Empire and the United States were forced to recognize the need for Operation Overlord, that is, the landing of Anglo-American troops in northern France no later than May 1944. From the history of World War II, we know that the landing in Normandy of the combined allied forces under the command of the American General Dwight Eisenhower was carried out on the night of June 5-6, 1944.

In addition to opening a second front in Europe, the most important decision in military-strategic terms, other issues of a military-political nature were also discussed in Tehran. At the conference, Churchill stubbornly argued the need to put pressure on Turkey in order to force the Turkish authorities to take the side of the Allies against Germany. During the discussion, Stalin was skeptical of Churchill's proposal. Stalin argued that Turkey would not succumb to any pressure and would adhere to the previously adopted policy of neutrality. Stalin told his allies: “As for Turkey, I doubt that Turkey will enter the war. She will not enter the war, no matter how much pressure we put on her…” 9 . Nevertheless, Roosevelt and Churchill succeeded in persuading Stalin of the need to put pressure on Turkey to declare war on Germany. “We must try to force Turkey to fight,” Stalin admitted in the end, “it has many divisions that are inactive” 10 .

In subsequent meetings, at the initiative of the American side, the problem of military assistance from the Soviet Union to the allied forces fighting in the Pacific theater of operations was raised.

As you know, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese Air Force, consisting of 180 Nakajima B5N1 and Nakajima B5N2 attack bombers and torpedo bombers, attacked the American Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor (in the harbor on Ohau Island). As a result, another theater of operations was opened, this time in the Pacific.

By the time the Tehran Conference opened, Anglo-American troops in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region were fighting successfully against Japan. Between June and the end of 1943, Allied forces, after fierce fighting, occupied the Gilbert Islands, Solomon Islands (except for Bougainville Island, where fighting continued until the end of the war), the western part of the island of New Britain and the southeastern part of New Guinea. In the North Pacific, American troops retook the Aleutian Islands in May-August 1943. But, despite these successes, the position of the allies in the Asia-Pacific region remained still critical. Therefore, there was nothing surprising in the fact that Roosevelt turned to Stalin for help. The author of the study "World War II" - A J. P. Taylor was surprised by something else, namely, Stalin's consent to enter the war against Japan, after the final defeat of Germany. “This greatly simplified the task,” writes Taylor, “the Russians, and not the Americans, will take the main blow of the Japanese army. In Roosevelt's eyes, Stalin's shares rose even higher. The Russian proposal for the Far East eased Churchill's position. But, at that time, neither Stalin, nor Roosevelt, nor Churchill knew, and could not know what the war in Asia would result in, and what severe and inhuman punishment the administration of President Truman would come up with against Japan, having mastered atomic weapons.

Thus, during the meetings of the heads of government of the Big Three, the most important military-strategic and military-political agreements were reached, which had a huge impact on the further course of the Second World War. First: the agreement of Churchill and Roosevelt to open a front in Europe by landing expeditionary forces led by General Eisenhower, although it did not fully alleviate the position of the USSR in the war with Germany, nevertheless, accelerated victory in Europe. Secondly, the conference showed that the allies are striving not only to satisfy their political ambitions, but are also unanimous in relation to the aggressors - Germany and Japan, and are interested in their speedy defeat. It was for this purpose that Stalin reacted favorably to Roosevelt's proposal to enter the war against Japan. Stalin understood that by entering the war against Japan, the Soviet Union could become the leading power, if not in the entire Asia-Pacific region, then at least in the continental part of North and South Asia. Thirdly, the Allies came to the conclusion that it was necessary to put pressure on Turkey so that it would join the war against Germany. These were the main military-political decisions taken by the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.

III.State-territorial and geopolitical decisionsTehran conference

In addition to military-political issues, issues related to the post-war structure of the world were also discussed at the conference. US President Roosevelt presented at the conference the American point of view regarding the creation of an international security organization in the future. He already spoke about this in general terms to V. M. Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, during his stay in Washington in the summer of 1942. The same question was the subject of discussion between Roosevelt and British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in March 1943.

According to the scheme outlined by President Roosevelt in a conversation with Stalin on November 29, 1943, after the end of the war, it was proposed to create a world organization on the principles of the United Nations, and military issues were not among its activities, that is, it should not be similar to the League of Nations. The structure of the organization, according to Roosevelt, should have included three bodies:

a common body of all (35 or 50) members of the United Nations, which will only make recommendations, and will meet in different places where each country can express its opinion;

an executive committee consisting of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, China, two European countries, one Latin American country, one country in the Middle East and one of the British dominions; the committee will deal with non-military matters;

a police committee consisting of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and China, which will monitor the preservation of peace in order to prevent new aggression from Germany and Japan.

Stalin agreed in principle with Roosevelt's proposal, but expressed concern that the small European states might be dissatisfied with such an organization, and therefore expressed the opinion that it might be better to create two organizations (one for Europe, the other for the Far East or the world). Roosevelt pointed out that Stalin's point of view partially coincides with the opinion of Churchill, who proposes the creation of three organizations - European, Far Eastern and American. However, Roosevelt noted that the United States would not be able to be a member of a European organization and that only a shock comparable to the current war could force the Americans to send their troops overseas. On December 1, 1943, Stalin notified the president that he had considered his proposal and agreed to create one world organization. This agreement on the establishment of the United Nations was not formalized at that time, and no separate decision was made on this issue.

During the three-way conversations between the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, special attention was paid to the geopolitical restructuring of Europe and the world. First of all, the territorial and state changes concerning Germany and Poland were considered.

The fact is that the Polish government in exile, settled in London, continued to make plans to annex the lands of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine to Poland, which had ceded to the USSR as a result of the signing of the Soviet-German pact of 1939 on the delimitation of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Under this agreement, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, which previously belonged to Poland, became part of the territory of the USSR, and could no longer be returned to the Polish state. Stalin, was able to captivate Churchill and Roosevelt with a plan to compensate Poland at the expense of East Germany. In exchange for the territories that Poland lost in the east, by decision of the Tehran Conference, it received in the west. The question remained open how large this compensation should have become.

Until that moment, in the negotiations between representatives of the Polish London government in exile and the Western Allies, it was only a question of the fact that after the end of the warEast Prussia , Danzig and Upper Silesia were to go to Poland. Ah, now Poland had to move west to the Oder. That was Stalin's idea.

The Western Allies at first had no doubts about the sudden expansion of the areas that should be wrested from Germany. Churchill also came up with the wording on the new borders of Poland, approved by the participants in the Tehran Conference: “We believe that the territory of the Polish state and the Polish people should, in principle, lie between the so-called Curzon Line and the Oder, namely, include East Prussia and Oppeln. The actual definition of the border still requires further detailed study and, possibly, the movement of the population at some points, ”said Churchill, referring to Stalin and Roosevelt 12. Despite the fundamental agreement of the parties, the decision on the borders of Poland at the Tehran Conference was never fixed. It was necessary to convince the Polish government in exile to abandon plans to expand the territory in the East, and to accept the territory of the former Germany as compensation. In addition, unexpectedly for the President and the Prime Minister, a demand was made from Stalin: “The Russians do not have ice-free ports on the Baltic Sea. Therefore, the Russians would need ice-free ports of Koenigsberg and Memel and the corresponding part of the territory of East Prussia. Moreover, historically these are primordially Slavic lands. If the British agree to the transfer of this territory to us, then we will agree with the formula proposed by Churchill.

As for Germany itself and its post-war structure, Churchill and Roosevelt insisted on dividing its territory into separate states, with which Stalin initially agreed. However, during further discussion of this problem, he sharply opposed the division of Germany into 5 or 6 independent states, as Churchill proposed to do.

Thus, already during the Tehran Conference, the contours of the future split of Germany were determined, which for many decades became a symbol of the split of the world into two opposing systems.

An important decision at the conference was made regarding Iran. The specially drafted "Declaration of the Three Powers on Iran" emphasized the need to provide economic support to the country, as well as to preserve the sovereignty and integrity of Iran. In particular, the declaration stated:

“The Governments of the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom are united with the Government of Iran in their desire to preserve the full independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran. They count on Iran's participation, together with other peace-loving nations, in the establishment of international peace, security and progress after the war, in accordance with the principles of the Atlantic Charter, which was signed by all four Governments” 14 .

Thus, Stalin, despite all his ambitions regarding the Middle East in general, Iran in particular, signed the Declaration, refusing to further promote the influence of the Soviet Union in the Arab world.

Geopolitical and territorial-state changes in Europe, which were discussed at the conference, worked out the contours of the future structure of Europe, especially Eastern Europe. No final decision has been made on this critical issue for the entire world. What will Germany be like?, what will be the political face of the countries of Eastern Europe?, what changes will take place in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region? - all these problems were still hidden in the darkness of time ...

Conclusion.
The World Historic Significance of the Tehran Conference

On December 1, 1943, the Tehran Conference with the participation of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Stalin, Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt completed its work. As a result of the conference, the Declaration of the Three Powers was developed, which affirmed the idea of ​​joint work of the three powers not only in wartime, but also in peacetime. With regard to post-war cooperation, the Declaration stated: “As regards peacetime, we are confident that the agreement that exists between us will ensure a lasting peace. We fully acknowledge the high responsibility that rests on us and on all the United Nations for bringing about a peace that will be approved by the vast majority of the peoples of the world and that will eliminate the scourge and horrors of war for generations to come. Together with our diplomatic advisers, we considered the problems of the future. We will seek the cooperation and active participation of all countries, large and small, whose peoples, in their hearts and minds, dedicated themselves, like our peoples, to the task of eliminating tyranny, slavery, oppression and intolerance. We will welcome their entry into the world family of democracies whenever they wish to do so. This statement was of historical significance. For the first time in the history of international relations, states with such inherently different devices, foreign policy goals and management methods recognized the need for cooperation in the name of peace and prosperity, in the name of preventing a new world war. Even at the opening of the conference, Stalin spoke about the historical significance of the meeting of the leaders of the three powers: “I think that history spoils us,” the Soviet leader said, referring to Roosevelt and Churchill. “She has given us very great powers and very great opportunities. I hope that we will take all measures to ensure that at this conference, in due measure, within the framework of cooperation, we use the force and authority that our peoples have entrusted to us. Thus, Stalin emphasized the need to disseminate this experience of cooperation in the post-war years.

In this regard, of interest is the assessment given to the Tehran meeting by the President of the United States in a telegram sent to Stalin from Cairo as early as December 3, 1943, that is, two days after the US President left the capital of Iran.

"I regard," Roosevelt wrote, "these significant days of our meeting with the greatest satisfaction, as an important milestone in the progress of mankind" 17 .

As for Churchill's assessment, it was more restrained, although on the whole, and he emphasized the positive outcome of the meeting of the Big Three leaders. Thus, attempts to plead the results of the Tehran conference, and its world-historical significance, have no factual basis.

The role of the Tehran Conference and its world-historical significance lie in the fact that at this meeting the foundations of new international relations of cooperation within the framework of the United Nations were laid, which became for many years a system for maintaining peace and stability on the planet. Another important outcome of the conference was the decision to open a second front in Europe, which hastened the end of World War II and opened up new prospects for mutual understanding and cooperation for the ideologically antagonistic powers.

Thus, the Tehran Conference created an unprecedented precedent, which is still used in international practice to solve fundamental geopolitical problems - a summit meeting.

Notes

1. D.A. Volkogonov "Stalin: a political portrait"
in 2 books; book 2 p.391.

2. Winston Churchill "World War II"
in 3 books; book 2. http://www.litru.ru

3. V.M. Berezhkov "Pages of Diplomatic History"
pp. 422 – 423

4. Ibid. pp. 424 – 425

5. Ibid p. 425

6. Ibid p. 427

7. D.A. Volkogonov "Stalin: a political portrait"
in 2 books; book 2 p.392.

8. B. L. Tsybulevsky and Sh. P. Sanakoev
"Tehran - Yalta - Potsdam: Collection of Documents" p. 75

9. Ibid p. 78

10. Ibid p. 83

11. A. J. P. Taylor, The Second World War, p. 335

12. Great Patriotic War: Tehran Conference http://www.otvoyna.ru/tegeran.htm

13. B. L. Tsybulevsky, Sh. P. Sanakoev "Tehran - Yalta - Potsdam: Collection of documents" pp. 185 - 186

14. Ibid p. 191

15. Declaration of the three powers http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/194

16. D.A. Volkogonov "Stalin: a political portrait"
in 2 books; book 2 p.393.

17. A.V. Danilets is a full member of the Russian Geographical Society. Tehran conference in 1943. Lecture.

Sources and literature

1. Encyclopedia World History: people, events, dates. Reader's Digest M. 2001; 752 p.

2. Electronic encyclopedic dictionary "Big Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron" M. 2007

3. B. L. Tsybulevsky, Sh. P. Sanakoev Tehran - Yalta - Potsdam: Collection of documents "International Relations" M. 1970; 834 p.

4. V.M. Berezhkov Pages of Diplomatic History "International Relations" M. 1987; 1446 p.

5. Winston Churchill "World War II"
in 3 books; book 2. http://www.litru.ru

6. D.A. Volkogonov "Stalin: a political portrait"
in 2 books; kn.2 "News" M. 1999; 704 p.

7. L. Mlechin Ministers of Foreign Affairs: romantics and cynics "Tsentropoligraf" M. 2001; 669 p.

8. A J.P. Taylor "The Second World War" "Thought" M. 1995; 440

9. A.V. Danilets is a full member of the Russian Geographical Society. Tehran conference in 1943. Lecture.