Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam

What the specification asks for

“Tensions and disagreements during the Second World War. Key features of the conferences at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam.” — examined through change and difference. Incandio is aligned to specification 4HI1; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson.

1 · Understand it

Tehran, November 1943

The first meeting of the three leaders. The second front in France was agreed for May 1944, which Stalin had been demanding since 1941; the USSR agreed to enter the war against Japan after Germany's defeat; and there was general agreement on a post-war international organisation. Poland's borders were discussed in outline, with the eastern frontier to follow roughly the Curzon Line and Poland compensated with German territory in the west.

The atmosphere was cooperative because the war was not yet won and each side needed the others. Roosevelt believed he could handle Stalin personally and made a point of not siding with Churchill, which Churchill resented.

Yalta, February 1945

The Red Army was already in Poland and 65 kilometres from Berlin. Agreements: Germany to be divided into four occupation zones with Berlin similarly divided inside the Soviet zone; a United Nations to be founded at San Francisco in April; the USSR to enter the Pacific war within three months of Germany's surrender in return for territory in the Far East; a Declaration on Liberated Europe promising free elections; and Poland to have its borders moved west with a provisional government reorganised on a broader democratic basis.

The disagreements are inside the agreements. 'Free elections' was undefined and had no enforcement mechanism. 'Reorganised on a broader democratic basis' meant, to the West, a new government including the London Poles, and to Stalin, the addition of a few figures to the communist-dominated Lublin committee already installed. Reparations were left to a commission with a figure of 20 billion dollars mentioned as a basis for discussion, half to the USSR — a number the Soviets treated as agreed and the Americans as illustrative.

The most important fact about Yalta is not what was signed but where the armies were. Any settlement that the Red Army did not want in Poland would have required removing it.

Potsdam, July–August 1945, and what had changed

Three things were different between February and July 1945, and none of them was a change in Soviet policy. Naming all three is what separates an answer that explains Potsdam from one that simply reports that relations had worsened.

Roosevelt had died in April and Truman had replaced him — a man with no part in the wartime relationship, no briefing on Yalta, and a much more sceptical view. Churchill was replaced mid-conference by Attlee after the British general election. And on 16 July, the day before the conference opened, the United States tested an atomic bomb at Alamogordo; Truman mentioned a new weapon of unusual destructive force to Stalin on 24 July, and Stalin, who knew about the programme through espionage, showed no surprise.

Potsdam agreed the administration of Germany — demilitarisation, denazification, democratisation, decentralisation and the trial of war criminals — and settled reparations by allowing each power to take them from its own zone, with the USSR receiving additional industrial equipment from the western zones in exchange for food. That formula, agreed because no common figure could be reached, is the beginning of the economic division of Germany.

The hardening between February and July is therefore at least as much about the change in the room as about anything the USSR did in between — which does not mean nothing happened in Poland, and does mean an answer that explains Potsdam only by Soviet behaviour has ignored three large variables.

2 · Learn it — the notes

The dates that earn marks

November 1943

Tehran: second front agreed for 1944; Polish borders discussed in outline. Why this date: The cooperative conference, and the baseline against which the others are compared.

February 1945

Yalta: zones, the UN, free elections promised, Poland's borders moved west. Why this date: Agreed while the Red Army held Poland, which is the fact that governs what the promises were worth.

12 April 1945

Roosevelt dies; Truman becomes President with no briefing on Yalta or the bomb. Why this date: The first of the three changes between the conferences.

16 July 1945

The Trinity test, the day before Potsdam opens. Why this date: The American position changes materially between the two conferences and the timing is exact.

July–August 1945

Potsdam: zonal reparations; Attlee replaces Churchill mid-conference. Why this date: Zonal reparations is the practical beginning of two Germanys.

The figures, and how far to trust them

• 4 — Occupation zones in Germany and in Berlin, after France was given one from the British and American shares.
• 20 billion dollars — The reparations figure mentioned at Yalta as a basis for discussion, half to the USSR. (Treated as agreed by the Soviets and as illustrative by the Americans — the ambiguity is the examinable point.)
• 65 kilometres — The Red Army's distance from Berlin when Yalta opened. (Approximate; the point is that the military position preceded the diplomacy.)

The people to place

• Franklin Roosevelt — At Tehran and Yalta; believed a personal relationship with Stalin was the route to a post-war settlement; died April 1945.
• Harry Truman — At Potsdam; no experience of the wartime alliance and possession of a tested atomic weapon.
• Clement Attlee — Replaced Churchill at Potsdam after the British election result was announced mid-conference.
• Joseph Stalin — At all three; his position strengthened by the Red Army's advance and unchanged in its aims.

What students say — and what is actually the case

Not this: Yalta gave Eastern Europe to Stalin.

This: Yalta promised free elections in liberated Europe. The Red Army already occupied the territory, and there was no mechanism to enforce the promise. The West conceded a fact rather than a right.

Not this: Potsdam was tense because the Soviets had broken the Yalta agreements.

This: That is part of it, and three other things had also changed: a new American president, a new British prime minister mid-conference, and a working atomic bomb. An answer with only the first has one variable out of four.

Two things students merge

Blurred: Agreement and enforcement.

The distinction: Yalta produced agreements with no enforcement provisions at all. An undertaking about elections in territory occupied by the other party is worth exactly what the occupier chooses, and saying so is more useful than describing the wording.

Blurred: Tehran and Yalta.

The distinction: Tehran (1943) is strategy and outline; Yalta (1945) is the post-war settlement of zones, the UN and Poland. Dating an agreement to the wrong conference is a common and easily avoided error.

What a Grade 9 answer holds here

A Grade 9 answer treats the conferences as a sequence in which the balance of power moved, and can name what moved it. The Red Army's position determined what Yalta could deliver; the bomb, Truman and Attlee determined what Potsdam felt like — so 'why did relations worsen' is a question about capabilities and personnel as much as about intentions.

3 · How it is examined

This strand is genuinely set through: Paper 1 (a) (6 marks — “What impression does the author give about …? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.”); Paper 1 (b) (8 marks — “Explain two effects of … on ….”); Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii) (16 marks — “'[A statement about the period.]' You may use the following in your answer: • [prompt] • [prompt]. You must also use information of your own. How far do you agree? Explain your answer.”).

What earns marks: The three changes between February and July, named. It is a comparison the specification explicitly asks for and most candidates supply only Soviet behaviour.

4 · Prove it — the questions

Answered inside Incandio, where a marker checks what a correct answer must contain and tells you which half was missing. The marking stays in the app; the questions are here.

1. Explain two differences between the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
2. Explain two effects of the Yalta Conference on post-war Europe. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
3. Describe two agreements made at the Tehran Conference. [8 marks · Paper 1 (b)]
4. 'The wartime conferences created the Cold War.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]
5. 'Relations between the superpowers worsened between 1943 and 1945 mainly because of Soviet actions.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks · Paper 1 (c)(i) or (c)(ii)]

Decide it

This lesson feeds a Decide History judgement — a position you commit to, an objection you answer, a criterion you name: Was the Cold War anybody's fault?.

Carry on through the option

• Previous lesson: Long-term rivalry and ideological difference
• Next lesson: The attitudes of Truman and Stalin
• Key topic 1 · Reasons for the Cold War · A world divided: superpower relations, 1943–72 · the option's timeline · Incandio History
• The other key topics of A world divided: Early developments in the Cold War, 1945–49 · The Cold War in the 1950s · Three crises: Berlin, Cuba and Czechoslovakia · The Thaw and moves towards Détente, 1963–72