The fate of the countries of Eastern Europe Tehran conference. What you need to know about the Tehran conference

On November 28 - December 1, 1943, a conference of the leaders of the three allied states of the anti-Hitler coalition was held in Tehran (Iran): Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The meeting went down in history as the Tehran Conference. For the first time, the “Big Three”—Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill—gathered in full force.

Military decisions stated that Operation Overlord would be undertaken during May 1944, together with the operation in Southern France, with Soviet troops launching an offensive around the same time in order to prevent the transfer of German forces from the eastern to the western front. It was envisaged that the military headquarters of the three powers should henceforth keep close contact with each other regarding the upcoming operations in Europe, and that a plan should be agreed upon between these headquarters to mystify and deceive the enemy in relation to these operations.

The Western allies, based on their military-strategic plans in South-Eastern Europe, proposed expanding assistance to the Yugoslav partisans and drawing Turkey into the war against Germany.

During the discussion about the opening of a second front, the statement of the head of the Soviet government that the USSR was ready, after the surrender of Germany, to enter the war with Japan, despite the existence of a neutrality treaty with this country, was important.

In addition to military issues, the conference discussed issues related to the post-war structure of the world. The United States raised the question of the dismemberment of Germany after the war into five autonomous states. Great Britain proposed separating Prussia from Germany, and including the southern regions of the country, along with Austria and Hungary, in the so-called Danube Confederation. The Soviet delegation did not support these plans. It was decided to transfer the discussion of the German question to the European Advisory Commission.

At the Tehran Conference, a decision was generally agreed upon to transfer Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) to the USSR.

In Tehran, a preliminary agreement was also reached on establishing Poland's borders along the 1920 Curzon Line in the east and along the Oder River (Odra) in the west. Thus, the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus was recognized as ceded to the USSR.

A “Declaration on Iran” was also adopted, in which the participants declared “their desire to preserve the full independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran.”

At a conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, the issue of creating an international security organization was previously discussed.

At the end of the conference, the "Declaration of the Three Powers" was published. According to the document, the leaders of the Big Three agreed on plans for the destruction of the German armed forces on the timing and scale of operations undertaken from the east, west and south. The declaration stated the determination of the three states to work together both during the war and in subsequent peacetime.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Today, the joint struggle of the USSR, England and the USA against Germany seems to us a matter of course. In fact, history could have gone differently - in 1943, America and England were ready to support Germany in the war against the USSR. The future of the Nazi and communist powers was finally to be determined at the Tehran meeting, which took place from November 28 to December 1, 1943.

Disposition of the parties

For the United States, “local European” showdowns were not as dangerous as for Britain. The United States was worried not so much about the weakening of Germany or the USSR as about the strengthening of Britain and returning it to the status of an Atlantic superpower. Britain was afraid of the strengthening of the USSR - the transformation of the Old World into the sixteenth Soviet republic was not part of London's plans. Hitler's Germany, in principle, could have enlisted the support of Western countries, stopped the advance of Soviet troops into Europe and remained on the political map of the world. Secret negotiations between the Germans and the West did take place. Moscow wanted the defeat of Hitler, which would allow it to strengthen its influence in the world. But defeating the Nazis without American Lend-Lease and without opening a second front in Europe was difficult, and perhaps impossible.

On the one hand, the three superpowers were already allies in the fight against fascism. England and the USA supplied the USSR with equipment and weapons, and by the autumn of 1943 the Soviet Union inflicted major defeats on Germany at Stalingrad and Kursk. On the other hand, the allies had complex and often conflicting interests. Churchill and Roosevelt went to Iran, not knowing exactly against whom they should open a second front - against Germany or the USSR.

Why Tehran?

Where to meet? Stalin proposed to do this on his territory - in the south, in Astrakhan or in the north, in Arkhangelsk. Roosevelt said that the USSR was not suitable for negotiations and proposed to gather in Alaska, to which Stalin had objections - he did not want to leave the front to “such a remote point” at such a tense time. The options of Baghdad and Cairo were also rejected. In the end, they chose Tehran. Before the start of the war, Iran sympathized with the Germans, there were German military personnel there, but in 1941, troops of the USSR and England, as well as a small number of American soldiers (to ensure Lend-Lease), entered the country. The conquest took place with lightning speed and almost bloodlessly, but a powerful German intelligence network remained in Iran. Often in the mornings, Iranians found corpses of people of European appearance on the streets - these were employees of four intelligence services, having identified an enemy agent, they killed him without trial. The situation in the capital of Iran was difficult, but controlled and manageable. The Soviet 182nd Mountain Rifle Regiment was stationed in Tehran, whose soldiers guarded the most important facilities. Most Iranians respected the Soviet Union - this made the work of military intelligence representatives easier, who found willing assistants among them.

At the end of November, Stalin left Moscow. The final station where his letter train No. 501 was supposed to arrive was unknown to few people. Literny walked along the route Moscow - Stalingrad - Baku. Stalin was located in a separate armored carriage that weighed more than 80 tons. Beria was also traveling in a separate carriage. He was responsible for the security of the delegation, which included Molotov, Voroshilov, Shtemenko, senior officials of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and the General Staff. On one section of the route, the train almost came under attack by German bombers. From Baku, the Soviet Secretary General flew to Tehran (for the first time in his life) by plane.

Roosevelt crossed the Atlantic on the best American battleship, Iowa. Meetings with Reich submarines were avoided, but there were still some incidents - first the Americans were caught in a serious storm, and then a torpedo was spontaneously launched on one of the escort ships, almost hitting the Iowa. After a 9-day journey, the battleship arrived at the Algerian port of Oran. From there, the American president traveled overland to Cairo, where Churchill arrived. There they agreed on positions before negotiations with Stalin and went to Tehran.

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. 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. In Tehran, all media activities were suspended, telephone, telegraph and radio communications were turned off. Even the families of Soviet diplomats were temporarily “evacuated” from the area of ​​the upcoming negotiations.

"Long Jump"?

What the Germans thought and did in preparation for the Big Three meeting will most likely forever remain a mystery. Meanwhile, Stalin allegedly had secret information that the head of the sabotage department of the Foreign Intelligence Directorate of the Third Reich, Otto Skorzeny, was preparing an assassination attempt on the leaders of the allied states. His department allegedly has already developed a special sabotage operation codenamed “Long Jump.” Skorzeny himself denied this; The archives of the Soviet/Russian special services do not confirm the existence of such a plan. Perhaps the version of the impending assassination attempt was invented by Stalin in order to place Roosevelt in the Soviet embassy and thus protect him from the “vicious influence” of Churchill.

However, there is evidence from historians, intelligence officers and eyewitnesses of the events that Nazi Germany was still plotting to remove the Big Three. As for the main German saboteur Otto Skorzeny, who was called the leader of the Tehran operation, his reluctance to talk about it is explained by three possible reasons. First: he is unpleasant to admit that the allied intelligence services outmaneuvered his agency. Second: scouts are silent about some things even in retirement. Third: Otto Skorzeny was a double agent and worked not only for Hitler, but also for Stalin. According to those who believe in the existence of the Long Jump plan, information about the impending assassination attempt was received by Stalin simultaneously from several Soviet agents. Their resistances, as a rule, are not named.

If we collect all the facts collected by specialists, then this was the intention of this special operation. Having learned about the timing of the negotiations, the Germans figured out when, where and how the assassination attempt could be carried out. Firstly, it was possible to stage an attack on Roosevelt while he was moving from the American to the British embassy and back. Secondly, on November 30, 1943, Winston Churchill turns 69 years old. It is obvious that the celebration will take place in the evening on the grounds of the British Embassy, ​​where all three leaders will gather together. The only way into the Anglo-Soviet diplomatic complex, protected from air and ground, lay... underground - one of the underground tunnels ran right under the British embassy.

Since pre-war times, an extensive and well-concealed German intelligence network, numbering about a thousand people, remained in Iran. There were agents among them who felt at home in the country. For example, SD officer Franz Mayer worked as a gravedigger at the Armenian cemetery in Tehran. SS-Hauptsturmführer Julius Schulze served as a mullah in Isfahan and preached to Muslims in the mosque every Friday that “it is the religious duty of all believers to declare jihad against the British and Russians, who insult the holy land of Islam with their presence.” Mayer was arrested a couple of months before the meeting, and during interrogation he confessed to plans to enter the embassy through a drain. After this, the British took control of the water supply system. Then the Abwehr decided to plant explosives under the building of the Soviet embassy. It was possible to penetrate the underground premises with the help of Father Mikhail, the priest of the only Orthodox church in Tehran. According to the Iranian historian Professor Muhammad Ahmadi, German intelligence officers offered the clergyman a huge sum at that time - 50 thousand British pounds - for cooperation. Despite his hatred of Stalin and the Soviets, Father Mikhail, who had served in the church since tsarist times, immediately revealed the plans of the Nazis to the employees of the Soviet embassy.

But the Germans did not lose hope. They sent two detachments of SS special forces to Iran, who settled in the vicinity of Tehran. The SS prepared three ambushes along Roosevelt’s route from the American embassy to the Soviet one, but this possibility of an attack was ruled out, since the US president did not even stop by his place, immediately going to visit Stalin. What else the SS commandos were preparing is unknown, since all documents on this case are classified. British intelligence promises to reveal them after 2017. In any case, Russian and British intelligence officers captured one of the commando squads and, with its help, destroyed the rest of the SS special forces. Then Skorzeny proposed to the Reich leadership to rent a light plane, fill it to capacity with explosives and send it to the Soviet embassy. A volunteer suicide bomber was found quickly, but by the time he was transferred to the scene of events, the politicians had already gone home.

Words and deeds about the second front

The preparation of members of the Soviet government delegation for the negotiations in Tehran was provided by the external intelligence of the NKVD and the Main Intelligence Directorate. They also obtained valuable information that helped Stalin during the negotiations. GRU officers also provided Stalin with stable and uninterrupted radio communications with Moscow.

On the afternoon of October 1, 1943, the head of military intelligence, Lieutenant General I. Ilyichev, returned from the General Staff to the Main Intelligence Directorate. The Chief of the General Staff, Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky, set specific tasks for military intelligence related to the upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of the USSR, USA and Great Britain in Moscow. The arrival of the main diplomats from Washington and London (and perhaps Beijing) was expected on October 18. Military intelligence had to obtain information as soon as possible about the attitude of the United States and Great Britain to the problem of opening a second front in Europe. The General Staff was not interested in the declarative promises of the allies, but in exact data about where and when they planned to open a second front. The same data was also of interest to Foreign Minister Molotov, the head of the Soviet delegation at the Moscow meeting.

Ilyichev immediately sent special assignments to the residents of Soviet military intelligence in Washington and London. The residency in London was headed by Major General of Tank Forces Ivan Sklyarov, who was listed in the GRU under the pseudonym Brion; in New York - Colonel Pavel Melkishev, who signed his reports to the Center with the pseudonym Moliere. (It was they who obtained accurate data about, which greatly contributed to the success of the Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge.) The tasks were very complex, and there was extremely little time to obtain information.

On October 9, the Center began to receive information; its essence boiled down to the fact that a second front in Western Europe was not opening for purely political reasons. And soon Stalin had in front of him a literal translation of the secret American-British plan “Overlord” - a plan for the invasion of the Allied Expeditionary Forces into the territory of northwestern France. What hurt Stalin most of all was that the development of the plan was completed in July 1943, just at the time when a tank battle unprecedented in the history of war was taking place on the Kursk Bulge on the Eastern Front. It turned out that Churchill and Roosevelt, under false pretexts, then refused to help the bleeding Soviet soldiers. And these are allies in the anti-Hitler coalition?!

The Moscow meeting was prepared and held under the personal supervision of Lavrentiy Beria. His numerous staff took measures that completely excluded the leakage of information about the event. Mention of him in any secret correspondence was strictly prohibited. Preparations for the meeting proceeded according to a single plan, the full content of which was known only to four people: Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Beria.

At the Moscow meeting, the heads of the British and American delegations were amazed at Molotov's competence. Discussions continued from October 19 to 30. As a result, the heads of the foreign affairs departments of the USSR (V. Molotov), ​​the USA (K. Hell) and Great Britain (A. Eden) signed a joint communiqué, which stated that the allied powers recognize “the primary goal is to accelerate the end of the war,” but the exact timing of the opening of the second The foreign ministers failed to agree on the front in Europe.

Moscow, Washington and London were generally pleased with the results of the meeting, which opened up prospects for negotiations at a higher level. The road to the meeting of the leaders of the three powers was open. However, the idea of ​​holding such a meeting belonged to the US President: on May 5, 1943, Roosevelt suggested that Stalin hold a meeting that “would be informal and completely simple,” and on August 19, 1943, he wrote to him from Quebec, where he conferred with Churchill: “We are again We would like to draw your attention to the importance of the meeting of the three of us..." However, Roosevelt again hid an important detail from Stalin - he did not report the signing of an American-British agreement on joining efforts to create an atomic bomb. When intelligence presented this top secret document to Stalin, he once again thought about the “sincerity of his friends.” Is a bomb being prepared against the Soviet Union?

What the Allies Didn't Talk About

Everything fell into place when the Soviet leadership became aware that the second front would be opened only after Stalin personally promised the allies that if their expeditionary forces landed in France, the Red Army would launch a broad offensive that would not allow the Germans to transfer additional troops to the West. troops. When Stalin realized that he could get specific commitments from the Americans and British during the meeting, he accepted Roosevelt’s invitation. He also believed that the time had come to discuss other international issues with the allies. In particular, Stalin was against Roosevelt's idea, which Churchill also supported, of dividing Germany into five states; it was necessary to determine the path to the revival of Poland, resolve the issue of the future of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, agree on the conditions for ensuring the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran, on whose territory the allied troops were located, and also resolve other issues.

An important condition for Stalin’s final decision to hold negotiations was the data obtained by military intelligence on the position of the United States and Great Britain on almost all issues of the upcoming conference. It was also possible to find out in advance what contradictions there were between Roosevelt and Churchill on the main issues of the upcoming conference. It was reported from Washington that the American president adhered to a position close to the USSR proposal: the USA and Great Britain were opening a second front in France and increasing their efforts to defeat Nazi Germany from the west. Churchill, on the contrary, wants Anglo-American troops to increase their attacks on Germany and its allies in the Balkans. It became clear that although the American president was afraid of the advance of Soviet troops into the depths of the European continent, he also did not allow the resuscitation of the British Empire and the restoration of its influence in Europe. If Churchill could not agree that England was irretrievably losing its status as a world colonial power, then Roosevelt did not share this point of view and did not want to help Churchill.

Tehran discussions

Indeed, Roosevelt proposed discussing the dismemberment of Germany after the war into five autonomous states; Stalin did not agree and proposed to transfer the consideration of the issue to the European Advisory Commission. The declaration on Iran emphasized the desire of the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain to “preserve the complete independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran.” About Poland: a preliminary agreement was reached that its eastern border would run along the “Curzon Line”, and its western border along the Oder River, i.e. in accordance with the secret agreements of August 23, 1939 between Molotov and Ribbentrop. The defeat of Nazi Germany was still far away, however, in a conversation with Stalin on November 29, Roosevelt proposed discussing the post-war structure of the world. The American president said that it was necessary to create an organization that could ensure long-term peace after the war. Stalin supported the idea of ​​​​creating a world organization, which should be based on the principles of the United Nations.

Roosevelt and Churchill did not say a word to Stalin about uniting the efforts of the United States and Great Britain in the field of creating an atomic bomb. Although they guessed that he already knew everything.

On the evening of November 30, a gala reception was held at the British Embassy to mark Churchill's birthday. Stalin arrived at this reception in full marshal uniform, accompanied by Molotov and Voroshilov. He gave Churchill an astrakhan hat and a large porcelain sculptural group based on Russian folk tales. Roosevelt presented the British Prime Minister with an ancient Persian bowl and an Isfahan carpet. There were many toasts at the reception, but everyone remembered one. The US President said: “While we are here celebrating the birthday of the British Prime Minister, the Red Army continues to push back the Nazi hordes. For the success of Soviet weapons!”

By the evening of December 1, it became colder in Tehran. Snow suddenly fell in the mountains of Khuzistan, and weather conditions changed dramatically. This forced Roosevelt to hasten his departure from the Iranian capital. The text of the final declaration was hastily agreed upon. There was no formal signing ceremony. Signatures for this important document, as Stalin’s translator V. Berezhkov wrote, were collected “by polling. Each of the main participants in the conference individually hastily submitted their visa.” “In our hands,” wrote Berezhkov, “we are left with a fairly crumpled piece of paper with signatures written in pencil.” The appearance of the sheet was in no way in harmony with the content of the document, which became known to the whole world as the Tehran Declaration of the Three Powers. This declaration stated that the conference participants agreed on plans for the destruction of the German armed forces and came to full agreement regarding the scale and timing of operations to be undertaken from the east, west and south. “Having concluded our friendly conferences,” declared Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, “we confidently look forward to the day when all the peoples of the world will live freely, free from tyranny, and in accordance with their various aspirations and their consciences...”

The Soviet delegation left Tehran on the afternoon of December 2. The first to take off from the Tehran airfield, which was heavily guarded by a regiment specially deployed to the Iranian capital, were two twin-engine aircraft. In one of them there was I.V. Stalin, in the second - a group of experts from the General Staff. After some time, Tehran received a message via military radio that the planes had landed in Baku.

Stalin arrived safely in Moscow, Roosevelt arrived in Washington, Churchill returned to London. In a letter to Roosevelt on December 6, 1943, Stalin, noting the success of the Tehran Conference and the special significance of its decisions, wrote: “I hope that the common enemy of our peoples – Hitler’s Germany – will soon feel this.” Roosevelt later said that Stalin persistently defended the USSR's position on every issue. “He seemed very confident,” the American president emphasized. What exactly ultimately swayed London and Washington to the decision to support Stalin will forever remain a mystery. Perhaps the key factor was Roosevelt and Stalin living under the same roof for three days. It is possible that the hat given to Churchill played a role. Perhaps, the politicians were prompted to make a fateful decision by their inner instinct.

If the Germans had managed to disrupt the meeting and eliminate at least one of the leaders, then history would have taken a completely different path. However, everything happened as written in the textbooks: on June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, and on October 10, 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations opened.

PS. From Stalin's conversation with Roosevelt; December 1, 1943, 15:20:
Roosevelt. The question of the incorporation of the Baltic republics into the Soviet Union may be raised in the United States, and I believe that world public opinion will find it desirable that at some future time the opinion of the peoples of these republics on this question should be expressed in some way. Therefore, I hope that Marshal Stalin will take this wish into account. I personally have no doubt that the people of these countries will vote to join the Soviet Union as unanimously as they did in 1940.
Stalin. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia did not have autonomy before the Russian revolution. The Tsar was then in an alliance with the United States and England, and no one raised the question of the withdrawal of these countries from Russia. Why is this question being asked now?
Roosevelt. The fact is that public opinion does not know history. I would like to talk with Marshal Stalin about the internal situation in the United States. There will be elections in the United States next year. I do not wish to put forward my candidacy, but if the war continues, I may be forced to do so. There are six or seven million citizens of Polish origin in America, and therefore, being a practical man, I would not like to lose their votes. I agree with Marshal Stalin that we must restore the Polish state, and personally I have no objection to the borders of Poland being moved from east to west - all the way to the Oder, but for political reasons I cannot participate at the present time in solving this question. I share the ideas of Marshal Stalin, I hope that he will understand why I cannot publicly participate in resolving this issue here in Tehran, or even in the spring of next year.
Stalin. After Roosevelt's explanation, I understand this.
Roosevelt. There are also a number of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians in the United States. I know that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia both in the past and most recently formed part of the Soviet Union, and when the Russian armies re-enter these republics, I will not fight the Soviet Union over this. But public opinion may demand a plebiscite there. Stalin. As for the expression of the will of the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, we will have many occasions to give the peoples of these republics the opportunity to express their will.
Roosevelt. This will be useful to me.
Stalin. This does not mean, of course, that the plebiscite in these republics should be subject to any form of international control.
Roosevelt. Of course not. It would be useful to announce at the appropriate time that elections will take place in these republics in due course.
Stalin. Of course, this can be done. I would like to know if the issue of leaving tomorrow has been finally decided.
Roosevelt. I was informed that tomorrow the weather will be favorable. We have few questions left to discuss this evening. Tomorrow morning I intend to fly out...

Introduction.

The conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, held in Tehran on November 28 - December 1, 1943, is one of the largest diplomatic events of the Second World War. It became an important stage in the development of international and inter-allied relations of this period.

The Tehran Conference, during which a number of the most important issues of war and peace were considered and resolved, played a significant role in uniting the anti-Hitler coalition to achieve final victory in the war and in creating the foundation for the further development and strengthening of Soviet-Anglo-American relations.

The meeting in Tehran convincingly showed that, despite the fundamental difference in the political and social system of the USSR, on the one hand, and the USA and England, on the other, these countries could successfully cooperate in the fight against a common enemy, sought and found a mutually acceptable solution to the problems that arose between them controversial issues, although they often approached these issues from completely different positions.

The military and political cooperation of the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain during the Second World War is one of the greatest lessons of history that cannot be forgotten.

The purpose of this work is to reflect the contradictions that arose at the Tehran Conference between its participants on key problems of international politics, and to determine the significance of the conference for the further conduct of war and the structure of peace.

The objectives are to reveal the positions of each party on the main issues and reflect the decisions made by the conference.

1The Tehran Conference is the first meeting of the heads of three governments.

At the suggestion of the Soviet government, the conference took place in Tehran, from November 28 to December 1, 1943. The Tehran Conference is one of the largest diplomatic events of the Second World War. It became an important stage in the development of international and inter-allied relations of this period.

The meeting in Tehran, during which a number of the most important issues of war and peace were considered and resolved, played a significant role in uniting the anti-Hitler coalition to achieve final victory in the war and in creating the foundation for the further development and strengthening of Soviet-Anglo-American relations.

The Tehran Conference convincingly showed that, despite the fundamental difference in the political and social system of the USSR, on the one hand, and the USA and England, on the other, these countries could successfully cooperate in the fight against a common enemy, sought and found a mutually acceptable solution to disputes that arose between them issues, although they often approached these issues from completely different positions.

It was in Tehran that the exact date for the opening of a second front by the Allies in France was finally set and the British “Balkan strategy”, which led to a prolongation of the war and an increase in the number of its victims and disasters, was rejected. The decision taken by the conference to inflict a joint and final blow on Nazi Germany was fully consistent with the interests of all countries that were part of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The Tehran Conference outlined the contours of the post-war world order and achieved a unity of views on issues of ensuring international security and lasting peace. The meeting in Tehran had a positive impact on inter-allied relations and strengthened trust and mutual understanding between the leading powers of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The Tehran conference of the leaders of the three allied powers took place in an atmosphere of outstanding victories of the Soviet armed forces, which led to the completion of a radical turning point in the course of not only the Great Patriotic War, but also the entire Second World War. The Nazis had already been expelled from Donbass and left-bank Ukraine. November 6, 1943 Kyiv was liberated. By the end of 1943 More than half of the territory of the USSR captured by the enemy was cleared. However, Nazi Germany remained a strong opponent. She still controlled the resources of almost all of Europe.

The results and consequences of the victories of the Soviet Army radically changed the military-political situation in the world, as well as the alignment and balance of forces in the international arena.

The scale of the military operations of the Western allies was, of course, incomparable with the military operations of the Soviet troops. Having landed in Italy after its surrender in September 1943, the Anglo-American troops were opposed by only 9-10 German divisions, while on the Soviet-German front 26 enemy divisions operated against the Soviet troops, of which 210 were German. And yet, by the end of 1943. the victory of the allied countries over the common enemy came much closer, and the relations between them became stronger and stronger.

This was confirmed by the results of the Moscow conference of the foreign ministers of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, as well as the achievement of an agreement on a meeting of the leaders of the three allied powers in Tehran.

1.1First meeting of the Tehran conference. The question of opening a second front in Europe.

The first meeting of the Tehran Conference opened on the afternoon of November 28 at the Soviet Embassy in the capital of Iran. For four days, the heads of government exchanged views on the most important issues of war and peace. The conference was attended by military advisers and diplomatic figures. The British and American delegations consisted of 20-30 people each, while with Stalin there were only Molotov, Voroshilov and translator Pavlov.

The Tehran conference, unlike the Moscow one, did not have a pre-agreed agenda. Each delegation had the right to put forward any issues that it considered necessary. Not only joint plenary meetings were held, but also bilateral meetings. The latter greatly contributed to the convergence of points of view and the success of the Tehran Conference as a whole.

The main attention at the conference was paid to the problems of the further conduct of the war by the anti-Hitler coalition. In this regard, the question of creating a second front against Germany in Europe, the opening date of which was repeatedly postponed by the United States and England, was subject to detailed consideration. As a result, the USSR continued to bear the brunt of the fight against the fascist bloc in Europe.

The Soviet Union believed that the most important link in the system of principles of the strategy of the anti-Hitler coalition should be the coordination of military actions against the main enemy, inflicting joint attacks on it simultaneously from several sides. This involved the opening of hostilities in Western Europe in addition to the main struggle that was being waged on the Soviet-German front.

The Soviet Union also believed that the allied troops should land on the European continent in a place that would make it possible to create a real, and not an imaginary, threat for the enemy, to jeopardize its most important military-industrial facilities, and primarily the Ruhr, to reach rapid and effective results. The Soviet Union always considered France to be such a place. The Soviet delegation consistently and firmly defended this line at the Tehran Conference of the leaders of the three allied powers.

The US delegation at the Tehran Conference initially took a vague, wait-and-see position on the issue of creating a second front against Nazi Germany. However, in general, it was guided by the decisions of the August 1943 meeting. Anglo-American Conference in Quebec. The decisions of the Quebec Conference were consistent with the strategic direction adopted by the United States government.

The essence of this strategic position was that it was no longer possible to delay the opening of a real second front. On the danger of further delay, as well as on the perniciousness of “the British theory that Germany can be defeated by a series of operations designed to attrition the enemy in northern Italy, the eastern Mediterranean, Greece, the Balkans, Romania and other countries - satellites,” indicated, in particular, US Secretary of War G. Stimson, who wrote to Roosevelt in August 1943 .: “In the light of the post-war problems that we will face, such a position ... seems extremely dangerous. We, like Great Britain, have made a clear commitment to opening a real second front. We cannot expect that any of our pinprick operations will deceive Stalin into believing that we are true to our obligations." 1 .

President Roosevelt himself was aware of the danger of further delaying the second front. On the eve of the Tehran Conference, he told his son that “ If things in Russia continue to go as they are now, then it’s possible that next spring there won’t be a need for a second front!” 2 .

The British delegation led by Prime Minister Churchill arrived in Tehran with its own plans.

The course of the war, in which “the honor of almost all victories on land belongs to the Russians” and “it should seem to the ordinary person that Russia is winning the war” 3 , worried the British even more than the Americans. If England, they believed, “will not come out of this war on equal terms” with the USSR, its position in the international arena could change dramatically, and Russia will become the “diplomatic master of the world” 4 .

The British ruling circles, and among them primarily the British Prime Minister himself, considered the way out of this “dangerous situation” not only to intensify military operations of the Anglo-American armed forces, but first of all to revise the strategic plans adopted jointly with the Americans in Quebec in August 1943, with the aim of abandoning or at least further postponing the second front in north-west France (Operation Overlord) and replacing it with operations in Italy, the Balkans and the Aegean Sea, ultimately reaching the South-Eastern Europe, to the western border of the Soviet Union.

The British side tried to achieve the acceptance of these plans, most fully outlined in the memorandum of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee dated November 11, 1943, “entirely” approved by the Prime Minister, on the eve of the three-power conference in Tehran in order to present a united front with the Americans to the Soviet Union.

The American side, however, actually avoided discussing issues of European strategy at the Cairo Conference (November 22-26, 1943), realizing that “final decisions will depend on the results of negotiations in Tehran with the Russians” 1 .

Churchill was irritated, but not discouraged by the position of the Americans, and, as the American historian R. Sherwood notes, in Tehran he undertook “the last and, one might say, desperate attempt” to defend their plans 2 .

President Roosevelt opened the discussion about a second front at the first meeting of the Tehran Conference on November 28, 1943. He reported that at the meeting held in August 1943. The Anglo-American Conference in Quebec decided to invade France by Allied forces around May 1, 1944. However, the president immediately made a reservation that if the United States and England conduct large landing operations in the Mediterranean, the invasion of France may have to be postponed for two to three months. The Americans, he said, do not want "delay the date of invasion through the Channel 3 further than May or June. At the same time, the president noted, there are many places where Anglo-American troops could be used. They could be used in Italy in the Adriatic Sea region, in the Aegean Sea region, and finally, to help Turkey if it enters the war." 4 .

Roosevelt was interested in the opinion of the Soviet delegation on the question of how the Allies could most significantly alleviate the situation of the Soviet Union, as well as how best to use the Anglo-American forces located in the Mediterranean region.

The Soviet delegation proposed taking 1944 as the basis for all operations. Operation Overlord, that is, a landing in the north-west of France, and to support it, carry out an invasion of Southern France - either simultaneously with the first operation, or a little earlier or later.

However, the British Prime Minister again tried to convince Stalin and Roosevelt of the preference for military operations in the Balkans, in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, by postponing Operation Overlord. He tried to replace the opening of a second front in France with the development of operations in Italy and the Balkans, in order to ensure the occupation of Central and South-Eastern Europe by Anglo-American troops, and transfer the question of the timing of the start of operations across the English Channel to “military specialists”.

The opening of an effective second front against Nazi Germany was again in jeopardy. In the current situation, the Soviet delegation showed determination and firmness. There were serious reasons for this. The Nazis' transition to strategic defense was fraught with great danger in the absence of military action in the West. Without a second front, Germany could freely regroup forces and maneuver reserves, which would significantly complicate the actions of Soviet troops at the front.

The head of the Soviet delegation therefore repeated that the leaders of the USSR, the USA and England should resolve three main issues: the start date of Overlord, the commander-in-chief of this operation and the need for an auxiliary operation in Southern France.

On the morning of November 30, 1943. At a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States and England, after a lengthy discussion, it was decided that the United States and England would launch Operation Overlord during May 1944. simultaneously with a supporting operation in the South of France. The last operation will be undertaken on the scale that available landing craft will allow.

As a result, at the Tehran Conference the issue of opening a second front in Western Europe was finally resolved and it was agreed that Anglo-American troops would land in the amount of 35 divisions in northwestern France in May 1944, and also that this operation would be supported by the landing of troops in South France. Stalin, in turn, said that Soviet troops would launch an offensive at about the same time in order to prevent the transfer of German forces from the Eastern to the Western Front. This most important decision of the Tehran Conference was recorded in a secret agreement, which also contained an equally important clause: “The Conference ... agreed that the military headquarters of the three powers should henceforth keep close contact with each other regarding upcoming operations in Europe.”

The decision taken in Tehran to coordinate the actions of the allies against the common enemy was a success for the Soviet government. The decision to deliver a crushing joint blow to Nazi Germany fully met the interests of the anti-fascist coalition as a whole.

1.2 Discussion of the issue of the future of Germany.

The conference discussed the future of Germany. Roosevelt and Stalin spoke out in favor of breaking up Germany into small states in order to prevent a revival of German expansionism. Roosevelt proposed dividing Germany into five parts and placing Kiel, Hamburg, Ruhr and Saarland under the control of the United Nations. Stalin emphasized that the unification of Germany must be prevented at all costs. However, no final decision was made on this issue.

The leaders of the United States and England were unanimous on the issue that by the end of the war it was necessary to concentrate large Anglo-American armed forces in Europe in order to be able to occupy a dominant position in the post-war world, control the destinies of the peoples of Europe at their own discretion, suppress revolutionary and The national liberation movement, which, as a result of the defeats suffered by Hitler’s Germany on the Soviet-German front, strengthened significantly, preserved the capitalist order intact, installing, if possible, reactionary regimes and governments obedient to them in these countries. All these issues were discussed very openly by the two Western governments back in March 1943 during the visit of the British Foreign Minister A. Eden to the USA. The parties examined in detail the question of what could happen in Europe if there were no Anglo-American troops there by the time Germany collapsed.

1.3 Discussion of the Polish issue.

The issue of Poland was also painful at the conference and controversial for Soviet-British relations. By this time, Stalin had broken relations with the Polish government in exile based in London. The Kremlin considered the question of the execution of Polish military personnel in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, raised with the support of the British, as blackmail in order to force Moscow to make territorial concessions. In Tehran, Stalin confirmed that the eastern Soviet-Polish border should follow the line established in September 1939, and proposed moving the western Polish border to the Oder, and Lviv should become part of the Soviet Union. Realizing that Moscow would fight to the death on this issue, Churchill agreed with this proposal, noting that the lands Poland receives are much better than the lands it gives away. Stalin also stated that the USSR expected to gain Königsberg and move the border with Finland further from Leningrad.

The conference clearly indicated the agreement of the Western allies to meet Stalin halfway on the territorial issue. Here a statement was made that the post-war world would be governed by four powers (USSR, USA, England, France), operating under the auspices of a new international organization. For the USSR this was a colossal breakthrough; For the first time, the United States assumed global responsibilities; Great Britain, whose role was relatively diminishing, had to be content with the fact that it did not fall out of the Big Three.

1.4The question of Turkey’s entry into the war.

When discussing the issue of further waging war against the fascist bloc in Europe, much attention was paid to the issue of Turkey's entry into the war and related problems. This question was not new. Moreover, as indicated in the official English history of the Second World War, Turkey’s entry into the war was ensured in the autumn and winter of 1943. "the central problem facing the Allies in the eastern Mediterranean." The British sought Turkey's cooperation in order to jointly prevent the development of the revolutionary movement in the Balkans and the liberation of the Balkan countries by the Soviet army. The British Foreign Service believed that “Turkey’s entry into the war would be the best, if not the only, means of keeping the Russians from establishing control over the Balkans.” At the Tehran Conference, the British delegation, convincing its participants of the importance of Turkey’s entry into the war on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, emphasized the “great advantages” that the allies would receive from this: opening the way to the Balkans; the opening of communications through the Dardanelles and routes to the Black Sea, which could be used both to provide naval assistance to the Soviet Union and to send supplies to it via a shorter route; the possible exit from the war of Romania and Bulgaria, etc. The Soviet delegation also advocated Turkey’s participation in the war, but, given the ineffectiveness of the Anglo-Turkish negotiations on this issue, held on the eve of the Tehran Conference, expressed the opinion that Turkey would not enter the war. At the conference, an agreement was also reached to send an invitation on behalf of the governments of the three allied powers to the President of Turkey I. Inenu to arrive in Cairo in early December 1943 for negotiations with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. The meeting in Cairo took place on December 4–7, 1943, but it did not produce positive results.

The Soviet delegation, meeting the wishes of the allied governments of Great Britain and the United States, and also taking into account Japan's repeated violations of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact concluded on April 13, 1941, and providing assistance to Nazi Germany, stated that the USSR would enter the war against Japan when the German army will be completely destroyed.

1.5 Issues of post-war cooperation.

One of the last issues at the conference was the issues of post-war cooperation in ensuring lasting peace. The US President outlined the American point of view regarding the creation of an international security organization in the future. According to the president’s scheme, outlined in a conversation with I.V. Stalin on November 29, 1943, the world security organization, the core of which is the United Nations, should consist of three bodies:

an assembly composed of all the members of the United Nations, which would have “no other power than to make recommendations,” and which would meet “not in one particular place, but in different places”;

an executive committee consisting of the USSR, the USA, England, China, two European countries, one Latin American country, one Middle Eastern country, one Asian country and one of the British dominions;

the committee will deal with all non-military issues: economic, food, agricultural, health issues, etc.;

a police committee consisting of the USSR, USA, England and China, which will monitor the preservation of peace and prevent new aggression from Germany and Japan.

The Soviet delegation supported the idea of ​​​​creating an international organization to preserve peace and security.

The conference did not make any special decision on the creation of an international organization, but the general ideas of cooperation and unity of action of the USSR, USA and Great Britain were reflected in the Declaration of the Three Powers, signed at the end of the conference.

The conference adopted the “Declaration on Iran,” in which participants declared “their desire to preserve the full independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iran.” It noted the importance of Iranian assistance in the war against a common enemy. The heads of the three powers expressed their intention to provide Iran with serious economic assistance.

The Soviet delegation did everything possible at the conference to ensure its successful completion. Reporting after returning to London on the results of the conference at a meeting of the British War Cabinet, Eden admitted that during all the discussions Stalin showed “the greatest desire for cooperation.”

The Tehran Conference and its decisions were of great international significance. The principles of cooperation between the great powers of the anti-Hitler coalition, aimed at the victorious, early completion of the Second World War and the establishment of lasting peace, triumphed at the conference. The declaration signed by the leaders of the three allied powers emphasized that the USSR, the USA and England “will work together both during the war and in subsequent peacetime” 1 .

The results of the conference were highly appreciated by its participants. President Roosevelt viewed the meeting in Tehran "as an important milestone in the progress of mankind." December 4, 1943 he wrote to J.V. Stalin that he considered the conference “very successful” and expressed confidence that it was “a historical event confirming not only our ability to jointly wage war, but also to work for the cause of the coming world in complete harmony” 1 .

December 6, 1943 the head of the Soviet government responded that after the conference “there is confidence that our peoples will act together in harmony both now and after the end of the war” 2 .

This meeting also had a positive impact on inter-allied relations, strengthening trust and mutual understanding between the leading powers of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The second front was opened on June 6, 1944. The landing of expeditionary forces began in northern France, in Normandy. They did not encounter significant enemy resistance. By the end of June, 875 thousand allied troops were concentrated in Normandy; They captured a bridgehead about 100 km along the front and 50 km in depth, and in August they captured almost all of northwestern France. On August 15, 1944, American and French troops landed in the south of France and launched a successful offensive to the north.

As a result of the opening of the second front, this extremely painful issue, which for three long years had seriously complicated relations between the USSR, England and the USA, was finally removed from the agenda.

Conclusion.

The victory over Nazi Germany was a world-historical event that had a profound impact on the course of world development. The defeat of fascism became a historical milestone in the destinies of all mankind. The Soviet Union became the main force that blocked German fascism's path to world domination. The peoples of the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the war on their shoulders and played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Victory in the Great Patriotic War had a decisive impact on world development. A special place among the achievements of Soviet foreign policy during the war years is occupied by the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition, in which the Soviet Union took its rightful leading place and played a decisive role in the defeat of the imperialist aggressors. The anti-Hitler coalition was not free from contradictions and disagreements between its participants, especially between the USSR, on the one hand, and England and the USA, on the other. But the foreign policy efforts of the Soviet state were aimed at using as widely and fully as possible to strengthen the unity of action of the Allied powers that which united them in the war against Nazi Germany. The cooperation of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition clearly demonstrated the vitality of the principle of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. Not only in diplomatic documents, but also in all practical activities of the Soviet state abroad, our country’s loyalty to the agreed goals and principles of the anti-Hitler coalition was constantly confirmed. Our country has shown an example of fulfilling its allied duty, which its allies are forced to admit. One of President F. Roosevelt’s closest collaborators, Admiral W. Legy, wrote in his memoirs that “the Soviet Union fulfilled every previously reached agreement.” And former US Secretary of War G. Stimson noted that “the Russians were excellent allies, they fought in accordance with their obligations.

During the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet foreign policy showed maximum insight, skill in dealing with the diplomacy of capitalist countries, firmness combined with flexibility in defending the fundamental interests of the Soviet state and its friends, and thereby made a worthy contribution to achieving the victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War.

Bowing their heads to the memory of those who gave their lives to achieve Victory over the enemy, the peoples of the world remember the lessons that must be learned from the past war so that a new military tragedy does not happen again. One of the main lessons we must learn is that aggression must be fought decisively and unitedly before the flames of war flare up.

1 Stimson Henry L., Bundy McGeorge.

2 On Active Service in Peace and War. New York, 1947, p. 436-437 Roosevelt. Elliot

Through his eyes. M., 1947, p. 161 Tehran M., 1947, p.. The note spoke at length about a possible post-war...

Lectures on history

Abstract >> History

... Tehran conference(November-December 1943); Crimean conference(February 1945); Potsdamskaya conference(July 1945). On Tehran M., 1947, p.... and the national liberation movement. Tehran conference heads of union states (November-...

Roosevelt Franklin Delano

Abstract >> Historical figures

Front. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill on Tehran M., 1947, p. Showing special attention to post-war issues... the topic was continued at the Moscow M., 1947, p., Tehran M., 1947, p. and on

From November 27 to December 1, 1943, the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers was held in the capital of Iran - the first meeting of all three leaders of the USA (Roosevelt), Great Britain (Churchill) and the USSR (Stalin).

Initially, other options for cities to host this event were considered: Baghdad, Istanbul, Cairo (the last option was Churchill’s desire).

Stalin, as before, refused to fly anywhere by air, so he went to the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers on his letter train (number 501, in a twelve-wheeled armored carriage) on November 22, 1943, which traveled through Baku and Stalingrad.

Air Marshal Golovanov recalled in his memoirs that Stalin nevertheless flew on the plane together with Voroshilov and Molotov (Viktor Grachev was at the controls).

The main goal of the Tehran Conference of the leaders of the three powers was to develop a strategy for the final defeat of Hitler's troops. Other issues of peace and war were studied:

At a certain stage, the issue of opening a second front (the so-called “Overlord”) in Western Europe seemed to be at a dead end. Soviet diplomat Rakhmanin recalled:

Churchill’s proposal to satisfy Poland’s claims to the lands of Western Ukraine and Belarus was also accepted. The eastern border of these lands was determined by the Curzon Line.

At the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers, Roosevelt presented the American view on the creation of an international security organization in the future.

A little earlier, he told the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov about this when he was in Washington in the summer of 1942.

This issue was also discussed between the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Roosevelt in March 1943.

According to the scheme that was outlined by the American president during his conversation (November 29, 1943) with Stalin (during the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers), after the end of the war it was planned to form a world organization on the principle of the United Nations. But military issues should not be among her activities. It should not be at all like the League of Nations. The structure of the new organization, according to Roosevelt, should have included three bodies:

- a joint body, which will include all members of the United Nations (35 or 50 people), they will only give advice and recommendations. They will hold meetings in different places, where each country will be able to express its views on this or that event.

- the administrative committee will be represented by the countries of the USA, USSR, Great Britain, China, two European countries, one Middle East, one Latin American and one of the Latin dominions. This committee will be in charge of non-military issues.

— the police committee will be represented by the countries: USA, USSR, Great Britain and China. Their responsibilities will include maintaining peace throughout the world and preventing new aggression from Japan and Germany.

Stalin liked the scheme proposed by Roosevelt.

But there was a possibility that the small countries of Europe might not like such an organization. Stalin expressed the opinion that it would be better to create two similar organizations instead. One European, and the second for the countries of the Far East or the world. In response, Roosevelt noted that this opinion coincided with Churchill's point of view. Only he proposed the creation of three organizations - American, European and Far Eastern. But as Roosevelt noted during the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers, the United States would not be a member of the European organization, and that only a shock comparable to an ongoing war could force the American government to send its troops overseas.

Assassination attempt at the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers

To ensure the safety of the American president in Tehran, he was provided with apartments to live in the Soviet embassy. Opposite it was the British embassy, ​​and the American one was located quite far away, on the very outskirts of the city in a very dubious area. A tarpaulin corridor was created between the two embassies, which hid movement between them from outsiders. This diplomatic complex was surrounded by three rings of tanks and infantry. During the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers, the capital of Iran was completely blocked by intelligence services and troops. The work of all media was stopped, telegraph, telephone and radio communications were turned off. All families who worked at the Soviet embassy were temporarily evicted from the negotiation zone.

The Abwehr was tasked with organizing an assassination attempt on the leaders of the three countries. The famous Nazi saboteur, head of the SS secret service in the VI department of the Main Directorate of Imperial Security, Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, developed a special operation codenamed “Long Jump”. Since 1943, Skorzeny was a special agent for special assignments under Hitler. Many called him “the man with the scar” (it was he who freed Mussolini from captivity).

He also carried out several other high-profile operations, including: in 1934 - the murder of Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria, in 1938 - the arrest of the next Chancellor of Austria Schuschinig and President Miklas. The events of 1938 were immediately followed by the invasion of German troops and the occupation of Austria. Otto Skorzeny, only in 1966, confirmed that he was tasked with killing the leaders of the three countries, or kidnapping them. According to the developed plan, he was supposed to penetrate the English Embassy from the direction of the old Armenian cemetery, where the spring originated.

On the USSR side, a group of professional agents was involved in uncovering this conspiracy. The message about the impending assassination attempt arrived in Moscow from the Volyn forests, from intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov.

In the spring of 1943, a radiogram was received from the center. It talked about the Germans preparing for sabotage during the Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Powers. The main goal of the operation is the physical elimination of the leaders of the Big Three. The group of Soviet intelligence officers was led by Gevorka Vartanyan. They were the ones tasked with preventing the terrorist operation.

At the end of the summer of 1943, the Germans dropped a team of six radio operators near the city of Qom (70 km from Tehran), in the area of ​​Lake Qum. They reached the outskirts of Tehran ten days later. Here they boarded a truck and drove to a villa specially prepared by local agents. From here radio contact was established with Berlin, and preparations began for a bridgehead for the landing of a special group with Otto Skorzeny. But all these plans failed. Members of Vartanyan's group, together with the British from MI6, took direction and deciphered all their transmissions. After a long search, the radio transmitter was discovered, and the entire group was captured along with it. They were forced to play a “double game” with Berlin. In order to prevent bloodshed during the capture of the second group, a message about the disclosure was sent to Berlin. After this, the Germans decided that it was better to abandon the operation.

Second Cairo Conference →

Tehran Conference- the first conference of the “Big Three” during the Second World War - the leaders of three countries: I.V. Stalin and F.D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill (Great Britain), held in Tehran on November 28 - December 1, 1943.

Preparation

In addition to Tehran, options were considered for holding the conference in Cairo (at Churchill’s suggestion, where earlier and later inter-allied conferences with the participation of Chiang Kai-shek and İsmet İnönü were held), Istanbul or Baghdad.

Conference goals

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

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

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

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 a dead end. Then Stalin rose 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, is working out.” The critical moment has arrived. Churchill understood this and, fearing that the conference might be disrupted, made a compromise.

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 gala reception was held at the British Embassy to mark Churchill's birthday.

Post-war world structure

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

During J.V. Stalin’s conversation with F. Roosevelt on December 1, Roosevelt believed that world public opinion would consider it desirable that someday in the future the opinion of the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia would be expressed on the issue of the inclusion of the Baltic republics in the Soviet Union. Stalin noted that this did not mean that the plebiscite in these republics should take place 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 [ ] Estonian historian Mälksoo 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 accomplished fact, although it did not openly oppose it.

Issues of ensuring security in the world after the war

US President Roosevelt outlined at the conference the American point of view regarding the creation in the future of an international security organization, which he had already spoken about in general terms to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov 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 its activities did not include military issues, 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 general body consisting 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 Middle Eastern country and one of the British dominions; The committee will deal with non-military issues.

• a police committee consisting of the USSR, 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 good, but expressed his fear that 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 to create three organizations - European, Far Eastern and American. However, Roosevelt noted that the United States could not be a member of the European organization and that only a shock comparable to the current war could force the Americans to send their troops overseas.

Assassination attempt on the leaders of the Big Three

For security purposes 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 located much further, 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. In Tehran, all media activities were suspended, telephone, telegraph and radio communications were turned off. Even the families of Soviet diplomats were temporarily “evacuated” from the area of ​​the upcoming negotiations.

On the Soviet side, a group of professional intelligence officers took part in uncovering 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 intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, and in the spring of 1943, a radiogram came from the center saying 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 removal of conference participants. All members of the group of Soviet intelligence officers led by Gevork Vartanyan were mobilized to prevent a terrorist attack.

At the end of the summer of 1943, the Germans dropped a team of six radio operators into the area of ​​Lake Qom near the city of Qom (70 km from Tehran). After 10 days they were already near Tehran, where they boarded a truck and reached the city. From a villa prepared specially 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 the 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 losses on both sides could not be avoided, they were given the opportunity to convey that they had been exposed. Upon learning of the failure, Berlin abandoned its plans.

A few days before 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 an Armenian cemetery, where he, having dyed and grown his beard, worked as a gravedigger. Of the large number of agents discovered, some were arrested, and the majority were converted. Some were handed over to the British, others were deported to the Soviet Union.

Memory of the conference

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Notes

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.= Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Case of the Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR. - Tartu: Tartu University Publishing House, 2005. - pp. 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 1941-1945. // Bulletin of MGIMO (U) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. - 2008. - No. 3.
7. The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Collection of documents. - M.: Politizdat, 1984. - T. 2. Tehran Conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - P. 32-33. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
8. Recording of a conversation between J.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. - T. 2. Tehran Conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - P. 101-105. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
9. Recording of a conversation between J.V. Stalin and F. Roosevelt on December 1, 1943 at 3 p.m. 20 minutes. // The Soviet Union at international conferences during the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945. Collection of documents. - M.: Politizdat, 1984. - T. 2. Tehran Conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (November 28 - December 1, 1943). - pp. 151-152. - 175 p. - 100,000 copies.
11. Newspaper "Tomorrow". No. 44 (728) dated October 31, 2007
12. // “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, No. 3487 dated May 28, 2004.
13. From the diary of the German intelligence officer F. Mayer. Iran. 1941-1942 // “Domestic Archives” No. 3, 2003
14. Electronic library of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University

Literature

• Tehran Conference of the Leaders of the Three Allied Powers - USSR, USA and Great Britain / Gromyko A. - M.: Publishing House of Political Literature, 1974. - T. 2. - 175 p. - (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.: Publishing House of the News Press Agency, 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 Shvanits V. G. ( Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in Iran

, Webversion (German) )

Biblical tradition says that the absence of work - idleness was a condition for the bliss of the first man before his fall. The love for idleness remained the same in fallen man, but the curse still weighs on man, and not only because we must earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, but because, due to our moral properties, we cannot be idle and calm. A secret voice says that we must be guilty of being idle. If a person could find a state in which, being idle, he would feel useful and fulfilling his duty, he would find one side of primitive bliss. And this state of obligatory and impeccable idleness is enjoyed by a whole class - the military class. This obligatory and impeccable idleness was and will be the main attraction of military service.
Nikolai Rostov fully experienced this bliss, after 1807 he continued to serve in the Pavlograd regiment, in which he already commanded a squadron received from Denisov.
Rostov became a hardened, kind fellow, whom Moscow acquaintances would have found somewhat mauvais genre [bad taste], but who was loved and respected by his comrades, subordinates and superiors, and who was satisfied with his life. Lately, in 1809, he more often found his mother complaining in letters from home that things were getting worse and worse, and that it was time for him to come home, please and reassure his old parents.
Reading these letters, Nikolai felt fear that they wanted to take him out of the environment in which, having protected himself from all everyday confusion, he lived so quietly and calmly. He felt that sooner or later he would have to again enter that whirlpool of life with frustrations and adjustments in affairs, with managers’ accounts, quarrels, intrigues, with connections, with society, with Sonya’s love and a promise to her. All this was terribly difficult, confusing, and he answered his mother’s letters with cold, classic letters that began: Ma chere maman [My dear mother] and ended: votre obeissant fils, [Your obedient son,] keeping silent about when he intended to come . In 1810, he received letters from his relatives, in which he was informed about Natasha’s engagement to Bolkonsky and that the wedding would take place in a year, because the old prince did not agree. This letter upset and insulted Nikolai. Firstly, he was sorry to lose Natasha from home, whom he loved more than anyone in the family; secondly, from his hussar point of view, he regretted that he was not there, because he would have shown this Bolkonsky that it was not such a great honor to be related to him and that if he loved Natasha, he could do without permission from an extravagant father. For a minute he hesitated whether to ask for leave to see Natasha as a bride, but then the maneuvers came up, thoughts about Sonya, about the confusion came, and Nikolai put it off again. But in the spring of that year he received a letter from his mother, who wrote secretly from the count, and this letter convinced him to go. She wrote that if Nikolai did not come and get down to business, then the entire estate would go under the hammer and everyone would go around the world. The Count is so weak, he has trusted Mitenka so much, and is so kind, and everyone is deceiving him so much that everything goes worse and worse. “For God’s sake, I beg you, come now, if you do not want to make me and your whole family unhappy,” the countess wrote.
This letter had an effect on Nikolai. He had that common sense of mediocrity that showed him what was due.
Now I had to go, if not to retire, then to go on vacation. Why he had to go, he did not know; but after sleeping in the afternoon, he ordered gray Mars, a long-unridden and terribly angry stallion, to be saddled, and returning home on the lathered stallion, he announced to Lavrushka (Denisov’s lackey remained with Rostov) and to his comrades who came in the evening that he was taking leave and was going home. No matter how difficult and strange it was for him to think that he would leave and not find out from headquarters (which was especially interesting to him) whether he would be promoted to captain or receive Anna for his last maneuvers; no matter how strange it was to think that he would leave without selling Count Golukhovsky the three Savras, whom the Polish count traded with him, and whom Rostov bet that he would sell for 2 thousand, no matter how incomprehensible it seemed that without him there would be that ball , which the hussars were supposed to give to Panna Pshazdeckaya in defiance of the lancers, who were giving a ball to their Panna Borzhozovskaya - he knew that he had to go from this clear, good world somewhere to where everything was nonsense and confusion.
A week later there was a vacation. The hussars, comrades not only in the regiment, but also in the brigade, gave Rostov lunch, which cost 15 rubles per head. subscriptions - two music was played, two songbook choirs sang; Rostov danced the trepak with Major Basov; drunken officers rocked, hugged and dropped Rostov; the soldiers of the third squadron rocked him again and shouted hurray! Then Rostov was put in a sleigh and escorted to the first station.
Until halfway, as always happens, from Kremenchug to Kyiv, all of Rostov’s thoughts were still back - in the squadron; but having fallen over halfway, he had already begun to forget the troika of Savras, his sergeant Dozhoyveyka, and restlessly began to ask himself about what and how he would find in Otradnoye. The closer he got, the more, much more (as if moral feeling were subject to the same law of the speed of falling bodies in squared distances), he thought about his home; at the last station before Otradny, he gave the driver three rubles for vodka, and like a boy, he ran into the porch of the house, choking.
After the delight of the meeting, and after that strange feeling of dissatisfaction in comparison with what you expect - everything is the same, why was I in such a hurry! – Nikolai began to get used to his old world at home. Father and mother were the same, they were only a little older. There was a new kind of anxiety and sometimes disagreement in them, which had not happened before and which, as Nikolai soon learned, stemmed from the bad state of affairs. Sonya was already twenty years old. She had already stopped getting prettier, she did not promise anything more than what was in her; but that was enough. She had been breathing happiness and love all over since Nikolai arrived, and this girl’s faithful, unshakable love had a joyful effect on him. Petya and Natasha surprised Nikolai the most. Petya was already a big, thirteen-year-old, handsome, cheerfully and intelligently playful boy, whose voice was already breaking. Nikolai was surprised at Natasha for a long time and laughed as he looked at her.
“Not at all,” he said.
- Well, have you gone crazy?
– On the contrary, but it’s somehow important. Princess! - he told her in a whisper.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Natasha said joyfully.
Natasha told him her affair with Prince Andrei, his arrival in Otradnoye and showed him his last letter.
- Why are you happy? – Natasha asked. “I’m so calm and happy now.”
“I’m very glad,” Nikolai answered. - He's a great person. Why are you so in love?
“How can I tell you,” Natasha answered, “I was in love with Boris, with the teacher, with Denisov, but this is not the same at all.” I feel calm and firm. I know that there are no better people than him, and I feel so calm, good now. Not at all like before...
Nikolai expressed his displeasure to Natasha that the wedding had been postponed for a year; but Natasha attacked her brother with bitterness, proving to him that it could not be otherwise, that it would be bad to join the family against the will of her father, that she herself wanted it.
“You don’t understand at all,” she said. Nikolai fell silent and agreed with her.
My brother was often surprised when he looked at her. It didn't look at all like she was a loving bride separated from her groom. She was even, calm, and cheerful, absolutely as before. This surprised Nikolai and even made him look at Bolkonsky’s matchmaking with disbelief. He did not believe that her fate had already been decided, especially since he had not seen Prince Andrei with her. It seemed to him that something was wrong in this supposed marriage.
“Why the delay? Why didn’t you get engaged?” he thought. Having once talked with his mother about his sister, he, to his surprise and partly to his pleasure, found that his mother, in the same way, in the depths of her soul, sometimes looked at this marriage with distrust.
“He writes,” she said, showing her son Prince Andrei’s letter with that hidden feeling of ill will that a mother always has against her daughter’s future marital happiness, “she writes that she will not arrive before December.” What kind of business could detain him? Truly a disease! My health is very poor. Don't tell Natasha. Don’t look at how cheerful she is: this is the last time she’s living as a girl, and I know what happens to her every time we receive his letters. But God willing, everything will be fine,” she concluded every time: “he’s an excellent person.”

At first, Nikolai was serious and even boring. He was tormented by the impending need to intervene in these stupid household matters, for which his mother had called him. In order to get this burden off his shoulders as quickly as possible, on the third day of his arrival, he angrily, without answering the question of where he was going, went with frowned brows to Mitenka’s outbuilding and demanded from him an account of everything. What these accounts of everything were, Nikolai knew even less than Mitenka, who was in fear and bewilderment. The conversation and consideration of Mitenka did not last long. The headman, the elective and the zemstvo, who were waiting in the front wing, with fear and pleasure at first heard how the voice of the young count began to hum and crackle as if ever rising, they heard abusive and terrible words pouring out one after another.
- Robber! Ungrateful creature!... I will chop up the dog... not with daddy... I stole... - etc.
Then these people, with no less pleasure and fear, saw how the young count, all red, with bloodshot eyes, pulled Mitenka out by the collar, with his foot and knee, with great dexterity, at a convenient time, between his words, pushed him in the butt and shouted: “Get out! so that your spirit, you bastard, is not here!”
Mityenka rushed headlong down six steps and ran into a flowerbed. (This flowerbed was a well-known place for saving criminals in Otradnoye. Mitenka himself, arriving drunk from the city, hid in this flowerbed, and many residents of Otradnoye, hiding from Mitenka, knew the saving power of this flowerbed.)
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law with frightened faces leaned out into the hallway from the doors of the room where a clean samovar was boiling and the clerk's high bed stood under a quilted blanket sewn from short pieces.
The young count, panting, not paying attention to them, walked past them with decisive steps and went into the house.
The Countess, who immediately learned through the girls about what happened in the outbuilding, on the one hand, calmed down in the sense that now their condition should improve, on the other hand, she was worried about how her son would bear it. She tiptoed to his door several times, listening to him smoke pipe after pipe.
The next day the old count called his son aside and said to him with a timid smile:
– Do you know, you, my soul, got excited in vain! Mitenka told me everything.
“I knew, Nikolai thought, that I would never understand anything here, in this stupid world.”
– You were angry that he did not enter these 700 rubles. After all, he wrote them in transport, but you didn’t look at the other page.
“Dad, he’s a scoundrel and a thief, I know.” And he did what he did. And if you don’t want to, I won’t tell him anything.
- No, my soul (the count was embarrassed too. He felt that he was a bad manager of his wife’s estate and was guilty before his children, but did not know how to correct this) - No, I ask you to take care of business, I’m old, I...
- No, daddy, you will forgive me if I did something unpleasant to you; I know less than you.
“To hell with them, with these men with money and transport all over the page,” he thought. Even from the corner of six jackpots, I once understood, but from the page of transport, I don’t understand anything,” he said to himself and since then he has not intervened in business anymore. Only one day did the countess call her son to her, tell him that she had Anna Mikhailovna’s bill of exchange for two thousand and asked Nikolai what he thought to do with it.
“That’s how it is,” answered Nikolai. – You told me that it depends on me; I don’t like Anna Mikhailovna and I don’t like Boris, but they were friendly with us and poor. So that's how it is! - and he tore the bill, and with this act he made the old countess cry with tears of joy. After this, young Rostov, no longer intervening in any matters, with passionate enthusiasm took up the still new business of hound hunting, which was started on a large scale by the old count.

It was already winter, morning frosts were binding the earth, wetted by autumn rains, the greenery was already flattened and brightly green separated from the stripes of browning, cattle-killed, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter crops and stubble, became golden and bright red islands among the bright green winter crops. The hare was already half worn out (molted), the fox litters were beginning to disperse, and the young wolves were larger than the dogs. It was the best hunting time. The dogs of the ardent, young hunter of Rostov not only entered the hunting body, but also got beaten up so much that in the general council of hunters it was decided to give the dogs a rest for three days and on September 16 to leave, starting from the oak grove, where there was an untouched wolf brood.
This was the situation on September 14th.
All this day the hunt was at home; It was frosty and bitter, but in the evening it began to cool down and thaw. On September 15, when young Rostov looked out the window in the morning in his dressing gown, he saw a morning that nothing could be better for hunting: as if the sky was melting and descending to the ground without wind. The only movement that was in the air was the quiet movement from top to bottom of microscopic drops of mg or fog descending. Transparent drops hung on the bare branches of the garden and fell on the newly fallen leaves. The soil in the garden, like a poppy, was glossy and wet black, and at a short distance merged with the dull and damp cover of fog. Nikolai stepped out onto the wet, muddy porch: it smelled of withering forest and dogs. The black-spotted, wide-bottomed bitch Milka with large black protruding eyes, seeing her owner, stood up, stretched back and lay down like a hare, then suddenly jumped up and licked him right on the nose and mustache. Another greyhound dog, seeing its owner from the colored path, arched its back, quickly rushed to the porch and, raising its tail, began to rub against Nikolai’s legs.
- Oh goy! - at this time that inimitable hunting call was heard, which combines both the deepest bass and the most subtle tenor; and from around the corner came the arriving and hunting Danilo, a Ukrainian-style, gray-haired, wrinkled hunter with a cropped hair, a bent arapnik in his hand and with that expression of independence and contempt for everything in the world that only hunters have. He took off his Circassian hat in front of the master and looked at him contemptuously. This contempt was not offensive to the master: Nikolai knew that this Danilo, who despised everything and stood above all else, was still his man and hunter.
- Danila! - said Nikolai, timidly feeling that at the sight of this hunting weather, these dogs and the hunter, he was already seized by that irresistible hunting feeling in which a person forgets all previous intentions, like a man in love in the presence of his mistress.
-What do you order, your excellency? - asked the protodeacon's bass, hoarse from raking, and two black shining eyes glanced from under their brows at the silent master. “What, or won’t you be able to stand it?” as if those two eyes said.
- Nice day, huh? And the chase and the gallop, eh? - Nikolai said, scratching Milka’s ears.
Danilo did not answer and blinked his eyes.
“I sent Uvarka to listen at dawn,” his bass voice said after a moment of silence, “he said, he transferred it to the Otradnensky order, they were howling there.” (Translated meant that the she-wolf, about whom they both knew, moved with the children to the Otradnensky forest, which was two miles from the house and which was a small place.)
- But you have to go? - said Nikolai. - Come to me with Uvarka.
- As you order!