Yalta: The Price of Peace Hardcover – February 4, 2010

The book accurately portrays Stalin's iron grip on USSR, and the weakness of FDR and even Churchill. Considering FDR's health, someone representing him should have attendee this meeting. The situation in previous USSR and present day Russia have not changed very much, considering that Putin has aspiration to duplicate the horrors of Stalin regime, some of which I personally sampled in the early 40's. Stalin dominated the meeting, by having it on his territory and being able to eavesdrop on Churchill's and FDR's strategic conversations. If General Patton would not have been restrained from taking Berlin and then moving eastward, we would not have these repetitious cold war crisis. It was pure insanity to allow Russians to take berlin and then make an apple pie out of it.

Great insight, free of the cold War rhetoric and recriminations. Gives good background on the Yalta agenda and is spot on in the evaluation of its importance. Plokhy is great at explaining the essential miscommunication and clashes of interest between the Big Three and the inevitable consequences later. We also have to remember that out of the Big Three, only Stalin survived - physically and/or politically - to see the end of war and further talks about the future of the postwar world, and had to reset relationships with a completely new set of people on the British and American side in the aftermath of Yalta - Harry Truman in the USA and the British labor government that succeeded Churchill and Eden. I am pretty sure his paranoia just got more fuel in the changed circumstances.
Highly recommended.

Seventy years ago, during February 1945,three leaders were making their way to Yalta.They were:Stalin,Roosevelt and Churchill.As the Second World War was still going on, the three decided to meet in the south of the Crimea-a place which had known wars before.Perhaps the most famous was the Crimean War of the nineteeth century.The three leaders were to decide the fate of the world in a limited number of days.Among the many issues discussed were the fate of Germany,the question of Russia's entrance in the war against Japan,the redrawing of Eastern European borders,particularly those of Poland and.Yalta was always a controversial subject which divided the historians.On the one hand there were those who claimed that Western interests were sacrificed because Churchill and Roosevelt wanted to pacify Stalin.On the other hand there were those who claimed the opposite,namely, that everything was done to achieve a balance of power.
This new study dispels the first myth.Drawing on newly-discovered documents,the thesis of the book is very simple:the Western leaders have done all they could and achieved the best possible results within that period of time.Published and unpublished documents and diaries also confirm this thesis.S.M Plokhy quotes extensively from the diaries of both Churchill's doctor and Roosevelt's daughter and in addition the new documents prove that Stalin did not want to take advantage of Roosvelt's poor health.The new findings confirm that the Russians were extremely resolute to establish control over their Western neighbours,with Poland as the key player.To be precise,after Yalta,each side remained suspicious about the other's intentions.Yalta did not cause the Cold War,on the contrary: the Cold War came afterwards.
The problem pointed out by the author at the very beginning of the book concerns the absence of an official conference record which could have settled the controversy.Instead, we get a lot of quotations from memoirs or notes taken during those eight fateful days.The author is very good at conveying to the reader the atmosphere which prevailed at the various meetings and does not spare even the tiniest details, thus giving us a feeling of actually being there ,seeing, hearing and attenting the meetings.His analysis of the various phases and issues is extremely good and helpful in understanding what went on, because he includes the broader panoramic picture of everything.To give just an example,when he discusses the Far Eastern question,which was to settle the terms of Russia's entrance in battle against the Japanese,Mr.Plokhy provides an extensive background to the relations between Russia and Japan ,starting from the nineteeth century onwards,including details about the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905.The motivations,thoughts and actions of the Big Three and their aides are well illustrated.Military and political manoeuvers are discussed in detail and he provides a balanced and realistic look at the debates which went on during the final days of the conference(Even some menu contents are described for the curious reader).
The last two parts of the book examine the high expectations following the Yalta conference and the crises in the East-Wesr relations that followed after FDR'S death.This sorrowful event was the end of cooperation with the USSR.The epilogue is an exceptional analysis of the Yalta agreements,absolving both Roosevelt and Churchill of any mistakes or inconsiderations.The Soviet Union had its own reasons to be satisfied with the results, because its power status has been recognized.
Professor Plokhy then asks:could the Western Allies have done better at Yalta? The first answer that comes to mind is:"Of course they could have."The problem was that both Churchill and FDR viewed the postwar world through different lenses.Roosevelt was interested in global supremacy; Churchill ,by contrast,was interested more in Europe and in the control of the Mediterranean, which was very essential to the continued existence of the British empire..Thus,from Churchill's point of view, Stalin was a potential enemy and not an ally.Both Churchill and FDR were committed to prevent the communization of Eastern Europe.
To sum up, this book is richly detailed,enlightening and the research invested in it is impressive indeed.The Big Three and all the other minor characters who played their roles in Yalta come to life in the best possible way.

Mao says that to Nixon in Oliver Stone's "Nixon." The idea is that the foibles of individual statesmen bring on the calamities and upheavals that become the raw material of history books. It's a great line and it kept running through my mind while I read "Yalta: The Price of Peace."

The book is a superb reconstruction of the 1945 summit between Roosevelt (dying), Stalin (paranoid), and Churchill (politically insecure). Over the course of several days and many heavy meals, the Big Three played checkers with world politics: they agreed to dismember Germany, to create the UN, to move Poland westward (necessitating the expulsion of millions of Germans), and to give the Soviet Union a protectorate in Manchuria (in exchange for Moscow's agreement to enter the war with Japan). Mao and Nixon would have been impressed -- and jealous.

I don't have much to add to the laudatory Amazon reviews. The writing is clear and occasionally eloquent. The author moves seamlessly between grand strategy and droll biographical comments. His political judgments are balanced. And he taps recently-opened Soviet archives. Highly recommended.

I have the Hardback and Audible Editions. This is a superbly researched and well written and highly readable book. It covers the nuances, tradeoffs and difficulties in the negotiations and why Stalin was able to negotiate so well and where Churchill and Roosevelt tried and failed and succeeded. It draws on the notes of all participating countries, participant bios etc and can be read and re-read. The coverage of the Polish issue is complete and shows how it was not so black and white for the Allies to get it out of Stalin's grasp. Excellent book.