Yalta - Division of Germany by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

Exactly 80 years ago now, from 4 to 11 February 1945, Winston Churchill ; Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin gathered to discuss the fate of Germany, over three months before their actual surrender.

The chosen location on the Crimean sea shows the negotiating power of Russia at that moment. Germany was to be divided into parts controlled by the Allies. The treaty implied Central and Eastern Europe countries would hold elections to establish democratic governments.

Stalin was going to break his word and Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia to name a few capitals of the ancient states of Europe became satellites of the USSR. As Churchill described in a 1946 speech: "An iron curtain has descended across the continent"... The 1945 Allies' victory had just been celebrated, the Cold War had already begun.