END OF WORLD WAR TWO AND PEACE SETTLEMENTS.
By 1943, mistrust had developed between the Soviet Union and the western Powers. They could not agree on such problems as the post-war treatment of Germany and the future of occupied Soviet territories on the Baltic and in Eastern Europe. The Soviets also hoped for the opening of a second front in Western Europe to relieve German pressure on Russia. The decision to postpone the invasion of France increased Soviet-Western mistrust.
The Teheran Conference, November 1943.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at the Teheran Conference in Persia (Iran). This was the first meeting of the Big Three. They made a number of important decisions concerning Allied co-operation in the war. They agreed that the Soviet Union would destroy Nazi forces in eastern Europe, leaving western and southern Europe to the British and the Americans. To improve Soviet-Western relations, Churchill agreed to let Soviet Union take parts of Poland and East Prussia after the war. Churchill and Roosevelt confirmed their decision to invade France in May 1944, and decided that this invasion would take place at the same time as a Soviet offensive against Germany in the east. Stalin meanwhile promised that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan after the defeat of Germany.
The definite plan for an Allied invasion of France and Churchill's territorial concessions in eastern Europe pleased Stalin and greatly improved Soviet-Western relations. However, the decision to leave the reconquest of eastern Europe to the Soviets made it easier for them to gain control of countries in that areas after the war and made them communists.