Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 2010 19 NEW BOOKS S. M. Plokhy, Yalta: the Price of Peace . Viking, 2010. This enlightening treatise authored by S. M. Plok hy, the Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard, presents new evidence and new insight into the famous Yalta Conference in 1945 and the roles played by Stalin, Churchill , and Roosevelt and their staffs. Although scholarly and meticulously re - s earched and documented, Yalta is extremely readable, in part because Professor Plokhy has made a concerted effort to make it accessible to the average reader. The detailed descriptions of events, agreements/disagreements, diplomatic activity, daily dynamic s, and of the physical surroundings of the conference are colorful and at times dramatic. The narrative is embroidered by excerpts from the letters written home by Anna Boettiger (Roosevelt’s daughter) and Sarah Oliver (Churchill’s daughter), who attended the conference in lieu of the wives of the U.S. President and the British Prime Minister and were “guardian angels” to their respective fathers. There are also numerous excerpts from the letters of the diplomatic staff and from the many memoirs of those wh o attended the conference. Such personal details as FDR’s declining health issues, Churchill’s difficult personality, Stalin’s paranoia, and the presence of the Soviet spy Alger Hiss, contribute to the total picture. The book offers a new interpretation of this meeting, mainly due to new sources that were made available after the fall of Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. in 1991. It sheds new light on the least understood and most controversial political meeting of the 20th century and its repercussions on the future of many countries in Easter Europe, including Ukraine. Each of the three heads of state — the “Big Three” — had his own agendas for the Yalta Conference. Roosevelt’s goal was to get Stalin to join the war against Japan and to have t he Soviet Union become a member of the United Nations, an organization that was supposed to do away with the old balance - of - power system and all its secrecy. Churchill wanted to preserve British inte - rests in Europe (especially in the Mediterranean); Stali n’s goal was to achieve recognition of the U.S..S.R.’S status as a great power and to solidify the Soviet “sphere of influence” in Eastern Europe. An interesting “secret deal,” almost comical in retrospect, had to do with the membership of Ukraine and Bel arus in the United Nations, an arrangement which gave the Soviets 3 votes, with all other member nations having only one. Plokhy’s book asks a poignant question: Whether Churchill and Roosevelt did their best to get what they wanted from Stalin. His answer to this implies they did not. After the meeting, three more years of unsuccessful negotiations followed, eventually giving rise to the cold war. There are innumerable, fascinating parti - culars; Plokhy, for example, cites Churchill (a staunch anticommunist ) professing that “fighting one tyranny with the help of another seemed the right thing to do.” (In retrospect, is this something that we would now view as “collaboration”?) The eight days at the “Riviera of Hades” (what Roosevelt called the Crimean coast ) are so vividly described that the reader actually “sees” and “hears” all the important players, not only the Big Three, but also the top diplomats and generals, who were part of their entourages. The conclusion is surprising and reveals how history affec ts today’s world. Captivating reading! Nadia Deychakiwsky Branch 12, Cleveland, Ohio Man is a history - making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind . – W. H. Auden History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors, and issues . – T. S. Eliot History is an account, mostly false of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools . – Ambrose Bierce
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
