Yalta... and Russia Takes Berlin

ヤルタ会談とベルリン進攻

When Stalin eyed the great prize of Berlin, he decided to change the way he ran the war: there would be no more Stavka representatives in charge of fronts. Henceforth, the Supremo would command directly.
Zhukov was to command the First Belorussian Front that was to fight the five hundred miles to Berlin… Two weeks later, Koniev (of the First Ukrainian Front) was plunging into the ‘gold’ of industrial Silesia, Zhukov had expelled the Germans from central Poland, and [Roman] Malinovsky was fighting frenziedly for Budapest. The Second and Third Belorussian Fronts broke into East Prussia, Germany itself, in a fiesta of vengeance: two million German women were to be raped in the coming months. Russian soldiers even raped Russian women newly liberated from Nazi camps. Stalin cared little about this…
Roosevelt and Churchill had been discussing the next Big Three meeting even since July 1944. Stalin was reluctant….
… They agreed on Yalta. By 29 January, Zhukov was on the Oder. As German forces counter-attacked the Soviet bridgeheads, Roosevelt and Churchill were being greeted on 3 February at Saki airforce base in the Crimea by Molotov….
At 4 p.m. (February 5), the conference opened in the Livadia’s ballroom… They were discussing the Pope:
‘Let’s make him our ally,’ proposed Churchill.
‘All right,’ smiled Stalin, ‘but as you know, gentlemen, war is waged with soldiers, guns, tanks. How many divisions has the Pope? If he tells us… let him become our ally.’
When Roosevelt was ill, Stalin, Molotov and Gromyko visited him for twenty minutes… He had always distrusted Churchill but Roosevelt seemed to fascinate him.
The next day, 6 February, they discussed the painful subject of Poland and the world organization that would become the UN. Russia should take eastern slices of Poland in exchange for grants of German territory in the west. Stalin assented only to include a few Polish nationalists in his Communist-dominated government….
… Stalin explained the Russian obsession with Poland: ‘Throughout history, Poland has served as a corridor for enemies coming to Russia’ – hence he wanted a strong Poland… They approved the three zones of occupation in a demilitarized and de-Nazified Germany. The Americans were pleased by Stalin’s repeated promise to intervene against Japan, agreeing his demands for Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands.
Stalin had won virtually all he wanted from the Allies and this is usually blamed on Roosevelt’s illness and susceptibility to Stalinist charm. Both Westerners stand accused of ‘selling out Eastern Europe to Stalin’. Roosevelt’s courtship of Stalin and discourtesy to Churchill were misguided. FDR was certainly ill and exhausted. But Stalin himself always believed that force would decide who ruled Eastern Europe which was occupied by 10 million Soviet forces….
… Zhukov was to assault Berlin from the Oder bridgeheads over the Seelow Heights; Koniev to push towards Leipzig and Dresden, with his northern flank thrusting towards southern Berlin parallel to Zhukov….
As they were marshalling their forces, Roosevelt died, the end of an era for Stalin.
At 5 a.m. on 16 April, Zhukov unleashed a barrage of 14,600 guns against the Seelow Heights. [Zhukov and Koniev] wielded 2.5 million men, 41,600 guns, 6,250 tanks and 7,500 aircraft, ‘the largest concentration of firepower ever assembled’….
On 20 April, Zhukov reached Berlin’s eastern suburbs. Both marshals fought, house by house, street by street, towards Hitler’s Chancellery. On the 25th, Koniev ordered an assault towards the Reichstag. Three hundred yards from the Reichstag building, Chuikov, who was leading Zhukov’s thrust, encountered Russian forces – Koniev’s tanks….
In the early hours of May Day, the German Chief of Staff visited Chuikov, announcing Hitler’s death and requesting a ceasefire. Ironically, this was Hans Krebs, the tall German officer whom Stalin, seeing off the Japanese in 1941, had told: ‘We shall remain friends.’ Chuikov refused a ceasefire. Krebs left and committed suicide. … Zhukov, eager to break this world-historical news, telephoned Kuntsevo. Once again, the security refused to help.
‘Comrade Stalin’s just gone to bed,’ replied General Vlasik.
‘Please wake him,’ retorted Zhukov. ‘The matter’s urgent and cannot wait until morning.’
Stalin picked up the phone and heard that Hitler was dead.
‘So that’s the end of the bastard.’ (pp. 424-431)