Y alta Conference

Yalta Conference was one of the most important meetings of Allied leaders during World War II. These leaders were the President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, the Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and the Premier Minister Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. Their countries became known as “the Big Three." The conference took place at Yalta, a famous Black Sea resort in the Crimea. When the meeting began, the Soviet Union held the strongest European military position. Soviet armies controlled and liberated much of Eastern Europe, and they were preparing to enter Berlin. The agenda at the Yalta Conference included the major problems in a postwar Europe.

Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin agreed on several points. These points were the following:

1. accept the structure of a world peacekeeping organization that was to become the United Nations;

2. reestablish order in Europe and to help the defeated countries create democratic governments;

3. divide Germany into four zones that would be occupied by Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France;

4. support the Soviet-backed government and hold free elections in Poland, and to extend the Soviet Union's territory into Poland;

5. Force Germany to give the Soviet Union equipment and other resources as a contribution for the Soviet losses.

6. The Soviet Union also agreed to enter the war against Japan in exchange for control of the Kuril Islands, the southern half of Sakhalin Island, and two strategic ports.

After the war many critics who were not even burn said that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had "sold out" Eastern Europe and had given too much to the Soviet Union. But most serious scholars believe that the Yalta Conference produced a traditional and balanced settlement of the world. They argue that the Soviet Union held the superior military and political position in Eastern Europe and yet made the greatest concessions at the conference.

The Soviet Army captured Berlin on 2^nd of May, 1945. The war turned into Berlin streets and squares as if it could save the fate of Nazi monsters. May, 8 Germany surrendered and the Great Patriotic War came to its logical end.

Discussion:

1. Why did the Western powers agree to give “too much to the Soviet Union”?

2. What did the Yalta Conference approve about the defeated countries?

3. Which of the participant countries held the strongest position at the conference? Why?

4. The United Nations Organization aimed at maintaining peace and security in the post-war world, didn’t it?

5. What do you know about the United Nations Organization?

6. What are the countries members of the Security Council?

Grammar Subjunctive Mood in simple sentences

Very often we dream and imagine something magic and unreal and doing it we use Subjunctive mood that is quite different and complicated if you don’t know how to do it. Let’s study these situations where subjunctive mood can be used.

Present: If I were a little taller! Если бы я был повыше ростом!

Past: If only I had known him before! Если бы я знал его раньше!

If he had attacked me, I would have hit him immediately.

Exercise № 73. Write some sentences using Subjunctive Mood as in the models above.

List of phrases: What a pity we have no money! What a pity we make mistakes; have holiday; be wealthy; work in Switzerland; can drive an expensive car.

Exercise № 74. Translate the sentences into English.

1. Если бы я был на 20 лет моложе, я бы занялся политикой. 2. Если бы у меня был миллион фунтов, я бы купил дорогой особняк в Швейцарии. 3. Если бы я знал японский язык, я бы учился в Японии. 4. Если бы у меня было много свободного времени, я бы поехал вокруг света. 5. Если бы у меня не было трех детей, я бы поехал на морское побережье. 6. Если бы я занимался английским регулярно, я бы учился в университете Кембриджа.

Exercise № 75. Now use Subjunctive mood to complete these sentences.

1. Russia would have been larger, if ….. (sell Alaska)

2. The USSR would not have survived the arms race, if … (raise the iron curtain)

3. If the United Nations were not created, the world … (vanish due to nuclear wars)

4. If Boris Eltsin didn’t sign that agreement on the Berlin wall, Germany … (unite)

5. We would have lived better, if … (do everything we can)