VISITING YALTA – AN HISTORIC WATER SHED

Everyone who has studied the history of World War II knows that the famous Yalta Conference in 1945 changed the face of Europe. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met to decide on the spheres of influence that would exist following Hitler’s downfall.

Germany was divided with Berlin as a partitioned city and the country split into an eastern zone controlled by Russia and a western zone overseen by England and the United States. The eastern European countries of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia all came under the Russian umbrella.

These changes set the stage for the Cold War between Russia and the West for the next 46 years.

So, what makes Yalta relevant today? The historic significance of the Yalta Conference will always be recognized as a major event of the 20th century and seeing the location as it has been preserved allows visitors to step back into an era that has been immortalized in books and movies.

The site of the meetings was at Livadia Palace, a summer residence built by Czar Nicholas II about 15 minutes outside the Black Sea resort of Yalta and only used four times by his family before he was deposed by Lenin. It is an elegant building surrounded by beautiful gardens.

Since 1991 when the Ukraine declared its independence from Russia, Yalta has become the main Black Sea resort of the Ukraine. It is a very cosmopolitan city and well worth visiting.