The Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers, also known as the Interim Meeting of Foreign Ministers, was held in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

between the foreign ministers of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

from December 16 to 26, 1945. They discussed the problems of occupation, establishing peace, and other

Far Eastern The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In modern times, the term ''F ...

issues. James F. Byrnes represented the United States,

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union from 1922 to 1940 and ...

the United Kingdom, and

Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (; – 8 November 1986) was a Soviet politician, diplomat, and revolutionary who was a leading figure in the government of the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1950s, as one of Joseph Stalin's closest allies. ...

the Soviet Union. They issued a communiqué after the conference on December 27, 1945. The conference was one of a number of other Allied World War II conferences, including those at

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

and

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

Articles

The result of the conference was the Soviet-Anglo-American Communiqué, which had the following articles: # Preparation of peace treaties with

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. # Far Eastern Commission and Allied Council for

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. #* Far Eastern Commission #*

Allied Council for Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

# The establishment by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

of a commission for the control of atomic energy

Aftermath

The Moscow Conference has been seen as advantageous for the Soviet Union. The conference was proposed by Byrnes, without an invitation offered to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and without first consulting with the

. This was aligned with the goal the Soviet Union had previously wanted - that France and China would be excluded from peace settlements regarding the minor axis powers in Europe - and created a rift between the United Kingdom and United States. The conference also recognised the pro-Soviet governments in Romania and Bulgaria, granted the Soviet Union a role in post-war Japan, established international control of atomic energy, and achieved an agreement on a trusteeship in Korea - all were viewed as successes by the Soviet Union. Veteran American diplomat

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...

, who was then serving in the US embassy in Moscow, observed the proceedings first hand, and wrote in his diary on US Secretary of State Byrnes: "The realities behind this agreement, since they concern only such people as Koreans, Rumanians, and Iranians, about whom he knows nothing, do not concern him. He wants an agreement for its political effect at home. The Russians know this. They will see that for this superficial success he pays a heavy price in the things that are real." Writing in 1947, the London Economist argued that the Moscow Conference "ended the phase of post-war in which the victors clung to the belief that they could work out agreed policies... Willy-nilly, world politics moves back towards the balance of power, and issues now tend to be determined by the relative strength or influence of the two groups."

Europe

The 1947 Paris Peace Treaties were the final peace settlement for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland.

Japan

The Moscow Conference established the Far Eastern Commission, based in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, which would oversee the

, replacing the Far Eastern Advisory Commission. The arrangement, which gave the United States a dominant position in Japan, was a mirror image to the situation in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, where the Soviet Union was dominant. Both the far Eastern Commission and the Allied Council for Japan were dissolved following the

Treaty of San Francisco The , also called the , re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war, military occupation and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and inclu ...

in 1951.

Korea

On December 25, 1945, prior to the announcement of the final decision of the conference, the

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

reported that "Secretary of State Byrnes went to Russia reportedly with instructions to urge immediate independence as opposed to the Russian thesis of trusteeship." Domestic media adopted the story on December 27. The communiqué was officially announced in Korea on December 28. The section on Korea consisted of four paragraphs. The third paragraph called for the establishment of a Joint Commission, under the control of a consortium of the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and China, including the decision that a four-power trusteeship of up to five years would be needed before Korea attained independence. Both the political left and political right of Korea opposed this trusteeship plan, with it being suggested that such a plan made Korea a vassal of the four powers. Protests against the trusteeship plan, which had also occurred on December 27, intensified on December 28. On the right, these protests were led by Kim Gu. On December 29, at Gyeonggyojang, a 76 member committee to oppose the trusteeship plan was formed, which included left wing leaders such as

Pak Hon-yong Pak Hon-yong (; 28 May 1900 – 18 December 1955), courtesy name Togyong (), was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher, communist activist and one of the main leaders of the Communist Party of Korea, Korean communist movement ...

of the Communist Party of Korea. Protests, leafletting, and discourse in the media continued the next few days. However, on January 3, 1946, the Communist Party reversed its position and issued a statement supporting the conference communiqué. This shift was not well received by the public. The shift coincides with the arrival of Soviet general Andrei Alekseevich Romanenko to

Pyongyang Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...

on December 30, lending credence to the theory that the shift was due to a Soviet directive. The shift of the left away from the anti-trusteeship movement led to intensified confrontation between the left and right. By January 23, unrest against the trusteeship plan had quietened somewhat, and right wing political groups stopped advocating for violence and for non-cooperation against military government. The Joint Commission convened throughout 1946 and 1947, but it was increasingly obstructed, mostly by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union increased its military build-up in what would become

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

and prevented the 1948 United Nations supervised election from occurring in the north. The failure of the Moscow Conference to peacefully settle the issue of Korea ultimately led to the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

in 1950. The anti-trusteeship victory protests are celebrated in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

annually on December 28.

Atomic energy

The

United Nations Atomic Energy Commission The United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) was founded on 24 January 1946 by the very first resolution of the United Nations General Assembly "to deal with the problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy." The General Assembly aske ...

was founded on January 24, 1946, by the very first resolution of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

Outstanding issues

The conference did not address outstanding issues regarding:

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, and the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

. The Soviet Union was unwilling to withdraw from Iran, citing the Russo-Persian Treaty of Friendship and claiming their presence was legal to protect

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

. As a counter to Anglo-American demands for their withdrawal from Iran, the Soviet Union pressed for British withdrawal from Greece. Reiterating their position previously voiced at the Potsdam and London conferences, the Soviet Union once again made demands for a military base in the Dardanelles.

Footnotes

External links

Report of the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United States of America, the United Kingdom
{{Cold War Aftermath of World War II 1945 in the Soviet Union Soviet Union–United States diplomatic conferences United Kingdom–United States relations Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations Moscow conferences of World War II 1945 in international relations Allied occupation of Korea 1945 conferences 1945 in Moscow