FSB declassified documents on preparation of Yalta conference in 1945

As noted by the FSB Public Relations Center, in order to organize the conference, “the Soviet side carried out a large amount of work in the shortest possible time in Crimea, which had recently been liberated from the Nazi invaders.”

They approached the Yusupov Palace very responsibly, as the Soviet delegation was located here. They specially built a first-category bomb shelter – with hermetic doors and a filter-ventilation device in case of chemical use. The previous reinforced concrete ceiling was reinforced with a meter-thick layer of sand and a two-meter "reinforced concrete mattress".

Thus, the shelter had to protect against a direct hit from a 500-kilogram bomb, and by February 10, the time when the cement had fully matured, against a direct hit from a 1,000-kilogram bomb.

They also prepared for the passage of the main special train. As noted in the document, they conducted raids, checked the documents of citizens at railway stations and station settlements, on trains. In total, 26,260 people were checked. They identified 15 Red Army deserters, 18 criminals, and 80 violators of passport regulations.

They also reviewed the operational records and arrested 15 anti-Soviet people. As a preventive measure, 54 citizens were temporarily released due to traffic safety. They inspected the tracks, existing defects, and fixed them.

According to the published documents, special attention was paid to demining the areas where they were going to create dormitories for pilots and sailors of the allied delegations. At these sites, 43 unexploded artillery shells, 9 grenades, 8 mortar mines, 21 bouncing mines and 1 rocket were found. 61 explosive objects were found in the vicinity of the Livadia Palace, where the main meetings of the conference were later held.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also presented a selection of declassified documents from the Central Archives. Here are documents on plans for meeting and escorting allied transports, on the arrival of their aircraft, on the meeting of delegations. The documents note that the most intense day was the day of the arrival of US President F. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister W. Churchill on 28 aircraft. The tension is due to the fact that all the aircraft were operating on the same wavelength. Despite this, there were no gaps or distortions in two-way radio communication, reception was made on the first try.

On February 4, 1945, in the Livadia Palace, three kilometers from Yalta, the Yalta (Crimean) Conference of the allies of the Anti-Hitler Coalition – the United States of America, the Soviet Union and Great Britain – began its work , becoming an important milestone in the history of diplomacy.