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Although the initial reaction to the Yalta agreements was celebratory, it was also very short lived. In 1945, the administration of the new US president Harry Truman clashed with the Soviets over their influence in Eastern Europe, and over the United Nations. Many Americans began to criticize Roosevelt’s handling of the Yalta negotiations due to the following lack of Soviet cooperation and even giving Eastern Europe and Northeast Asia away to the Soviet Union.<ref> Plokhii, p. 119</ref> Numerous Central European nations also regard the Conference in Yalta as the “Great Western betrayal” since it allowed the USSR to intervene freely in their domestic affairs, abandoning democratic policies and turning them into Soviet satellites. Yalta effectively allowed the USSR to install Communist regimes in Central Europe with impunity. At the Yalta conference, the Big Three “attempted to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability”, and many believe the decisions and concessions of Roosevelt and Churchill during the summit led to the following power struggle during the Cold War. Nevertheless, Stalin essentially got everything he wanted: a significant territorial sphere of influence and interest as a buffer zone.
The German invasion in, the USSR and pressing back to victory in the East required a tremendous sacrifice by the Soviet Union. And Stalin skillfully used that during the wartime conferences in pursuit of his postwar Soviet empire expansion. Soviet military casualties totaled approximately 35 million with over 15 million killed, missing or captured. One in four Soviets was killed or wounded. More than 1,700 towns and 70,000 villages were destroyed and the Soviet civilian death toll reached over 25 million.<ref> Conquest, p. 234</ref> Thereafter, Stalin was often referred to as one of the most influential men in human history. Although Stalin was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people during his brutal rule, he was even nominated for Nobel Peace Prize twice – in 1945 and 1948.<ref> Montefiore, p. 117</ref> He continued to prosecute a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that represented foreign–especially Western–influence. One of the key aims of Stalin, before and after the war was the retention of his won power and to make himself secure against all his real or imagined opponents.<ref > Conquest, p. 213</ref> However, despite all, Soviet dictator’s iron will and deft political skills let Stalin play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire. ==Stalin establishes Soviet style regimes at war's conclusion==
Stalin prime aim at the various wartime conferences and in the immediate aftermath of the war, it has been argued was the defense of the Soviet Union. The Communist country had suffered greatly during the war and had suffered millions of casualties. Furthermore, Russia had been invaded during the First World War and had been invaded many times in its history. Stalin, a key student of history was very aware of this and he wanted to protect the Soviet Union, from further invasions. This partly explained his apparently inexhaustible hunger for land and territory.<ref> Boobbyer, Phillip The Stalin Era (Routledge, London, 2000), p. 278</ref> Stalin may have driven the Germans from eastern Europe and after a brief war drove the Japanese out of Northern China and Northern Korea, however, he did not free these countries. In effect, these countries had communist regimes imposed on them. Local communists were elevated to positions of power in the liberated regions and nations and with the support of Stalin, they eventually became part of the Communist Bloc, which was led by Stalin, in Moscow. Stalin was eager to extend the territories under his control in order to establish friendly nations on his borders,ref>Boobyear, p. 234</ref> The Soviet Supreme leader knew that if friendly governments ruled the territories surrounding his country, that they would be less likely to assist any enemy in attacking Russia. Furthermore, Stalin wanted friendly governments around his nation, in order to act as a buffer and to protect the Soviet Union from any invasion. Stalin also wanted to control countries that traditionally had threatened Russia and later the Soviet Union, such as Poland and Germany. This was all done to protect the Soviet Union from further attacks and invasions, especially from his former allies, the British and the Americans. He, like other communists, believed that a confrontation between Communist system and the Capitalist system was inevitable.<ref> Conquest, Robert, Stalin, Breaker of Nations. Viking-Penguin, Hammondsworth, 1999), p. 212</ref>
