Book 13 – “The Daughters of Yalta” by Catherine Grace Katz

At the end of WW2, as hostilities were beginning to draw to a close and victory was in sight, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D Roosevelt and the Russian Leader Joseph Stalin met to discuss post war Europe. They chose for their meeting a town in the Crimea on the Black Sea coast because Stalin was politically unable to leave his own country. The conference agreed many things, most of which never happened the way that they had been envisaged, and it was the last meeting between these three powerful men.

In The Daughters of Yalta Catherine Grace Katz tells the story of this conference through the eyes of three young women who were also present. They were Churchill’s daughter Sarah, Roosevelt’s daughter Anna and Kathy (Kathleen) the daughter of the American ambassador to Russia, Averell Harriman. Kathy was responsible for the practical arrangements of the conference before the others arrived, Anna was responsible for keeping Roosevelt alive and hiding his illness from others attending, and Sarah’s role was to act as Churchill’s assistant. Each of them assumed a gatekeeping role to their father as well as an assistant although none had a formal role at the conference.

I didn’t know much about this conference and I found the book fascinating in how it showed that the private lives and characters of the powerful men affected how the discussions went and what was agreed. Churchill was determined to ensure an independent Poland (Polish representatives were not invited) and a place for France in post war Europe (French representatives weren’t invited either). Roosevelt thought that he had a personal relationship with Stalin and that it would be easy to agree and was disinclined to take advice, even from his ambassador. Stalin had all the rooms bugged and spies in place in the intelligence services of both the UK and USA – he also wanted as much land and control in Europe as he could get and wouldn’t, in the end, allow the agreements made at Yalta to stop him doing what he wanted.

This book shows us how the days of the conference unfolded, the living conditions of the delegates, and the relationships between them and the members of their own delegations. All the way through this we see the influence and hard work of the daughters who only wanted what was best for their fathers. I liked this mixture of the private and the public and this book reminded me a lot of Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile (see here for review) which reveals Churchill’s personal life during the war and talks about many of the same people. It also started me thinking about how much influence friends and family members of important public figures have despite the fact that they are neither elected nor accountable.

An excellent book which helped me understand the personalities of the men and the reasoning behind their decisions.