Gold salons full of rats. Luxurious bedrooms infested with bedbugs. Plus, Soviet backwash specialists, cold tap water, and kilometer-long lines to the bathrooms. However much Stalin would try to make a good face for a bad game, he could not hide the obvious fact. The Yalta conference was simply bizarre.
General Henry Maitland "Jumbo" Wilson, chief of the British Imperial Staff, was taking a bath when the door opened and a laughing, adorable Soviet "companion" entered the bathroom, holding a right-sized brush to scrub her back. With a meaningful gesture she made it clear that she would use the tool for its intended purpose. The surprised general might have agreed, had it not been for the fact that there was a bath line waiting outside the door… at least twenty impatient generals and admirals. So time was pressing.
Churchill must have made a similar face when he learned that the conference would be held in Yalta. In his opinion, she was completely unfit for that.
The above-mentioned scene is not a phenomenon of the Yalta conference. On the contrary. This was the weekday of the members of the British delegation.
Conference on the "Crimean Riviera"
When President Roosevelt proposed Yalta for the meeting of the leaders of the Big Three, he forced the Soviets to make a considerable logistical effort. Crimea, devastated by hostilities, plundered by the Wehrmacht, had to be quickly put in order.
As Jonathan Walker writes in his book "The Third World War", 30,000 people were brought to this task. Red Army soldiers who also took care of mine clearance and protection of the resort. From Moscow, especially for this occasion, 1,500 carriages transporting huge amounts of food, drink, furniture, bedding and even windows for repairing damaged windows. The servants from the best Moscow hotels were also brought to the table to be served to the table by distinguished guests.
Winston Churchill was the most dissatisfied with the choice of Yalta as the conference venue. A good place for typhus and hellish lice which are plentiful He complained. The more adventurous Americans sent the flagship of their landing force USS Catoctin to Sevastopol.
The fairy-tale Vorontsov Palace, where the British lived, had many beautiful ballrooms and only one bathroom. For the islanders who care about personal hygiene, it was a big problem (photo:Kulmalukko CC ASA 3.0).
His sanitation team carried out the deratization of Livadia's rooms - the palace designated to house Roosevelt and the presidential entourage - swarming with rats . In addition, there was a hospital and a dentist's office on board. In the event of some unforeseen circumstances, the unit could transform into the seat of American diplomats.
The British did likewise, and soon the luxury passenger liner Franconia moored in Sevastopol as well, with all the comfort and entertainment a gentleman would need. Of course, the British Prime Minister, who spent the last three days on the ship during the British delegation's stay in Crimea, was extremely happy about this, as he said: it's great to come back to the English food after this piglet and their cold, greasy dishes .
Both delegations landed at the Saki airport, about 130 km from Yalta. On site, apart from welcoming guests from Molotov, Litvinov and the representative company, there were three large tents. As Lord Moran, Churchill's personal physician, recalled, the tables standing there were full of caviar, smoked salmon and all kinds of drinks .
The road from Saka to Yalta had to be covered by cars on very dangerous, snowy and icy roads. The route, along its entire length, was surrounded by Soviet soldiers and female soldiers. Imagine the British surprise to find that, due to the lack of snowplows, these people were simply treading the trail, making it passable for cars.
In order for cars with respectable guests to reach Yalta, the Red Army soldiers trod the entire 130-kilometer route from the airport in Saki. In the photo, President Roosevelt is about to leave Yalta airport.
Raiders of the lost bowl
The British settled in the Vorontsov Palace, which reminded them of a castle. There was only one serious problem that Jonathan Walker mentions in his book: it was felt that the Duke and Duchess of Vorontsov were more concerned with eating than bathing .
Charmed by the luxurious lounges, banquet halls and conservatory, the islanders were also completely amazed at the primitive sanitary facilities.
There was only one bathroom and three sinks in the entire palace, and there was no hot water. It was for this reason that such huge lines were lining up at the bathroom door, and was even more embarrassed by the visit of Soviet ladies about to wash the backs of foreign officials . Not surprisingly, then, British generals staged a real hunt for washing bowls in the morning, which were a scarce commodity. As a result, when it was finally possible to find the desired prey, the lucky one would close it with four triggers to be able to undergo hygienic activities in peace.
Another enemy took its toll on the British and American delegations, attacking treacherously and without respect for the high charges of its victims. They were… bedbugs. All rooms were infested, especially the bedding, making it impossible to rest .
Even Churchill was not spared and bit his feet. Some diplomats, apparently less immune, had a high fever because of this. Attempts were made to remedy this problem by spraying the rooms with DDT (the later Polish Azotox), but this was not dealt with until the end of the conference.
The best parties are at "Pockmark Jóźek"
In Moscow, drunken feasts at the Kremlin were legendary. Of course, everything happened under the watchful eye and ear of the Leader. You had to be at his disposal at any time, because it is not known when the invitation might have come. The rule was that Stalin drunk his associates unconscious so that they would ridicule themselves later - the short, corpulent Khrushchev used to, for example, show the famous prysiudas.
Yusupov Palace, where Stalin moved during the Yalta Conference. It was there on February 8 that a feast in honor of the British and Americans took place.
Woe was also to the one who could not stand and fell asleep during the feast, or when he was drunk, he escaped an inappropriate remark. Such a gentleman usually ended up in Lubyanka as an "enemy of the people". However, this type of entertainment was very much liked by Lavrenty Beria, who even organized orgies in his villa, during which he often raped young women, kidnapped from the street by his trusted people.
Lord Moran - Churchill's personal physician - had mixed feelings from Crimea. On the one hand, he was surprised by the splendor, and on the other, even years later, he remembered the plague of bedbugs.
Such a feast was also prepared for foreign delegations in Yalta. The gala dinner was held on February 8 at the Yusupov Palace, where the Chief lived. Obviously, Stalin's comrades were more reserved in the face of foreign visitors.
The menu prepared for this occasion was impressive. On a large table set for thirty people, various types of caviar, patties and fish dishes were first served:Atlantic salmon, beluga, smoked and salted herring, mullet, white fish in champagne. Next, a cold piglet (which Churchill did not like), game broth and chicken cream arrived on the table. Truly Byzantine splendor.
Then the guests enjoyed grilled sirloin, lamb shashlik and a tartar delicacy called fawn - a dish of rice and meat served with quail, small partridges and jeiran. At the end, there was cauliflower baked in breadcrumbs and a dessert made of various fruits and sweets, including churchela, a traditional Georgian snack that looks like a cigar. Of course, the table was dominated by various types of vodka and, specially chosen by Stalin, Armenian cognac.
The Big Three surrounded by the accompanying members of the delegation. Churchill doesn't look very good in this photo, is it because the bedbugs are eating him so badly?
This was the backstage of the Yalta conference. The fate of the world was decided in fairy-tale palaces, among cypresses and bedbugs with a glass of Armenian cognac in hand. By a strange twist of fate, today, after 70 years, these bedbugs have attacked Crimean resorts again, but on a much larger scale. And they were brought straight from Moscow.
Bibliography:
- Jonathan Walker, World War III. The secret plan to free Poland from Stalin's hands , Horizon 2014 sign.
- Lord Moran, Churchill's War 1940-1945 , Amber 2006.
- Michael Dobbs, Six Months in 1945 , Magnum 2013.
- Gregor Dallas, Poisoned Room , Bukowy Las 2012