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The Soviets led by Stalin were keen on regaining lost territories and Yalta Conference was their best chance to do that. As a result, Stalin even agreed to enter the Pacific war against Japan in exchange for more territories granted, including portions of Sakhalin, Port Arthur, Manchurian railroads and the Kurile Islands<ref> Roberts,p 38</ref>. However, already in poor health, President Roosevelt failed to acknowledge Stalin’s true objectives. Roosevelt readily met Stalin’s conditions, since the Soviets eventually agreed to join the United Nations and Pacific war. The two leaders even secretly negotiated a voting formula with a veto power granted solely to the permanent members on the UN Security Council, providing themselves with more control in the world affairs and greatly weakening the UN power in the oncoming disputes. Overall, Roosevelt and the other Allies felt confident that Yalta had been successful. Nevertheless, the true Conference winner was once again Joseph Stalin <ref>Plokhii, Serhii. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670021415/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0670021415&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=395fe063e5a59ca43bf5fc51b1cf3924 Yalta: The Price of Peace]</i>. New York, NY: Viking Press, NY, 2010), p. 145</ref>.

[[File:Soviet_Prime_Minister_Josef_Stalin,_President_Harry_S._Truman,_and_British_Prime_Minister_Winston_Churchill_pose_for..._-_NARA_-_198797.jpg|thumbnail|left|275px|Stalin, Truman, and Churchill at Potsdam Conference in 1945]]

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 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, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1460969928/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1460969928&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=4f4a0d2ed9d56327a09af40eee7f97b3 The Stalin Era]</i> (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.

He wanted an empire not only for political reasons but also for economic reasons. Stalin wanted to establish puppet regimes in eastern Europe and they would provide the Soviet Union with resources and markets for their goods.<ref>Applebaum, p. 113</ref> The Communist leader envisaged a series of puppet states in Eastern Europe that would be exploited so that they could help to make the Soviet Union prosperous. This was to be ultimately a mistake as in fact, the Soviet Union came to subsidize the Communist countries in the East of Europe. Stalin's domination of Eastern Europe was to greatly antagonize the west and was a contributory factor in starting the Cold War.<ref>Montefiore, p. 332</ref>

Stalin believed that the Soviet Union's sacrifices meant that he and his nation were entitled to be treated like a great power and that they could create an Empire for their own strategic and economic benefit. The Soviet leader was eager to expand his territory in an effort to create a buffer around the USSR, in a bid to protect it from any invasion, possibly from the western powers. Stalin as a committed communist was also eager to expand communism around the world and to promote a global revolution, that would sweep away the capitalist system. Stalin did achieve many of his goals.<ref> Applebaum, p. 143</ref> By the time of his death, he ruled or influenced almost one-fifth of the world's landmass and the USSR was acknowledged as only one of two Superpowers in the world. However, his ambitions meant that he caused the Cold War, that for four decades, threatened to turn into a nuclear conflict between the Communist bloc and the democratic western powers.