Victims of Yalta: The Secret Betrayal of the Allies 1944-1947 - Nikolai Tolstoy
Publication Year : 1977
Language : English
At the end of the Second World War, a secret Moscow agreement that was confirmed at the 1945 Yalta conference ordered the forcible repatriation of millions of Soviet citizens that had fallen into German hands, including prisoners of war, refugees and forced laborers. For many, the order was a death sentence, as citizens returned to find themselves executed or placed back in forced-labor camps. Tolstoy condemns the complicity of the British, who "ardently followed" the repatriation orders.
The author
Born in England in 1935, Tolstoy is of part Russian descent, a member of the prominent Tolstoy family and stepson of the author Patrick O'Brian.
Tolstoy has written a number of books about Celtic mythology. In The Quest for Merlin he has explored the character of Merlin, and his Arthurian novel The Coming of the King builds on his research into ancient British history. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1979.
He has also written about World War II and its immediate aftermath. In 1977 he wrote the Victims of Yalta, which criticised the British forced handover of Soviet citizens to Joseph Stalin in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. In 1986 he wrote The Minister and the Massacres which criticised British repatriation of collaborationist troops to Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslav government, it received much critical praise, as well as criticism by Macmillan's authorised biographer.
