Roskill Lecture: Yalta at 75

Wed 29 January 2020

Churchill College

Professor David Reynolds will speak on 'Yalta at 75: The Summit and its Legacies 1945-2020' for the eighteenth biennial Roskill Lecture at Churchill College.

Yalta in February 1945 ranks as one of the most notorious summits of the 20th century. Did the Big Three divide up the world between them? Did Roosevelt and Churchill sell out Eastern Europe to Stalin? David Reynolds revisits the drama of the conference, drawing on archives from the three countries, and reflects on the longer-term meaning of Yalta for our world of Trump, Putin and Brexit.

David Reynolds is Emeritus Professor of International History at Cambridge University, a Fellow of Christ's College and a former Chairman of the History Faculty. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005. He is the author of twelve books including 'In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War' (Wolfson Prize, 2004) and 'The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt' (2018) – co-authored with the Russian historian Vladimir Pechatnov, a former Archives By-Fellow. His most recent book is 'Island Stories: Britain and its History in the Age of Brexit' (2019). David has also written and presented thirteen documentaries for BBC Television – many of them now on Netflix – as well as the award-winning Radio 4 series America: Empire of Liberty. He is a well-respected and popular member of our Archives Committee, to which he has given wise and considered counsel over the years.

The lecture will start promptly at 17.30 and will be followed by a drinks reception.

We hope that you will join us for this exciting event.

This occasion is organised by our internationally acclaimed Churchill Archives Centre, which houses the papers of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and a host of modern politicians (of all political persuasions) diplomats and scientists.

Captain Stephen Roskill had a distinguished naval career before becoming the official historian of the war at sea during the Second World War and a Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College. He played a key role in establishing the Churchill Archives Centre. The Roskill Memorial Lecture was instituted by Churchill College as the most appropriate means of commemorating his life and work. It embraces the topics of international security, history, foreign affairs and public policy.

Cost: Free