Paris Peace Conference of 1946

an international conference held in Paris from July 29 to Oct. 15, 1946, to consider plans for peace treaties between the anti-Hitler coalition, which had been victorious in World War II (1939–45), and the former allies of fascist Germany in Europe—Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, and Finland.

Among the participants in the Paris Peace Conference of 1946 were the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, France, and China. The participants also included Australia, Belgium, the Byelorussian SSR, Brazil, Greece, India, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the Ukrainian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, and the Union of South Africa. At the request of the governments of concerned states (Mexico, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Albania, and Austria), their representatives were given the opportunity to state their positions at the conference. In addition, the conference heard the opinions of delegations from Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, and Finland.

During the conference there were sharp clashes between the Soviet delegation, which defended the national independence of all peoples, and the delegations of the Western powers, especially the USA and Great Britain, which endeavored to secure the right to interfere, at future peace negotiations, in the internal affairs of Germany’s former allies, particularly Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania, which had established people’s democratic systems. Owing to the firm position maintained by the Soviet delegation, the conference approved the overwhelming majority of provisions agreed upon earlier by the Council of Foreign Ministers. However, the Western powers imposed a procedure requiring the approval of recommendations by a simple majority, thus overriding the Council of Foreign Ministers’ decision calling for a two-thirds majority in such cases. Taking advantage of this procedure, the Western powers introduced several unacceptable recommendations, such as one calling for the “internationalization of the Danube.”

The New York session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (November-December 1946) considered various articles of the draft peace treaties (for example, those concerning reparations from Italy, the Greco-Bulgarian border, the status of Trieste, and the rules for navigation of the Danube). At this session the draft peace treaties with Italy, Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland were completed.