Why did the Soviet Union get 3 seats in the UN?

Question

Even before the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Belarus (which were then officially part of the Soviet Union) had independent seats at the United Nations. Why didn't the US or the UK get the same privilege?

Answer 1

First of all, the Soviet Union had three seats, not five. An addition to the Soviet Union itself, two of the Soviet republics had seats in the UN: Ukraine and Belarus. This obviously didn't make much sense given that neither of them was an independent state at the time. So it can only be viewed as a way for the Soviet Union to increase its weight in the UN.

This was one of the results of the Yalta Conference in 1945. In fact, originally the Soviet Union wanted that all the then 16 republics are represented, in the end they settled on two. Why did Roosevelt agree to these concessions? I can see the following reasons:

• The USA needed Soviet Union's support in the war against Japan. The Soviet Union agreed to enter the war three months after they defeated Germany but not without some concessions.
• One of the main reasons for the failure of the Leage of Nations was the fact that some countries weren't represented, especially the Soviet Union. Having the Soviet Union join the United Nations was important if it were to do any better.
• At that time only two communistic countries existed: Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Even with four voices (out of fifty) they wouldn't have much weight. Of course the situation changed very soon but Roosevelt probably didn't foresee that at the Yalta Conference.

Wikipedia claims that the USA also had the option to get two US states represented in the UN but this didn't happen for political reasons (difficult to choose). It's a very weak article not listing any sources so one would need to find better evidence.

As to the UK, in a way they got even more than three seats with Canada, Australia and India present. Note that India wasn't even an independent country at that point.