Iron curtain is an expression that refers to the division of Western Europe from Eastern Europe in the period known as the Cold War.
This famous expression was said during the speech given by the British Prime Minister of the time, Winston Churchill, on March 5, 1946, shortly after the announcement of the end of the Second World War. In his speech, the prime minister stated that:
From Szczecin on the Baltic [sea] to Trieste on the Adriatic [sea], a iron Curtain descended on the continent. Behind that line are all the capitals of the former States of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them are in what I shall call the Soviet sphere, and they are all subject to a one way or another, not only to Soviet influence but also to strong, and in certain cases increasing, control measures issued from Moscow.
Considered a milestone for the start of the Cold War, Churchill's speech ended the alliance that defeated Germany in the war and that led to the division of Europe into two parts of areas of different political and economic influence: the capitalist zone and the zone communist. Eastern Europe was under the influence and political control of the Soviet Union, while Western Europe was under the domination of the United States.
At the time, the expression was a metaphor for the Soviet influence in the region and highlighted the separatist regime in the economy that existed between Eastern Europe and the capitalist economy.
Years later, this metaphor became a reality with the construction of walls protected by the military Soviets, including the Berlin Wall, which was eventually torn down in 1989, starting the process of reunification German.
See more about Cold War it's the Berlin Wall.
