Iron Curtain

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas. Winston Churchill employed the term in a speech in Fulton, Mo., U.S., about the division of Europe in 1946. The restrictions and the rigidity of the Iron Curtain eased slightly after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, though the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 restored them. The Iron Curtain largely ceased to exist in 1989–90 with the communists' abandonment of one-party rule in eastern Europe.


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Iron Curtain is vanished, unmorned but not forgotten: ; Sone tensions remain between 'Ossis,' 'Wessis'
; ...Soviet bloc was disintegrating and the Iron Curtain was about to recede into history, Associated...retraced their journey. ALONG THE FORMER IRON CURTAIN - In a row of cages where border guards...journey I made in the dying days of the Iron Curtain, I can only marvel at how ... Read more
Iron Curtain From Stage to Cold War.(Book review)
; Iron Curtain From Stage to Cold War Patrick Wright...Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the (European...world listened, and the weighty words 'iron curtain', especially when spoken in the presence... Read more
Iron Curtain replaced by a border in the mind Wall is gone, but clash of attitudes splits Germany
; ...Soviet bloc was disintegrating and the Iron Curtain was about to recede into history, Associated...the edge of what used to be called the Iron Curtain, the offices of the defunct collective...I had made in the dying days of the Iron Curtain, I can only marvel at how thoroughly... Read more
Iron Curtain to be a tourist magnet
; BERLIN: The Iron Curtain, which divided the communist bloc...funded by the European Union (EU), the Iron Curtain is to be turned into a 7,000-kilometre...and cyclists. The EU hopes that the Iron Curtain Trail, likely to be the longest heritage... Read more
Origin of the Term `Iron Curtain'
; ...historic speech that introduced the phrase `Iron Curtain'?" I believe that this sentence wrongly...Churchill the first use of the phrase "Iron Curtain." Although it is true that this was...occupied a country, they let fall an iron curtain so that they can carry on their fearful... Read more
Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain.(Review)
; ...Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain. By Peter Grose (Boston: Houston Mifflin...Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain Peter Grose recounts the genesis and...implementing covert operations behind the Iron Curtain long before the terms rollback and ... Read more
A Look Back at `Iron Curtain'
; ...after the the Berlin Wall crumbled. "An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent...British prime minister considered the "Iron Curtain Address" among his most significant...affairs and the future now that the Iron Curtain has fallen," said James Traer, president... Read more
Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain
; ...Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000...Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain, Peter Grose recounts the genesis and...implementing covert operations behind the Iron Curtain long before the terms "rollback" ... Read more
Iron curtain holidays to help Euro tourism.(News)
; EURO-MPs want to turn the iron curtain into a tourist attraction as part...leader Winston Churchill, the iron curtain described the postwar division...4,250-mile route of the former iron curtain as a tourist trail to show how... Read more
HALF-CENTURY LATER, 'IRON CURTAIN' ENDURES.(NEWS)
; ...after the the Berlin Wall crumbled. ''An iron curtain has descended across the Continent...British prime minister considered the ''Iron Curtain Address'' among his most significant...affairs and the future now that the Iron Curtain has fallen,'' said James Traer, president... Read more

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses

Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain A term made famous by Winston Churchill (‘An Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent’) in 1946 to describe the boundary between Communist Eastern Europe and the democracies of Western Europe. Read more
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain The colloquial name for the former frontier between East European countries...by Churchill: ‘I view with profound misgivings the descent of an iron curtain between us and everything to the eastward.’ It was generally agreed... Read more
iron curtain
iron curtain (usually the Iron Curtain) the notional barrier separating the former Soviet bloc and the West prior to the decline of communism that followed the political events in eastern Europe in 1989. Read more
”Iron Curtain” speech
Iron Curtain” speech an address given by former British Prime Minister Winston...spread of Soviet communism, which he believed had spread an “iron curtain” across Eastern Europe. Read more
Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain Term describing the barrier between communist East Europe and the capitalist West during the Cold War . The term passed into common use after its appearance in a speech by Winston Churchill at Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946. Read more

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