The Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was a term popularized by Winston Churchill in 1946 to describe the division in Europe during the Cold War between Western democracies and Eastern communist countries. It symbolized the ideological and physical boundary separating the Soviet Union and its satellite states from the West. This division led to political tensions, military alliances, and economic rivalry. The term underscores the lack of communication and cooperation between these two blocs, representing a period of intense conflict and competition that lasted until the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 1990s.