My partner is Lithuanian and the time for formal introductions with her extended family had come. At the Potsdam Conference, Churchill complained to Stalin about an "iron fence" coming down upon the British Mission in Bucharest. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. The border between North Korea and South Korea is very comparable to the former inner German border, particularly in its degree of militarization, but it has never conventionally been considered part of the Iron Curtain. Elsewhere, the border defenses between west and east were much lighter. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. Yugoslavia , although communist-run, was independent of the Eastern Bloc. Berlin, the capital of the reunited Germany, is only slightly to the West of Prague. In some places, a "death strip" was constructed on the East German side of the barrier, in which unauthorized access would be met with bullets. It also applied only to the fortified borders in central Europe; it was never used for similar borders in Asia between communist and capitalist states. Fact Check: How Accurate Are Farmers Almanac Weather Forecasts in Comparison to Weather Apps? Originally Answered: What countries were in the Iron Curtain? The term iron curtain was coined by the British author and suffragette Ethel Snowden in her book Through Bolshevik Russia (1920). There are 7 countries, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, Poland and Albania. In the years following World War II, the countries of communist Eastern Europe were often referred to as being "behind the iron curtain." Although those who lived either under Communism or capitalism experienced hardships in this period, it was those behind the Iron Curtain that experienced some of the greatest, where Soviet Russia’s sphere of influence was the progenitor for the ‘socialist’ design of life forced upon Eastern European countries by their new, ruling governments. Click On The Countries That Were Behind Iron Curtain By 1950. The West finally prevailed, demonstrating that ideals cannot be artificially kept behind walls and boundaries. That’s one of the things about the Russians. …, Churchill repeated the words in a further telegram to Truman on June 4, 1945, in which he protested against such a U.S. retreat to what was earlier designated as, and ultimately became, the U.S. occupation zone, saying the military withdrawal would bring: The Iron Curtain symbolized the political separation between Soviet-controlled and nonSoviet areas in Europe, which set the stage for the Cold War. 1. The Iron Curtain symbolized the political separation between Soviet-controlled and nonSoviet areas in Europe, which set the stage for the Cold War. An iron curtain [ein eiserner Vorhang] would fall over this enormous territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be slaughtered. Indeed the Central European states to the east of the Curtain were frequently regarded as being part of Eastern Europe, rather than Central Europe even though geographically Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is considerably further West than Vienna, the capital of Austria. Economically, the European Community and the European Free Trade Association were the Western counterparts to COMECON. The Iron Curtain served to keep people in and information out of the Eastern countries, and the metaphor eventually enjoyed wide acceptance in the West. ... Satellite countries that were under their influence were frequently the stage for their conflicts. Facebook; Prev Article Next Article . A look behind the Iron Curtain Leer en español. Some suggest the term may have first been coined by Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians after World War I to describe the political situation between Belgium and Germany, in 1914. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia: Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. An iron curtain is drawn down upon their front. On either side of the Iron Curtain, states developed their own international economic and military alliances: Member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Union as the leading state A few hundred meters of the original fence, and one of the guard towers, has remained installed. Over the following months, through a mixture of persuasion and purges of those holding contrary views, the Soviet Union did indeed come to see the West as a threat, rather than the ally they had been during World War II. That’s one of the things about the Russians. A Peek Behind the Iron Curtain “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” So spoke Winston Churchill in 1946 and this trip will give you an insight into the countries whose borders and territory were just behind that iron curtain. The "iron curtain" became the symbol of the division between two competing ideologies and systems as the competition for world dominance of these two systems dominated the last half of the twentieth century. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article (A number of guard towers and bunkers can still be seen. Similarly, communist Albania broke with the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, aligning itself with the People's Republic of China after the Sino - Soviet split. A look behind the Iron Curtain. The two exceptions were Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which retained its full independence, and Albania, which escaped Soviet influence in the 1960s, and aligned itself with China; both Albania and Yugoslavia were Communist states. Iron Curtain Facts - 21: The Communists behind the Iron Curtain controlled the army and set up a secret police force. The cold war and 1950 s flashcards atlas map cold … By 1920, it had become associated with the boundary of the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. Political, economic, and military realities, Art, Music, Literature, Sports and leisure. This border was between East Germany and West Germany, between Czechoslovakia and Austria, and between Hungary and Austria. The Iron Curtain is a term related to the Cold War. It will explain why I just cannot get misty-eyed over some ideas on the political left and why I … Churchill described the border between these countries and Western Europe as an 'iron curtain' and was worried the soviet union was taking over europe ... thought they were creating a new country. Daniel Delgado. The first recorded occasion on which Churchill used the term "iron curtain" was in a May 12, 1945, telegram he sent to U.S. President Harry S. Truman: I am profoundly concerned about the European situation. 28/05/2020. The promises at Yalta to the contrary, probably 8 to 10 million people are being enslaved. They have wiped out all the liquid assets. The antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West that came to be described as the "iron curtain" had various origins. The Iron Curtain was a Cold War name for the borders between Western and Soviet Europe. Behind the Iron Curtain, people were denied access to anything from the outside and the ability to travel beyond boundaries. - Prolific Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1994. In light of Soviet archives now public, many historians have now revised their opinion. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had announced at Yalta that after the defeat of Germany, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from Europe within two years (Antony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall). An iron curtain has descended over the fate of these people and very likely conditions are truly terrible. What Annual Income Is Considered Poverty Level & How Was the Federal Poverty Level Established? On February 25, 1945, Joseph Goebbels wrote of an "iron curtain" in his weekly newspaper Das Reich: If the German people lay down their weapons, the Soviets, according to the agreement between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, would occupy all of East and Southeast Europe along with the greater part of the Reich. With the exception of a period of fascism in Spain and Portugal and military dictatorship in Greece, these countries were ruled by democratic governments. At first, many countries in the West widely condemned the speech. The Iron Curtain is a Western term made famous by Winston Churchill referring to the boundary which symbolically, ideologically, and physically divided Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II, until the end of the Cold War, roughly 1945 to 1990. As a photographer, however, one is almost never completely off duty. Iron Curtain. When they were outside of Russia, they traveled paired, just like we did behind the Iron Curtain. East and West Germany were reunited in 1990, and Czechoslovakia became Czech Republic and Slovakia. Iron Curtain Facts - 16: The Communist countries established behind the Iron Curtain were the Soviet Union, East Germany (1945), Bulgaria (1945), Czechoslovakia (1948), Hungary (1947), Poland (1947), Romania (1947) and Albania (1945). And, in particular, Churchill was concerned that the United States might return to its pre-war isolationism, leaving the exhausted European states unable to resist Soviet demands. It became increasingly separated from the West. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Iron_curtain&oldid=998716, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. The Iron Curtain took physical form in the shape of border defenses between the countries of the western and eastern blocs. While the Iron Curtain was in place, the countries of Eastern Europe and many in Central Europe (except West Germany, Switzerland and Austria) were under the political influence of the Soviet Union. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. Although the phrase was not well received at the time, as the Cold War progressed, it gained popularity as a short-hand reference to the division of Europe. The Jewish press in London and New York would probably still be applauding. One such country that is often used as a comparison is the Soviet Union, the nation behind the dreaded “Iron Curtain.” In her autobiographical account entitled Children of the Storm , Natasha Vins, born in 1952 in Kiev, describes what it was like to be a Christian during … The border between Hungary and neutral Austria, for instance, was marked by a simple chain link fence which was easily removed when it became the first part of the Iron Curtain to be dismantled in 1989. After the end of the Cold War and the spheres of influence were determined by the Allied powers at Potsdam and Yalta, the divisions between the wartime allies soon reappeared as the struggle between capitalism and communism heated up. in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. It was used during World War II by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and later Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk in the last days of the war; however, its use was popularized by the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who used it in his "Sinews of Peace" address March 5, 1946, at Westminster College, Missouri, in Fulton, Missouri: From Stettin (Szczecin) in the Baltic [Sea] to Trieste in the Adriatic [Sea] an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. It means the border between the states that were members of the Warsaw Pact (in Eastern Europe ), and those that were not (then called The West ). Many saw Churchill's speech as warmongering and unnecessary. 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