Iron Curtain
East-West ideological barrier
The Iron Curtain was the political and ideological boundary dividing Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe from Western Europe during the Cold War, from roughly 1945 to 1991.
Winston Churchill popularized the term in a 1946 speech.
The phrase evokes an impenetrable barrier of secrecy and control: Life behind the Iron Curtain. (Lowercase iron curtain is any impenetrable barrier.)
Former communist superstate
- Eastern BlocUSSR-aligned European nations
- Berlin WallCold War partition
- Warsaw PactSoviet-led military alliance
- NATOWestern defense organization
Cuban Missile Crisis · arms race · space race · espionage · KGB · CIA · proxy wars · Sputnik
Britain's WWII premier
- CzechoslovakiaFormer Central European republic
- Prague Spring1968 Czechoslovak reform period
- reunificationRestoring divided unity
- SolidarityPolish trade union movement
glasnost · perestroika · Brezhnev Doctrine · Brandenburg Gate · Checkpoint Charlie · Radio Free Europe
Official content restriction
- surveillanceSystematic observation of subjects
- secret policeClandestine state security apparatus
- StasiEast German secret police
- gulagForced labor prison system
political prisoners · persecution · purges · show trials · dissidents · suppression · travel restrictions · informants
Collective ownership system
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- MarxismClass-based revolutionary philosophy
- socialismCommunal economic control
- totalitarianismState controls everything absolutely
democracy · Stalinism · Leninism · collectivism · free market · central planning · one-party state · class struggle
Outer edge or limit
- checkpointInspection station on route
- wallVertical enclosing structure
- fenceBoundary structure between properties
- watchtowerElevated structure for surveillance
barbed wire · minefield · fortification · no man's land · patrol · partition · blockade · perimeter
Soviet Union
Former communist superstate
- Eastern BlocUSSR-aligned European nations
- Berlin WallCold War partition
- Warsaw PactSoviet-led military alliance
NATO · Cuban Missile Crisis · arms race · space race · espionage · KGB · CIA · proxy wars · Sputnik · détente
Winston Churchill
Britain's WWII premier
- CzechoslovakiaFormer Central European republic
- Prague Spring1968 Czechoslovak reform period
- reunificationRestoring divided unity
Solidarity · glasnost · perestroika · Brezhnev Doctrine · Brandenburg Gate · Checkpoint Charlie · Radio Free Europe
censorship
Official content restriction
- surveillanceSystematic observation of subjects
- secret policeClandestine state security apparatus
- StasiEast German secret police
gulag · political prisoners · persecution · purges · show trials · dissidents · suppression · travel restrictions · informants · interrogation
communism
Collective ownership system
- capitalismPrivate profit-based economy
- MarxismClass-based revolutionary philosophy
- socialismCommunal economic control
totalitarianism · democracy · Stalinism · Leninism · collectivism · free market · central planning · one-party state · class struggle · command economy
border
Outer edge or limit
- checkpointInspection station on route
- wallVertical enclosing structure
- fenceBoundary structure between properties
watchtower · barbed wire · minefield · fortification · no man's land · patrol · partition · blockade · perimeter · exclusion zone
- East GermanyStasi, GDR, DDR, Berlin Wall, East Germany
- Eastern EuropePoland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria
- European HistoryFrench Revolution, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Industrial Revolution
- bordersborder, boundary, border crossing, national borders, boundary line
- speechesspeech, addresses, historic speeches, lecture, soliloquy
- Cold WarBerlin Wall, arms race, Warsaw Pact, Cuban Missile Crisis, Eastern Bloc
Iron Curtainopen borders
Unregulated international passage
free world · open society · freedom of movement · glasnost · transparency
Iron Curtainfall of the Berlin Wall
Cold War's symbolic endpoint
European Union · reunification · German reunification · European integration · bridge-building
iron, curtain, curtains, irons, ironing, ironed, ironclad, curtained, curtaining