Who first used the term "Iron Curtain" in connection with the USSR?

Winston Churchill's "Sinews of Peace" address of 5 March 1946, at Westminster College, used the term "iron curtain" in the context of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an 'Iron Curtain' has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. 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."

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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38 Comments

Armadillo

Diane Herbert Wall, Winston did have more clout.

Armadillo

james parrillo, sure they did.

Armadillo

Roselyn L Prollo, thanks for the explanation. I have a better understanding of it now.

Roselyn L Prollo

Churchill meant the Soviet Union had separated the Eastern European from the west so that no one knew what was going going to behind the curtain.He used the word "iron to signify that it was impenetrable.

natalia

Vienna is capitol of Austria and wasn't behind the iron curtain. Belgrade, former Yugoslavia neither belonged behind the iron curtain nor in the Western Europe. Former Yugoslavia used to be a buffer zone between Eastern and Western Europe.

Chrissie

Bridy4u , "in relation to the ussr" - which didn't exist until 1922. Interesting to see that predictive text doesn't automatically change this to upper-case. Existed 70 years, gone 30 years - in name.

aaustin

This Quiz has too many questionable answers. It's an expert Quiz and you don't have the correct answers.

Carroll Price

The Cold War was a contrived war like the War on Terror that replaced it. With the US economy based almost entirely on defense spending, an endless supply of enemies is an absolute neccessity.