Iron Curtain

Churchill’s description of an ‘Iron Curtain’ expressed the growing division between this Soviet-dominated East and the West. It described a political and ideological barrier rather than a single physical curtain across Europe.

The Wall reinforced the wider division of Europe represented by the Iron Curtain and the rival NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances.

In March 1946, Winston Churchill, who was no longer British prime minister, gave a speech at Fulton in the USA. He declared that an ‘iron curtain’ had descended across Europe. This was a metaphor for political division, not a physical barrier.