What did Churchill mean when he said in a speech to Americans in 1946 that an iron curtain has descended on Eastern Europe?

Answer 1

The Curtain, often compared the the Berlin Wall as the Berlin Wall did exactly what the Iron Curtain described by Churchill did, was said to be splitting the globe between Communism and fair governments (republics, democracies, etc.) The Berlin Wall did this by dividing Germany between the Communist Eastern Bloc and the Republic Western Bloc.

Answer 2

He meant that Europe had become divided between the free Western part and the Soviet-dominated, totalitarian Eastern part that was under the tyranny of Josef Stalin and had no freedom. The USSR and the Western world worked together to defeat Hitler, but following the collapse of Nazi Germany bitter rivalries developed between the Communist East and the Capitalist West. This resulted in the Soviet Union establishing the warsaw Pact Treaty, that ceded the Central and Eastern European nations to Communist rule- they had their own Governments, but these were ultimately answerable to Moscow which tolerated no dissent and crushed any attempt at liberalisation, as happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 / 69. An excpetion was Yugoslavia, which was tolerated as a more liberal Communist federation by the Soviets, under the Government of Marshal Tito. Yugoslav Communism was much freer and more palatable to the West than the Soviet model.

Answer 3

He was referring to the Nazi Party, who were to grow into a mass movement that ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945 and in that time invaded countries bording Germany.

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The Iron Curtain mostly refers to the spread of Communist countries after WWII, and other territories owned by the USSR.

Answer 4

Winston Churchill foresaw that, though Russia had eventually become an ally in the fight against Nazis Germany, Stalin was not to be totally trusted. Once WW2 ended in the West, Stalin brought down the "Iron Curtain" and effectively started the "Cold War" between Russia and the West.

Answer 5

The soviet unioninstalling communist governments in eastern europe

Answer 6

He meant that the Russians had imposed their will against the west with a socioeconomic and political quarantine

Answer 7

This means that there was a rift, a separation between the USSR and the allies