Iron curtain
the "iron curtain"
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What was the iron curtain?It was the political, military, and cultural barrier created by the U.S.S.R after WW11 to seal itself and its allies off from non communist areas. The divide soon become protected with military. It was from arctic Russia in the north, through eastern Europe down to Bulgaria ending at Black Sea.
WHy was it "built"?After WW2 the Soviet Union wanted to enclose itself with countries it controlled to create a “buffer” border to shield itself from another attack from the west. The Iron Curtain was defended militarily against the West by the Warsaw Pact. This Pact combined the Soviet Red Army and troops from the new Communist one-party states. Some parts constructed of nearly impenetrable steel fencing. The Berlin Wall was the section of the iron curtain dividing West from East Germany. It was a concrete wall separating Berlin into democratic and Communist parts.
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"sinews of peace"This was Winston Churchill’s speech that said Soviet influence endangered the safety of the whole continent. He compared Stalin to Hitler to which Stalin then compared him to Hitler. Many people believe this speech was a start to the cold war between the democratic Western world and the Communist Eastern bloc with the Soviet Union as its political centre.
End of the curtainThe beginning of the final collapse of communism 1989 (foreshadowed fall of Soviet Union in 1991). The end of the Iron Curtain happened simultaneously with the end of the cold war. As a result of the Berlin Wall, western European nations joined with the United States and Canada to form a defensive military alliance (NATO). Soviet Union saw NATO as a threat and formed it's own alliance in 1955 (Warsaw Pact)
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