Real iron curtains appeared in theaters in the late 18th century. The scene was mostly lit by candles, so there was always a chance of a fire. In the event of a fire, an iron curtain fell between the stage and the auditorium, which blocked the fire.
But the term "iron curtain" appeared on everyone’s lips not in connection with safety measures in theaters of the Renaissance. This is a political cliche, which is called a difficult period in world history.
The Iron Curtain in Political Terminology
The Iron Curtain is a political metaphor that means the political, economic, and cultural isolation of a country, in this case, the USSR, from other states.
Who is the author of the expression?
Churchill is mainly attributed to authorship, but this is not entirely true. To be extremely precise, for the first time this metaphor was used by the Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov in the book “Apocalypse of our time”, written in 1917. He compared the events of the October Revolution with theatrical action, after which a bulky curtain of iron fell over Russian history “with a clang, creak”. This performance, according to Rozanov, did not bring anything good, on the contrary, the audience, watching all this, overnight became naked and homeless.
Two years later, at the Paris Peace Conference, this expression was used by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau in his speech. He declared the readiness of the capitalist countries to erect a huge iron curtain around Bolshevism in order to protect Western civilization from harmful influence. It is not known whether he borrowed this metaphor from Rozanov or invented it on his own. Be that as it may, this capacious expression came into widespread use only almost 30 years after Churchill's speech.
But before that (March 1945), an article by Joseph Goebbels entitled "Year 2000" was still written. Understanding the proximity of Germany’s defeat, this Nazi propaganda minister wanted to at least quarrel the allies of the time — the United States and Great Britain — and set them against the USSR, describing the grim prospects for the future if the Germans surrendered. He called the expansion of Russians in eastern and southeastern Europe the same term "Iron Curtain." This assumption turned out to be prophetic.
A year later, Goebbels's words began to come true little by little. Then the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, wishing to warn the United States of the impending danger of Bolshevism, made his famous speech in Fulton, which is considered the starting point of the Cold War. According to him, the "Iron Curtain" is the isolation of the USSR from other states. He voiced exactly which countries would fall under socialist influence: Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Romania, Yugoslavia. And so it happened.
How did the "Iron Curtain" in the USSR
Since 1946, Stalin has been building around the USSR a “sanitary ring” of “friendly” socialist states to prevent a military invasion. Everything that came from the West was declared harmful and harmful. The world for Soviet citizens was divided into black and white, that is, capitalism and socialism. Moreover, both warring parties added fuel to the fire .
In addition to the tacit confrontation, the initiators of the conflict formalized their hostility officially by joining the opposing unions. In 1949, the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) was created, and in 1955 the Warsaw Treaty was signed.
The Berlin Wall, erected in 1961, became a visible symbol of this opposition of two political systems.
The tense relationships of the bipolar world influenced both trade and economic ties between the two blocs of states.
In addition, the Western media created a lot of myths and legends about life in a country where the Iron Curtain was omitted. Years of isolation have done their job.
Life Behind the Iron Curtain
How did such isolation affect the lives of ordinary citizens?
First of all, they had a very limited opportunity to go abroad the USSR (trips to "friendly" countries do not count, because everything there really looked very much like Soviet reality). The units succeeded, but they were necessarily monitored by intelligence agents.
In general, the KGB could learn absolutely everything about everyone’s life. Citizens with "unreliable" views were always on the note of the special services. If someone had a wrong opinion from the point of view of the party, they could easily have declared him an enemy of the people, and in different years this meant either exile or execution.
Residents of the Country of Soviets were extremely limited in their choice of clothing, equipment, and transport. Then the concept of "deficit" appeared. To get something worthwhile (real jeans, Marlboro cigarettes, or even the Beatles records) was possible only by a big pull. The Iron Curtain in the USSR also influenced the cultural sphere: many European and American films, books, songs were simply forbidden.
How was destroyed
The Cold War lasted more than 40 years. During this time, both superpowers are tired of the arms race. In 1987, an agreement was signed on the destruction by both states of certain types of missiles. Then the USSR withdrew troops from Afghanistan. The new Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev radically changed the foreign policy of the state. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. In 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Thus, the notorious "iron curtain" over the post-Soviet space was finally lifted.
The Iron Curtain is a history lesson for which many have paid a very high price.