Iron Curtain

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See also: iron curtain

English[edit]

the Iron Curtain depicted as a black line

Etymology[edit]

Specialised use of iron curtain. Used (in German) during World War II by Joseph Goebbels. In English it appeared in telegrams from Winston Churchill to Harry S. Truman in 1945 before being popularized by Churchill in a speech he gave at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri 5 March 1946.[1]

Proper noun[edit]

Iron Curtain

  1. (historical) The dividing line between Western Europe and the Soviet controlled regions, especially during the Cold War.
    • 1946, Winston Churchill, Sinews of Peace:
      From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
    • 1960 March, “Talking of Trains: London-Paris in four hours”, in Trains Illustrated, page 134:
      Indeed, rail traffic of all kinds is developing through the Iron Curtain - for instance, last year a total of 6,445 wagons controlled by Interfrigo, the international company for refrigerated transport, passed between East and West; [...].
    • 1973 July 22 [1973 July 17], Kai-shek Chiang, “President Chiang Kai-shek's message to the mass rally supporting Captive Nations Week”, in Free China Weekly‎[1], volume XIV, number 28, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:
      Justice is giving ground to the forces of evil. These developments have confused the camp of freedom and abetted the growth of Communism. Even so, the fierce struggle for freedom of the people shut behind the Iron Curtain and the support for their emancipation provided by peace-loving people outside the Iron Curtain have never ceased despite the buffeting from waves of appeasement.

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ wikipedia on Iron Curtain, and Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century

Further reading[edit]

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