„Iron Curtain.“ Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/iron%20curtain. Retrieved 22 October 2022. A May 1943 article in Signal, a Nazi-illustrated propaganda magazine published in many languages, was titled „Behind the Iron Curtain.“ It was the „Iron Curtain, which separates the world from the Soviet Union more than ever.“ [6] German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels wrote in his weekly Das Reich that if the Nazis lost the war, a Soviet „iron curtain“ would emerge. This was due to the agreements of Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Yalta Conference: „An iron curtain would fall over this vast territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be massacred. [5] [18] The first verbal mention of an iron curtain in the Soviet context was in a broadcast by Lutz von Krosigk to the German people on May 2, 1945: „In the East, the Iron Curtain, behind which the work of destruction continues without being seen by the eyes of the world, moves steadily. [19] The term „Iron Curtain“ has since been used metaphorically in two very different meanings – first, to signify the end of an era, and second, to refer to a closed geopolitical border. The source of these metaphors may refer either to the security curtain used in theatres (the first was installed in 1794 by the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane[7]), or to the shutters used to secure commercial premises. [8] Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article on the Iron Curtain Iron Curtain, the political, military and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II to isolate itself and its allies dependent on Central and Eastern Europe from open contact with the West and other non-communist regions. The term Iron Curtain has been used occasionally and variously as a metaphor since the 19th century, but it was only known after it was uttered by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, USA, on July 5. March 1946 when he said about the communist states: „From Szczecin in the Baltic Sea to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended on the continent.“ As hard as bourgeois politicians and writers may seek to conceal the truth about the gains of Soviet order and culture, however hard they may seek to erect an iron curtain to prevent the truth about the Soviet Union from penetrating abroad, however strong they may seek to diminish the true growth and scope of Soviet culture.
All their efforts are doomed to failure. The use of the term Iron Curtain as a metaphor for strict separation dates back to at least the early 19th century. She walked to another door, which was covered by a curtain she had raised. In February 1989, the Hungarian Politburo recommended that the government of Miklós Németh dismantle the Iron Curtain. Nemeth first informed Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky. It then received informal permission from Gorbachev on March 3, 1989 (who said „there will be no new 1956“), on May 2 of the same year, and on May 2 of the same year, the Hungarian government in Rajka (in the city known as the „City of the Three Borders“ on the border with Austria and Czechoslovakia) began the destruction of the Iron Curtain. For public relations, Hungary rebuilt 200 m of the Iron Curtain so that it could be cut at an official ceremony by Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn and Austrian Foreign Minister Alois Mock on 27 June 1989, which had the function of calling for freedom to all European peoples still under the yoke of national communist regimes. [76] However, the dismantling of former Hungarian border fortifications did not open the borders, previous strict controls were not lifted, and the isolation provided by the Iron Curtain was still intact along its entire length. Despite the dismantling of the technically obsolete fence, the Hungarians wanted to prevent the formation of a green border by increasing border security or solving the security of their western border technically differently. After the demolition of the border fortifications, the patrols of the heavily armed Hungarian border guards were reinforced and there was still an order to fire.
[77] [78] I took the opportunity to see what I thought was a very interesting interview behind a curtain. The first English use of the term Iron Curtain, used on the border of Soviet Russia in the sense of „impenetrable barrier,“ was used by Ethel Snowden in her 1920 book Through Bolshevik Russia. [13] [14] G.K. Chesterton used the term in a 1924 essay in The Illustrated London News. While defending distributism, Chesterton refers to „that iron curtain of industrialism that cuts us off not only from the condition of our neighbors, but even from our own past.“ [15] The antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West, known as the „Iron Curtain,“ had diverse origins. Churchill repeated these words in another telegram to President Truman on June 4, 1945, protesting such an American withdrawal into what was previously called the American occupation zone and which eventually became the American occupation zone, claiming that the military withdrawal would bring „Soviet power into the heart of Western Europe and the descent of an iron curtain between us and everything in the East.“ [22] At the Potsdam Conference, Churchill complained to Stalin about an „iron barrier“ falling on the British mission in Bucharest. The armistice agreement forced Hungary to provide goods, facilities and services to the occupying army. The Soviet Union took seriously the old principle „war must feed war,“ and the Red Army lived off the land. Hungary has not only borne the legal burden of ceasefire obligations, but has also suffered from illegal seizures and large-scale looting.