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A term that refers to the "curtain" of [[communism]] that fell over [[Russia]] and much of [[Eastern Europe]] at the end of [[WWII]]. The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-run governmnents of these countries pursued somewhat isolationist policies and often restricted travel and basic freedoms. They also heavily guarded their borders with Western European countries.

The term '''Iron Curtain''' was introduced by Winston Churchill in a 1946 speech<ref>http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html</ref>. It referred to the border between democratic Western Europe and communist Eastern Europe from the end of [[World War II]] to the end of the [[Cold War]]. The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-run governmnents of these countries pursued somewhat isolationist policies and often restricted travel and basic freedoms. As such, the border presented an obstacle not only to the free flow people or things, but of ideas, as well. The Iron Curtain came to symbolize this rigid cultural and economic isolation of the European communist states.