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On 5th March 1946, Winston Churchill delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he famously declared that “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Although officially called The Sinews of Peace, the address is remembered eighty years later as the “Iron Curtain” speech. It played a major role in shaping how people understood the growing divide within Europe in the aftermath of World War II.
At the end of the war, Europe was left devastated. Millions of people had been displaced, cities lay in ruins and many countries were struggling to rebuild their governments and economies. During this period, tensions increased between the Western Allied powers and the Soviet Union. These nations had worked together from 1941 to defeat Nazi Germany, but their alliance was marked by mistrust, and their political systems and post‑war goals were diametrically opposed.
The phrase “Iron Curtain” referred to the ideological and political barrier that divided democratic Western Europe from communist Eastern Europe. From 1945 onward, the Soviet Union established or supported communist governments in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. These governments were closely aligned with Moscow, and political freedoms such as free elections, independent media and open travel were often restricted. Europe became increasingly split into two opposing spheres of influence.
In his 1946 address, Churchill argued that the spread of Soviet influence threatened democratic freedoms and long‑term stability in Europe. He believed that Western democracies needed to work closely together to maintain peace and protect democratic institutions, particularly through strong cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom. Churchill’s warning encouraged many in the West to view Soviet expansion as a serious challenge that required a united response.
The growing post‑war tensions that Churchill spoke of in The Sinews of Peace developed into the Cold War – an extended period of international geopolitical rivalry, suspicion and competition between the capitalist Western Bloc (led by the US and NATO) and the communist Eastern Bloc (led by the USSR and the Warsaw Pact). Europe remained literally and figuratively divided for decades.
The idea of the Iron Curtain, as popularised by Churchill’s speech, became one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of twentieth‑century history. Its legacy has continued to shape political attitudes, global alliances and cultural identities even after the Berlin Wall was physically dismantled in 1989.
➜ CHUR 5/4A/51-100: "The Sinews of Peace" [subscription required]
