The Iron Curtain included Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Romania, Poland and Albania. The Iron Curtain symbolized the political separation between Soviet-controlled and nonSoviet areas in Europe, which set the stage for the Cold War.
After World War II and the fall of Nazi control, the USSR began dominating Eastern European countries. The region, known as the Soviet Bloc or Eastern Bloc, was ruled by communism under Stalin. It became increasingly separated from the West. In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a speech that described Soviet-dominated countries as falling under an "iron curtain." This illustrated the anticipation of distrust between the Soviet Union and the Allied Nations, with the antagonism building up to the Cold War. Physically, the Iron Curtain consisted of several borders, such as the Berlin Wall, barbed wire and towers separating East and West Germany.
