Question

What countries were behind the Iron Curtain?

Answer 1

Hint: The word "Iron Curtain" has been used as a symbol for strict separation since the early nineteenth century. It was a political barrier that split Europe into two distinct regions from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Complete answer:
Winston Churchill gave a speech on March 5, 1946, announcing that a “iron curtain” had descended across Europe, referring to the Soviet Union's (USSR's) attempts to keep itself and its satellite states out of open communication with the West.

The Iron Curtain is a physical barrier that separated European countries in the middle of the continent, most notably the Berlin Wall. States formed their foreign military alliances on both sides of the Iron Curtain, namely the Warsaw Pact and NATO.

Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the USSR were the countries to the east of the Iron Curtain; however, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR no longer exist. Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan formed the USSR.

The events that brought down the Iron Curtain began in Poland with peaceful protests and spread to Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia. Romania is Europe's first communist country to overthrow its government violently.

So, the answer is Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Soviet Union were among the European countries considered to be "behind the Iron Curtain."

Note: After 1950, migration from the east to the West of the Iron Curtain was practically stopped, except in very restricted circumstances. With the downfall of the Iron Curtain, a massive increase in European East-West migration occurred.