Iron curtain

• Clear division between eastern Europe, with countries falling under the control of Stalin, and western Europe, with governments fearful of further Communist advance

  1946
• The Potsdam Conference ended without complete agreement on major issues like Eastern Europe, but Stalin did not wait to implement his plans
• Countries with Communist governments loyal to Stalin by 1946

  • Poland
  • Hungary
  • Romania
  • Bulgaria
  • Albania
• Winston Churchill: 'From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended. Behind that line lie all the states of central and eastern Europe. The Communist parties have been raised to power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. This is certainly not the liberated Europe we fought to build. Nor is it one which allows permanent peace.'
• The name 'Iron Curtain' stuck, and so did Stalin's control
• Stalin tightens his control

  1. Communist governments established throughout Eastern Europe

  2. Stalin gradually tightened his control in each country

  3. Secret police imprisoned anyone who opposed Communist rule, or might oppose it at a later date

  4. Stalin set up the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) to coordinate the work of the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe

  5. COMINFORM regularly brought the leaders of each Communist Party to Moscow to be briefed by Stalin and his ministers

  6. Stalin spotted independent-minded leaders and replaced them with people who were completely loyal to him

  7. Tito in Yugoslavia resented being controlled by COMINFORM and was expelled for his hostility in 1948
• Stalin's takeover of Eastern Europe


  Western powers were alarmed
• Roosevelt, Churchill and their successors had accepted that Soviet security needed friendly governments in Eastern Europe
• They had agreed that Eastern Europe would be a Soviet 'sphere of influence' and that Stalin would heavily influence this region
• They had not expected such complete Communist domination
• They felt it should have been possible to have governments in Eastern Europe that were both democratic and friendly to the USSR
• Stalin saw his policy in Eastern Europe as making himself secure


  Truman could only see the spread of Communism