March 5th marks the 69th anniversary of Winston Churchill coining the phrase “Iron Curtain” to describe the Soviet Union’s influence on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe following World War II.

Initially, Churchill’s speech was not well received in the west, which still considered the Soviets a wartime ally.

The Iron Curtain remained in place until the late 1980s when the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev started policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, opening the door for the fall of communism.