How to Use the Iron Curtain in a Sentence

the Iron Curtain

noun
  • But what were these pop culture tchotchkes like on the other side of the Iron Curtain?
    — Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 28 Mar. 2026
  • There was this man on other side of the Iron Curtain who understood us.
    — Anne Wallentine, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2024
  • My mother grew up on the other side of the Iron Curtain during the height of the cold war.
    — Scientific American, 19 Mar. 2024
  • When there was an enemy to be faced down across the Iron Curtain that organized moral life.
    — Thomas Meaney, Harper's Magazine, 26 Apr. 2024
  • War had returned and the detente that had existed since the fall of the Iron Curtain was over.
    — Sebastian Shukla, CNN, 23 Mar. 2025
  • Even those at the highest levels of government—on both sides of the Iron Curtain—were caught off guard.
    — Martin Gutmann, Forbes, 13 Mar. 2025
  • Tetris breached the digital walls of the Iron Curtain as the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Three and a half decades after reunification, a line runs through Germany where the Iron Curtain once stood.
    — Christopher F. Schuetze, New York Times, 25 Feb. 2025
  • These two jumps perfectly capture the cultural time gap that once separated the two sides of the Iron Curtain.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 8 Nov. 2025
  • After the Iron Curtain fell, the Elbe began a remarkable recovery.
    — Christopher Elliott, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Get ready to watch 'Star City' and see the alternative-history space race from behind the Iron Curtain.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 29 May 2026
  • However, during Soviet times, the wines were restricted to the Iron Curtain.
    — Cathrine Todd, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025
  • The broadcaster sought to foment anti-communist dissent behind the Iron Curtain.
    — Minho Kim, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2025
  • Soon, Nixon found herself alone behind the Iron Curtain working with a great director on a project that would go on to win Best Picture.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 6 Nov. 2025
  • After the Iron Curtain fell, tennis exploded in the former communist countries, where tennis had long been scorned as a pursuit of the bourgeoisie.
    — Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 16 Jan. 2025
  • By the time the country began to emerge from behind the Iron Curtain in 1989, Czech food had become stodgy and unimaginative.
    — David Farley, Travel + Leisure, 1 Sep. 2024
  • With the lifting of the Iron Curtain, many industries in western Europe moved east as workers from eastern Europe moved west in search of better jobs.
    — Peter Trubowitz, Foreign Affairs, 3 May 2023
  • Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026
  • Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026
  • Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 29 May 2026
  • Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026
  • But another key factor was the fall of the Iron Curtain, when modeling scouts started looking for talent in the former Soviet Union.
    — Eliza Brooke, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2023
  • And Germany committed around 100 million euros to reinstate public sirens that were removed when the Iron Curtain fell.
    — Alexander Smith, NBC News, 26 Jan. 2025
  • This involves a trip behind the Iron Curtain, where cultural misunderstandings can quickly turn deadly serious.
    — Entertainment Weekly, 10 Mar. 2026
  • As with the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, such a fortified boundary would serve the crucial purpose of preventing advances in both directions.
    — Robert A. Pape, Foreign Affairs, 20 Oct. 2022
  • The technology appeared to present a solution to the predominant problem of the time (while a truly Orwellian state lurked behind the Iron Curtain).
    — Jonathon Keats, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • Despite the travel difficulties imposed by life behind the Iron Curtain, the Takacs rose quickly, winning a series of competitions.
    — David Allen Chet Strange, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
  • Not long ago in the sweep of history, countries that had once been buried behind the Iron Curtain, and even some Soviet republics, were transformed into members of the solidly democratic club.
    — Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2025
  • On offer to all comers is a no-charge, interactive installation, celebrating U2’s time in Berlin before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
    — Brad Auerbach, Spin, 6 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the Iron Curtain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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