The Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological and physical boundary that divided Western democracies from Eastern communist countries during the Cold War, beginning in the late 1940s. Coined by Winston Churchill in a 1946 speech, the term represented not just a geographic line but also the stark differences in political systems, economies, and social structures. The Iron Curtain facilitated the expansion and entrenchment of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe while the West, led by the United States, sought to contain communism. Its metaphorical significance diminished after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.