This expression, of course, is figurative, metaphorical. However, behind him are real historical events, broken destinies, international tension for many decades.

The Iron Curtain: origins and essence

No matter how we view the crime committed by the Bolsheviks today, the title of the book by the American journalist D. Reed, who found himself in Moscow these days, remains relevant - “Ten Days That Shook the World.” It is the world, and not just Russia. From this moment on, the world seems to split into two opposing camps, into two irreconcilable systems - socialism and capitalism. And the gap between them is not just deep - it continues to deepen further.

One of the first to use the expression “iron curtain” was in one of the essays in 1930 Soviet writer Lev Nikulin. During World War II, it was on the tongue of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, who was responsible for propaganda and ideology in the Third Reich. However, the expression entered the broad political lexicon after it was heard in the speech of British Prime Minister W. Churchill, which he delivered in 1946, while in the small provincial town of Fulton.

What is the “iron curtain” in the language of journalism? This is a conscious desire totalitarian state, which the Soviet Union was at that time, to separate itself from pernicious and harmful influences from the outside. Everything coming from “there” was declared hostile in spirit and therefore subject to speedy eradication. What did the Iron Curtain mean for Soviet citizens themselves? To many.

Firstly, there are restrictions on movement. Only a lucky few were able to escape to the West, and then mostly accompanied by secret intelligence agents dressed in civilian clothes. It was more realistic to get into the “friendly socialist countries" - Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia - but after several trips, Soviet citizens were disappointed: much was similar to the well-known reality, except that it was cheaper and of better quality. Secondly, restrictions affected leisure activities.

Rallies and demonstrations on May 1 and November 7 - that’s, in essence, what the decaying system could offer. Both the authorities and the citizens demonstrated mutual hypocrisy: they say, everything is wonderful here, we have built developed socialism, now we are moving forward by leaps and bounds, towards final victory communism. But in fact, the system is hopelessly rotten, and all the frantic attempts to revive it and breathe into it new life on the part of one of the last General Secretaries of the CPSU Central Committee - - were obviously hopeless.

Thirdly, Soviet citizens were extremely constrained in choosing food and clothing. Recent years Soviet power Remembered by empty counters, gigantic queues for essential goods, and the introduction of a coupon system. A visible symbol of the “Iron Curtain” can be considered the Berlin Wall, which divided the previously united country into the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. And only at the end of the 80s. the wall fell, Germany became united. And soon it began to burst at the seams and became history. “The Evil Empire,” as the then American President R. Reagan. After these global changes geo political map world, the world has ceased to be bipolar, a field of confrontation between two superpowers.

• If you believe the notorious Wikipedia, then in the medieval theater there really was an iron curtain - without any quotes. Well, this means that the direct meaning of the word was gradually replaced by a figurative one. And politics and market conditions are to blame for everything.

https://www.site/2018-04-06/zheleznyy_zanaves_kak_nasha_strana_otgorodilas_ot_mira_i_prevratilas_v_bolshoy_konclager

“Permission to leave should be given only in exceptional cases”

The Iron Curtain: how our country cut itself off from the world and turned into a large concentration camp

Victor Tolochko/RIA Novosti

Feeling like the world is closing in new stage « cold war"and the reincarnation of the "Iron Curtain", for last month became more and more clear. Following the UK decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats 20 days have passed in connection with the case of poisoning of ex-GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal. During this time, the United Kingdom has already been supported by 26 states, and 122 employees of the Russian diplomatic missions are to be sent home from their territory. The European Union and 9 other states recalled their ambassadors to Russia for consultations. In response, Russia announced the expulsion of 23 British and 60 US diplomats, as well as the closure of the US Consulate General in St. Petersburg, which had operated since 1972. These are the numbers.

Crimea, a hybrid war in the south-east of Ukraine, the victims of which in 2014 were 283 passengers and 15 crew members of a Malaysian Boeing-777, a doping scandal with Russian athletes, Syria - it seems that all this was just a preamble.

Kremlin.ru

Repeating the words of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, we can admit that the international situation has indeed become even worse now than during the Cold War. The system that General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan began to build in Reykjavik is collapsing. The system that the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, continued to develop and Vladimir Putin tried to maintain at the beginning of his presidency. Russia, like the USSR a century before, is again beginning to be positioned as a country with a “poisonous” regime, that is, dangerous for those around it. A country that lives on its own on the other side of the fence, a country that is spoken to only when necessary. Znak.сom invites you to remember how the “Iron Curtain” came down a century ago and what it turned out to be for the country.

“We will bring happiness and peace to working humanity with bayonets”

Contrary to popular belief, it was not Winston Churchill who introduced the term “Iron Curtain” into international use. Yes, saying on March 5, 1946 his famous speech at Westminster College in Fulton, he uttered this phrase twice, trying, in his own words, in my own words, “to outline the shadow that, both in the West and in the East, falls over the whole world” “from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic.” Another common misconception is that the copyright for the term “Iron Curtain” belongs to Joseph Goebbels. Although in February 1945, in the article “Das Jahr 2000” (“2000”), he did say that after the conquest of Germany the USSR would fence off the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe from the rest of it.

Formally, the first was Herbert Wells. In 1904, he used the term “Iron Curtain” in his book Food of the Gods to describe a mechanism for limiting personal freedom. Then it was used in 1917 by Vasily Rozanov in the collection “Apocalypse of Our Time” dedicated to the theme of revolution. “With a clang, a creaking, a squeal, the iron curtain falls over Russian history. The performance is over. The audience stood up. It's time to put on your fur coats and go home. We looked around. But there were no fur coats or houses,” the philosopher stated.

However, the generally accepted meaning of the term was given to the term in 1919 by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. “We want to put an iron curtain around Bolshevism that will prevent it from destroying civilized Europe"- said Clemenceau at the Paris Peace Conference, which drew a line under the First World War.

Two Russian revolutions in 1917, revolutions in Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1918, the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, an uprising in Bulgaria, instability in Ottoman Empire(which ended with the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the formation Turkish Republic), events in India, where Mahatma Gandhi led an anti-British campaign of civil disobedience, the strengthening of the labor movement in Western Europe and America - Clemenceau, it seems, had reason to say this.

1919 French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau (left), 28th US President Woodrow Wilson (holding a bowler hat) and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (right) at the peace conference in Paris Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

On March 25, 1919, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George wrote to him: “All of Europe is saturated with the spirit of revolution. A deep feeling of not only dissatisfaction, but anger and indignation reigns in the working environment.”

Three weeks earlier, on March 4, 1919, the creation of the Third communist international- Comintern, main task which was the organization and holding of an international proletarian revolution. March 6 at closing speech At the closing of the founding congress of the Comintern, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) declared: “The victory of the proletarian revolution throughout the world is guaranteed. The foundation of an international Soviet republic" “If today the center of the Third International is Moscow, then, we are deeply convinced of this, tomorrow this center will move to the west: to Berlin, Paris, London,” Leon Trotsky then stated on the pages of Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. “For the international communist congress in Berlin or Paris will mean the complete triumph of the proletarian revolution in Europe, and, therefore, throughout the world.”

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

It was with this awareness of reality that the Red Army crossed the border of Poland in July 1920 (in response to the actions of the Poles who captured Kyiv and the left bank of the Dnieper). “The path to world conflagration lies through the corpse of white Poland. We will bring happiness and peace to working humanity with bayonets,” read the order of the commander Western Front Mikhail Tukhachevsky.

It didn't happen. Polish “class brothers” did not support the Red Army. In August 1920, an event known as the “miracle on the Vistula” happened - the Reds were stopped, and they began to rapidly roll back. According to the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, Poland received Western Ukraine And Western Belarus. Soviet foreign policy set a course for peaceful coexistence.

“You and we, Germany and the USSR, can dictate terms to the whole world”

More precisely, Soviet Russia I had to maneuver. For fellow members of the world communist movement, formally everything remained the same - no one removed the task of fanning the fire of the world revolution. The country itself has begun to take clear steps to recognize itself as a newborn on international arena and a way out of global isolation.

Life pushed me towards this. The village, robbed by the surplus appropriation system, flared up in 1920-1921 with the Antonov uprising, then the Kronstadt mutiny. Finally, the terrible famine of 1921-1922 with its epicenter in the Volga region and the death of about 5 million people. The country needed food and other goods of the first, second and so on necessity. After the fratricidal frenzy, restoration was required. Even the Bolsheviks, for whom Russia was primarily a springboard and at the same time a resource base, realized this.

An interesting detail: of the 5 million gold rubles that were raised from the sale of church valuables confiscated in accordance with the decrees of 1921-1922, only 1 million went to purchase food for the starving. Everything else was spent on the needs of the future world revolution. But help was provided by dozens of public and charitable organizations of the enemy bourgeois world: the American Relief Administration, the American Quaker Society, the Organization of Pan-European Famine Relief to Russia and the International Committee for Relief of Russia, organized by polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, the International Red Cross, the Vatican Mission, the international alliance “Save the Children”. Together, by the spring of 1922, they provided food for about 7.5 million starving Russians.

In 1921-1922, about 20 million Soviet citizens starved, of which over 5 million died Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

About two years old Soviet diplomacy it took to solve the first problem - to overcome isolation. The agreements signed in 1920 by the Soviet leadership with the limitrophes of Russia - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland - have not yet solved this problem. On the one hand, the Bolsheviks renounced their claims to the former imperial territories, thereby ensuring the security of their northwestern borders by creating a buffer zone of relatively neutral newly formed states. On the other hand, all this fit perfectly into Clemenceau’s declared concept of creating an “iron curtain around Bolshevism.”

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

The ice began to be broken in 1922 at the Genoa and Hague conferences. The first coincided with the Soviet-German negotiations, which ended with the signing of the peace treaty in Rapallo on April 16, 1922. According to it, both post-imperial states recognized each other and established diplomatic relations. By 1924, the USSR signed trade agreements and generally established diplomatic relations with England, Austria, Afghanistan, Greece, Denmark, Italy, Iran, Mexico, Norway, Turkey, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Uruguay.

The situation, however, remained precarious for a long time. So, in May 1927, about the rupture of diplomatic and trade relations The British government announced relations with the USSR (relations were restored in 1929). The basis for this was the suspicion of the British that the Soviets supported national liberation movements in the colonies of the United Kingdom, primarily in India, as well as in China, which the British considered their sphere of interests.

By 1929, relations between the USSR and China itself had worsened. The founder of the Kuomintang Party and leader of the Second Chinese Revolution, Sun Yat-sen, who maintained relations with the USSR and accepted the help of the Comintern, was replaced by the anti-communist Chiang Kai-shek, who died in 1925 from cancer. In 1928 he took power into his own hands. Then, in the summer of 1929, the Chinese launched a conflict over control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which, according to the 1924 agreement, was under the joint control of China and the USSR. In November of the same year, Chinese troops attempted to invade the territory of the USSR in the Transbaikalia and Primorye regions.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Everything changed after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. On the one hand, it became important for Europe to prevent a possible connection Nazi Germany and the USSR. In particular, it was advocated by the same Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who wrote at that time: “You and we, Germany and the USSR, can dictate terms to the whole world if we are together.” His position was generally shared by the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov. On the other hand, the USSR was quite suitable for the role of a powerful counterweight or even a lightning rod in the east. Actually, anti-Hitler and anti-fascist, in in a broad sense, rhetoric became the bond that made it possible to temporarily strengthen relations with the West. Since mid-1936, Soviet “volunteers” (mostly military experts) fought the fascists of General Francisco Franco in Spain. With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Soviet fighters and bombers fought in the skies of China against the Japanese, who enjoyed the tacit support of Germany.

It all ended in August 1939 with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, secret protocol which Germany and the USSR divided spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. This, however, was preceded Munich Agreement 1938. Great Britain, represented by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and France, represented by Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, agreed to the transfer of the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany. And soon these countries signed agreements with the Third Reich on mutual non-aggression similar to the Soviet-German pact.

“It is impossible to lead the world labor movement from one center”

The Comintern’s goal of kindling the fire of world revolution remained unchanged right up to its dissolution. True, the concept itself of how exactly this should be achieved has undergone several adjustments. In the summer of 1923, Lenin at the third congress of the Comintern had to speak out against supporters of the “offensive theory”. Lenin's theses were now based on the fact that before this it was necessary to form the necessary prerequisites - a social base.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Another important point happened in August 1928. At the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, the principle of “class against class” was proclaimed. The organizers of the world revolution abandoned the principles of the united front and focused on the fight against the Social Democrats as the main enemy. In 1932, this disunity led to a Nazi victory in Germany in the Reichstag elections: 32% voted for the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 20% for the Social Democrats and 17% for the Communists. The votes for Social Democrats and Communists combined would be 37%.

The dissolution of the Comintern, the “headquarters of the world revolution,” was announced on May 15, 1943, simultaneously with the start of the Washington Conference of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, from whom a decision was expected to open a second front this year. On May 21 of the same year, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Joseph Stalin stated: “Experience has shown that both under Marx and Lenin, and now it is impossible to lead the labor movement of all countries of the world from one international center. Especially now, in war conditions, when the Communist Parties in Germany, Italy and other countries have the task of overthrowing their governments and pursuing defeatist tactics, and the Communist Parties of the USSR, England and America and others, on the contrary, have the task of supporting their governments in every possible way for the speedy defeat of the enemy.”

This side of the Iron Curtain

As the “Iron Curtain” came into being, life in Russia itself became increasingly tougher. “Land and Freedom”, populists - all this is about the 19th century. Democracy ended between February and October 1917. They were replaced by the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Red Terror and War Communism. At the ninth congress of the RCP (b) in the spring of 1920, Trotsky insisted on the introduction of a “militia system”, the essence of which is “bringing the army as close as possible to the production process.” “Soldiers of labor”—this is how workers and peasants were now positioned. Peasants were given the right to receive passports only in 1974. Since 1935, they did not even have the right to leave their native collective farm. It’s like this “ serfdom 2.0". And this is in the most fair and moral way strong state the world, as it was positioned Soviet propaganda on the other side of the fence.

There was, however, a short attempt to let go of the reins in 1922-1928. New economic policy, “state capitalism in a proletarian state,” according to Lenin, was intended to help the Bolsheviks hold out until a new revolutionary upsurge in the world, settling in a country that was not yet ripe for socialism. But it just so happened that the years of the NEP became a prologue to the era of Stalinist totalitarianism.

Evgeniy Zhirnykh / website

We will not describe in detail the tightening of the regime and the expansion of state terror after Stalin came to power. These facts are widely known: millions of people became victims of repression, including the Bolsheviks themselves. The power of the leader became almost absolute, the state lived in an atmosphere of fear, freedom ended not only at the political, but also at the personal, intellectual, and cultural level. Repression continued until Stalin's death in early March 1953. Almost all this time, the windows and doors through which one could escape from the USSR remained tightly boarded and caulked.

Departure is not possible

Now only our parents and grandparents remember how they traveled, or rather did not travel, abroad during the Soviet era. Holidays in Turkey, Thailand, European resorts, trips to the USA and Latin America— the older generation didn’t have all this. The “Golden Sands” of Bulgaria were, it seems, the ultimate dream and, despite the ideological proximity in the socialist camp, they were accessible only to a select few.

None of us who are now traveling abroad even think about learning the rules of conduct outside the USSR that were mandatory a quarter of a century ago: “While abroad in any area of ​​activity entrusted to him, Soviet citizen is obliged to highly honor the honor and dignity of a citizen of the USSR, strictly observe the principles of the moral code of the builder of communism, conscientiously fulfill his official duties and assignments, be impeccable in his personal behavior, and unswervingly protect political, economic and other interests Soviet Union, strictly keep state secrets.”

Jaromir Romanov / website

It’s hard to believe that in the USSR, not to mention Tsarist Russia, this was not always the case. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the country was not closed from the world. The procedure for issuing foreign passports and traveling abroad in the RSFSR was established in 1919. The issuance of passports from the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and provincial Councils of Deputies was then transferred to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs (NKID). The procedure for traveling abroad was adjusted again in 1922. By this time, the first foreign diplomatic missions began to appear in the young Soviet state. Foreign passports issued by the NKID now had to be affixed with a visa. In addition, in addition to the application for document execution, it was now necessary to obtain an opinion from the State political management NKVD “about the absence of a legal obstacle to leaving.” But until the second half of the 1920s, the procedure for leaving and entering the USSR was quite liberal. The nuts began to be tightened a little later - with the beginning Stalin's industrialization and collectivization, when there was a significant increase in those wishing to leave the country.

Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

On November 9, 1926, a monetary fee was introduced for issuing foreign passports. From workers (proletarians, peasants, employees, and business travelers) - 200 rubles, from “those living on unearned income” and “dependents” - 300 rubles. This is about one and a half average monthly earnings Soviet man those years. The visa application cost 5 rubles, with a return visa - 10 rubles. Benefits were provided in exceptional cases and primarily to citizens of the “labor categories” traveling abroad for treatment, visits with relatives and emigration.

Kremlin.ru

In January 1928, the procedure for USSR citizens traveling abroad for training purposes was determined. Now it was permitted only if there was a conclusion from the People's Commissariat of Education on the desirability and feasibility of such a trip. Since July 1928, the NKVD order came into force on the need to require, when issuing passports to persons traveling abroad, “certificates from financial authorities stating that they do not have tax arrears.” These certificates were issued only to persons living in the area for at least three years. Those who lived for less than three years had to request a certificate from the authorities where they lived previously. But the most important thing is that by secret order from Moscow, local authorities were henceforth deprived of the authority to issue permits to citizens to travel abroad. Everything is done only through the NKVD.

Historian Oleg Khlevnyuk about what happens to despotic regimes - using the example of Stalin

In 1929, they began to sharply reduce the amount of currency that was allowed to be taken abroad. This norm now depended on the country of departure. For citizens of the USSR and foreigners traveling to border countries Europe, it amounted to no more than 50 rubles, to other European countries and border countries of Asia - 75 rubles. Family members, including dependent adult children, could claim only half of these amounts. In February 1932, the People's Commissariat of Finance once again cut the standards for receiving foreign currency. Persons traveling to countries bordering the USSR Eastern Europe and Finland, it was now allowed to purchase currency in the amount of 25 rubles, in other European and border countries Asian countries- 35 rubles, for the rest - 100 rubles.

How and why the residents of the Urals were shot in 1937. On the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Repression

Everything was completely cut off in 1931, when the following rule was introduced in the next Instruction on entry into and exit from the USSR: “Permits to travel abroad, for travel on private business, are issued to Soviet citizens in exceptional cases.” Exit visas soon came into use. The state, which purposefully closed the entire First Five-Year Plan for its citizens traveling abroad, finally coped with this task. The Iron Curtain has fallen for 60 years. The right to see life on the other side remained only with diplomats, business travelers and military personnel. The country has turned into one big concentration camp. The people who suffered the most from a state with a “toxic” regime were its own citizens.

An era has ended closed doors May 20, 1991, when the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted new law“On the procedure for leaving the USSR and entering the USSR for citizens of the USSR.” But is it over?

And her allies. It seemed that victory over a common enemy should unite the states of Europe and the world, who together withstood a difficult test terrible war. However, relations between the USSR and its allies (USA, UK and other countries) only worsened. The leaders of the USSR tried to “protect the country from pernicious influence West,” and the Western powers – from the USSR. As a result, the expressions “Iron Curtain” and “Cold War” arose, defining the relations of the most powerful state in Europe with some countries of the world.

Few people remember that the Iron Curtain once really existed. Such a curtain began to be used in theaters in late XVIII century. The fact is that fire-hazardous candles and lamps were then used to illuminate the stage, so fires often occurred in the theater. The iron curtain was lowered in the event of a fire on the stage, which was tightly separated from the audience, allowing them to safely leave the room. Hardly anyone thought then that the expression “iron curtain” would soon acquire political overtones.

For the first time, the expression “iron curtain” was used in a new capacity by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, speaking on March 5, 1946 in the city of Fulton (USA). Summing up political results World War II, he said that “from Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain descended on the continent,” referring to the Soviet Union's policy of limiting the influence of capitalist powers.

Before Churchill, this expression was used in the same context by the Minister of Propaganda fascist Germany Joseph Goebbels (February 23, 1945). He stated that if the Soviet Union wins the war with Germany, it will fence off Eastern and South-Eastern Europe from the rest of it with an “iron curtain”. In the USSR, this expression was also familiar: back in 1930, Lev Nikulin used it in Literaturnaya Gazeta.

Indeed, relations between the USSR and the capitalist countries of Europe and the USA after 1945 deteriorated sharply. The fact is that the states pursued too different policies, not wanting to make any mutual concessions. The Soviet Union tried to expand its sphere of influence in Europe, which was very painful for the United States. Ultimately, the conflict between the two leading powers of the world at that time led to the so-called “Cold War”.

"Cold War"

The term "cold war" meant political conflict between the USSR and the USA in the period from the late 40s to the early 90s of the XX century. During this period, two superpowers fought for their influence in the world. This was a struggle not only between two states, but also between two ideologies. The main stages of the Cold War are considered to be the arms race, the struggle for dominance in space and the nuclear confrontation between the USSR and the USA.
The United States did not like the growing influence of the USSR in Europe and American politicians tried their best to limit it. A so-called “containment” policy was developed, that is, limiting the spread of communist ideology in countries Western Europe. It was expressed in economic, financial and military assistance non-communist regimes. Basics of the new foreign policy The United States was established by President Harry Truman on March 12, 1947 in the American Congress. Some politicians consider this date to be the official date of the beginning of the Cold War, others are of the opinion that it began after Churchill’s speech in Fulton.

The first stage of the Cold War was left to the Americans. Already in July 1945 (even before the start of the Cold War), the world's first atomic bomb was tested, and in early August the United States demonstrated its military power on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was clear that it was necessary to restore nuclear balance in the world, so work to create atomic bomb in the USSR were accelerated, but it appeared only in 1949. After this, both countries began to actively increase their nuclear potential. In an effort to overtake the enemy, both states spent enormous amounts of money on the production of weapons and military equipment. Over the years of rivalry were found technical solutions, which have found application in peaceful life. This is how they appeared nuclear power plants, jet passenger aircraft, the Internet and much more.

At another stage of the Cold War - dominance in space - the competition was with with varying success at overall advantage USSR. The first one was launched in 1957 artificial satellite earth, and in 1961 the first man, Yuri Gagarin, went into space. First exit in open space also implemented Soviet cosmonauts. Having completely lost the first stage of space rivalry, the Americans redeemed themselves a little by being the first to set foot on the surface of the Moon.

However, the main stage of the rivalry took place on the ground. One of the tasks of the Cold War, like a conventional war, was the task of winning over as many people as possible to one’s side. more allies. One of the most notable conflicts on this basis occurred in Germany, which was divided into East and West. Thanks to US support, the latter developed faster in economically, so the residents East Germany(GDR) began to move to Western. The capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into Western and Eastern parts. To limit the outflow of residents from Soviet-controlled East Germany, the Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, dividing West and East Berlin. Creation Berlin Wall not only allowed the GDR government to stop the outflow of population, but also to create more favorable conditions For independent development republics. In October, the Americans tried to destroy the Berlin Wall, but Soviet intelligence knew about these plans and took countermeasures. An entire regiment of tanks and a battalion of infantry came out against three jeeps, ten tanks and bulldozers from East Germany. As a result, the Americans had to retreat.

With the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR, who proclaimed “socialist pluralism,” the conflict was practically settled. During negotiations between the warring countries, agreements began to be concluded on the reduction of weapons that both countries had accumulated over the years. for many years cold war. Late 80s Soviet troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, and East and West Germany became a single state. Economic and political crisis in the USSR it was no longer possible to fight the USA. On December 26, 1991, the Treaty of Union was terminated, which put an end to the Cold War.

In the end, the United States achieved its goal main goal: destruction of your main enemy in the struggle for influence in the world. The USSR crashed into several independent states and even the largest of them - Russia - could no longer dictate its terms to the Americans. In addition, communist countries that were left without the support of the USSR either ceased to exist altogether or found themselves in a deep crisis.

The law on the procedure for entry and exit from the USSR of Soviet citizens, which the Union Supreme Council adopted 20 years ago, on May 20, 1991, was the same progressive and revolutionary document as, for example, the 1990 Media Law. But he was unlucky, so to speak, “for technical reasons.”

This law could not be put into effect immediately and simultaneously. It was necessary to produce millions of foreign passports, re-profile, re-switch the work of thousands of OVIRs and much more to do and prepare. Therefore, a special resolution was issued on the gradual implementation of the articles of the law. And the final moment had to be postponed until January 1, 1993.

As you know, by that time the Soviet Union no longer existed. However, the law on entry and exit from non-existent state has just begun to operate in full, although in relation to Russian Federation. Then another three years were spent preparing for the implementation of the corresponding Russian law and Russian foreign passports.

Nevertheless, until the mid-2000s of the 21st century, many citizens of the Russian Federation (including the author of these lines) traveled around foreign countries with red skin and a “sickle-and-hammer passport.” And European border guards reacted to this document with great surprise. Not the same, of course, as in famous poem Mayakovsky: “He takes it like a bomb, he takes it like a hedgehog, like a double-edged razor.” Fear was replaced by bewilderment: how can it be that the state no longer exists, but his passport remains.

This happens periodically in jurisprudence. This area of ​​activity in itself is very conservative. And here, in addition, the process of producing more and more new document samples does not keep up with political changes. Which sometimes leads to funny situations, and not only in the legislative sphere.

For example, the USSR national team made it through the qualifying games for the 1992 European Football Championship. But the Union disappeared from the political map of the world, and the team of the non-existent single state, the so-called “CIS team”, which included players from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and - what may seem especially surprising today - Georgia. In the nineties of the last century, many similar paradoxical collisions arose.

Be that as it may, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in May 1991 de jure marked the disappearance of the notorious “Iron Curtain”. Although de facto this barrier was eliminated a little earlier. And then a series of police and bureaucratic procedures unfolded, which brought the formal side into line with reality.

Thus, another argument appears in the endless dispute about who “gave freedom” to our citizens. The most progressive law on entry and exit and the resolution on its implementation bear the signatures of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chairman Supreme Council USSR Anatoly Lukyanov. It was they who sanctified the following revolutionary provisions of the first article with their names:

"Every citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR. This Law, in accordance with international treaties of the USSR, guarantees citizens of the USSR the right to leave the USSR and enter the USSR... A foreign passport is valid for leaving the USSR to all countries of the world... A citizen of the USSR cannot be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter the USSR.".

In the same way, the right to travel was guaranteed to all citizens, except for convicted criminals, malicious deceivers and carriers state secrets, and these restrictions were not observed too strictly. Thus, the borders of the USSR and then the Russian Federation in both directions were calmly crossed by thieves in law and crime bosses like the famous Vyacheslav Ivankov-Yaponchik. If they were arrested and brought to justice, then, as a rule, in the countries " free world", and not at home.

Well, as they say, freedom requires sacrifice. And this freedom was granted to his fellow citizens by the first and last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He cannot in any way be responsible for the clumsiness of the paper and printing mechanism, due to which the possibility of the final and irrevocable implementation of these rights and freedoms came only a year after his voluntary resignation and the liquidation of the state that he headed.

However, the irony of history is such that as soon as traces of the “Iron Curtain” began to disappear from the Soviet, and then from Russian side, exactly the same curtain began to rise from the opposite side. Especially and first of all - from the emerging European Union and the United States of America.

And as soon as the citizens of the USSR fell away from the last obstacles and difficulties with leaving home country, so they immediately had difficulties entering the most “free” and “democratic” states, which they used to call “capitalist”. It was unbearably difficult, almost impossible to leave; it became just as difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to move there. Where thousands of Soviet citizens rushed.

These are the laws of dialectics, repeating the formula derived by the great Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov: “All changes occurring in nature occur in such a way that if something is added to something, it is taken away from something else.” And, naturally, vice versa. Using political and legal terms, we can formulate this: if in one part of the planet the total volume of human rights and freedoms increases, then in another part it proportionally decreases.

From capitalist countries West.

The policy of isolation was reciprocal. In the Encyclopedia Britannica and Western journalism, the prevailing opinion is that the “curtain” was erected by the USSR in the course of the policy of self-isolation pursued by its leadership. In Soviet journalism, attention was paid to the West's policy of isolating the USSR.

The term “Iron Curtain” was used in a propaganda sense even before Churchill by Georges Clemenceau (1919) and Joseph Goebbels (1945). Regarding insulation Soviet state, then it began back in 1917-1920. In 1917, the expression was first used by the Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov, who compared the events October Revolution with a theatrical performance, after which “with a clang, a creak,” a cumbersome iron curtain fell over Russian history. The beginning of the strengthening of self-isolation of Soviet power dates back to 1934-1939.

The Iron Curtain began to crumble towards the end of the 1980s due to the policy of glasnost and openness carried out in the USSR and Eastern European countries(see European Picnic). The fall of the Iron Curtain was symbolized by the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The official end date of this period was January 1, 1993, when already in the post-Soviet era the law “On the procedure for leaving the USSR” came into force, which actually abolished the permit visa for those traveling to the OVIR and allowed free travel abroad.

Story

One of the first popularizers of the Iron Curtain theory was the German politician Joseph Goebbels. In his article “2000” (“Das Jahr 2000”) in the newspaper “Das Reich” (English) Russian” dated February 23, 1945, he expressed confidence that after the conquest of Germany, the USSR would fence off Eastern and South-Eastern Europe from the rest of it with an “iron curtain”. It is also known that the Foreign Minister of the Third Reich, Schwerin von Krosigg, said on the radio on May 2, 1945: “Through the streets of the not yet occupied part of Germany, a stream of desperate and hungry people, pursued by fighter-bombers, is heading west. They are fleeing from indescribable horror. An iron curtain is approaching from the east, behind which everything is happening invisible to the world devastation". Modern meaning The expression “Iron Curtain” came from Winston Churchill, who used it in his Fulton speech. At the same time, it is known that he used this expression on June 4, 1945 in a telegram to Harry Truman.

However, it existed before. As early as 1904, in his book The Food of the Gods, H.G. Wells used the phrase “iron curtain” to describe “enforced privacy.”

In relation to Russian history, in the book “Apocalypse of Our Time” (1917), the philosopher Vasily Rozanov (1856-1919) wrote this:

With a clang, a creaking, a squeal, the iron curtain falls over Russian History.
- The show is over.
The audience stood up.
- It's time to put on your fur coats and go home.
We looked around.
But there were no fur coats or houses.

After World War II

The powerful forces behind Harry Truman proclaimed a policy of unbridled anti-communism and war hysteria. This affected everything, and in particular the issue of the repatriation of Soviet citizens. With a roar, the American Iron Curtain descended and cut off our compatriots, who were brought evil fate to West Germany.

In practice, the country's population was deprived of the opportunity to both travel abroad without the sanction of the authorities and receive information from the outside world not authorized by the authorities (see Jamming of broadcasts). Any contact with foreigners had to be sanctioned by the authorities, even if the Soviet citizen simply wanted to practice his knowledge of a foreign language. Marriage with a citizen of another country faced many obstacles and was often practically impossible.

Individual attempts to overcome the “Iron Curtain” amounted to “failure to return” from an authorized trip abroad. Attempts to emigrate as a whole family were only possible to travel to Israel, and then only under a limited quota and after overcoming numerous obstacles (see Refusal) or if one of the spouses was a foreigner. Other reasons for emigration were not considered. In extreme cases, attempts to escape beyond the borders of the USSR led to crimes (see Ovechkin family, Seizure of a bus with children in Ordzhonikidze on December 1, 1988, etc.)

Memory

See also

Notes

1. The philosophy of the Cold War matured during the Second World War, or what is behind Churchill’s Fulton speech // RIA Novosti Doctor historical sciences Valentin Falin:

   It is somewhat strange that Churchill did not bother to find out the origin of the “Iron Curtain” cliche. Just before former prime minister such a “curtain” was created by Goebbels, who called on the Germans to resist until coffin board Russian invasion. Under the cover of the same “curtain,” the Nazis tried in 1945 to put together a “saving front of civilizers” against the Russian hordes. And if Churchill had dug even deeper, he would have known that the term “Iron Curtain” first came into use in Scandinavia, where workers in the early 20s protested against the desire of their rulers to isolate them from the “heretical ideas” coming from the East.

2. Iron Curtain // Britannica (English)
3. On the origin of the term “Iron Curtain” // Encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions / Auto-comp. V. Serov. - M.: Lockid Press, 2005.