"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent"

This quote by Winston Churchill is referring to the division of Europe after World War II. The "iron drape" is a metaphor for the physical and ideological limits that were produced in between the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe, and the democratic nations of Western Europe. This division was a result of the Cold War, and it indicated that the countries of Eastern Europe were under the control of the Soviet Union. The quote is describing the truth that this division extended from Stettin in the Baltic Sea to Trieste in the Adriatic Sea, and it was a physical and ideological barrier that separated the 2 sides of Europe. This quote is a reminder of the effect of the Cold War on Europe, and how it divided the continent into two distinct parts.