Iron Curtain Speech

Winston Churchill was a parliamentarian, the First Lord of Admiralty, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the prime minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. A life-long professional government official in several different capacities, he was a major national and global leader for decades. His speeches to both his countrymen and to the worldwide audiences were influential and motivating. Despite being a devoted anti-Communist after the Russian revolution, he stayed practical enough to work with the Soviets as arm-length allies after Hitler’s Germany invaded Russia in June of 1941.

Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union since essentially 1924, after Lenin’s death. Although his title was General Secretary for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was the supreme leader and dictator of the country and any satellite countries that Russia controlled. Stalin’s word was law. There was a cabinet of sorts, called the Politboro, but Stalin made all the final decisions for the country. There was no option to appeal any decision he implemented. Stalin enacted massive ethnic cleansing programs within the Soviet Union in the years leading up to World War II and again in the decade after the war ended, right up to his death.