Iron Curtain

Famous American journalist and political analyst Anne Applebaum investigates the formation and early evolution of communist regimes in Eastern European countries after World War II. The analysis of events — mainly in the newly liberated Hungary, East Germany, and Poland — is accompanied by materials from numerous archives and eyewitness testimonies. Applebaum meticulously reconstructs various aspects of the socio-political and economic processes in the Soviet bloc countries, shows how the mechanisms of propaganda and political control functioned, reveals the role of special services in suppressing opposition and social movements, and vividly demonstrates how and why the collapse of the “Eastern Bloc” became inevitable when a rift occurred in its key support — the Soviet Union — and the iron curtain fell.