What did the term "Iron Curtain" refer to during the Cold War?

The term "Iron Curtain" refers to the ideological and physical division that separated communist Eastern Europe from democratic Western Europe during the Cold War. Coined by Winston Churchill in a speech in 1946, the "Iron Curtain" symbolized the growing divide between the Soviet influence in the East and the democratic nations in the West. This division was not just geographical but also represented differing political ideologies, economic systems, and social structures. It underscored the tensions of the Cold War, where the Western powers led by the United States sought to contain the spread of communism, represented by the Soviet Union and its satellite states.