Simon Sebag Montefiore Quotes
When I was young, I always wanted to go to Russia.
Montefiore, Simon Sebag. Interview. The Moscow Times, 12 May 2004.
He served as a liaison with the Russian military officers after WWII. As a result he developed friendships with some who told him much about Stalin and the Communist party of the Soviet Union.
This was the most famous public use of the term "iron curtain" in the cold war. Churchill had used the term privately in an even earlier cable to President Truman. However, the phrase "iron curtain" was used by T. St. Vincent Wallace Troubridge even a few months earlier. Also, it appears to have been used earlier than that by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Das Reich {601664}. But George Washington Crile used the phrase in a political context in 1915 {598870}. And Viscountess Snowden used the phrase in her memoirs of a Past WWI trip to Russia {616546} It is not known whether Troubridge or Churchill were familiar with those works.
This was one of the first of the world communist leaders who had concluded that the Russian communist state and its revolution had failed. Russia of 1923 was perceived as too dictatorial and not democratic enough. At the same time they thought Russia had not only sold out the democratic nature of communism but also the economic as well by having too much private property and making economic deals with Western capitalists giving concessions of all kinds to Krupp and other major Multinational companies to try and develop international trade and investment. Politically the communist critics thought Russian communism too left wing and undemocratic and economically too right wing and capitalistic.
This was an incredible prediction with no other world leader thinking it possible for decades until that is exactly what happened.
The "iron curtain" phrase was used here a few months before Winston Churchill's famous speech using it {411311}. Also, it appears to have been used earlier than that by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Das Reich. And Viscountess Snowden used the phrase in her memoirs of a Past WWI trip to Russia {616546}. It is not known whether Troubridge or Churchill were familiar with those works.
1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. This turned out to be one of the worst predictions in political history.
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels.
