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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia New Edition by David King
1 review
mnach's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
The Commissar Vanishes is not a traditional read.
The book is composed of images from Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union. These images are of interest to the documenter, David King, since they are part of an elaborate fiction which was forced as history onto the people of the Soviet Union for decades.
The images fall into several categories. There are the images referenced in the title, where people have been removed or faces have been scratched out due to a disagreement that arose between Stalin and the photographed parties. These are especially haunting when the blotting has been done by a scared member of the general populace in a book from one’s personal library. Related to this category, there are also many images that have been altered through airbrushing to either omit people, introduce people, or shift people around. And, lastly, there are myth-making images meant to build the lore of Stalin and of the Soviet army. This last category was my favorite, since it laid bare Stalin’s sensitive ego.
The photos are presented chronologically and start from around the early 1920s, when Stalin was still emerging on the socialist scene, making a name for himself, and vying for Lenin's attention opposite Trotsky. I imagine many of these pictures would probably hold more meaning to people more familiar with Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union. As one not intimately familiar with the plot, I could follow along well enough via the provided captions.
After the first few photos, I would say that the motif becomes a bit redundant such that by the time you see another face blotted out with India ink, you’re no longer astonished by the phenomenon.
Throughout most of the book, I kept thinking about the way in which history is written and rewritten -- and often by the victors. The book presents the absolute terminus of where this takes society, where dissenters are hurriedly killed along with their families in some dark room and the population is forced to erase their faces and their existence from all forms of record. It's a terrifying thing to reflect on.
The book is composed of images from Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union. These images are of interest to the documenter, David King, since they are part of an elaborate fiction which was forced as history onto the people of the Soviet Union for decades.
The images fall into several categories. There are the images referenced in the title, where people have been removed or faces have been scratched out due to a disagreement that arose between Stalin and the photographed parties. These are especially haunting when the blotting has been done by a scared member of the general populace in a book from one’s personal library. Related to this category, there are also many images that have been altered through airbrushing to either omit people, introduce people, or shift people around. And, lastly, there are myth-making images meant to build the lore of Stalin and of the Soviet army. This last category was my favorite, since it laid bare Stalin’s sensitive ego.
The photos are presented chronologically and start from around the early 1920s, when Stalin was still emerging on the socialist scene, making a name for himself, and vying for Lenin's attention opposite Trotsky. I imagine many of these pictures would probably hold more meaning to people more familiar with Stalin’s rise to power in the Soviet Union. As one not intimately familiar with the plot, I could follow along well enough via the provided captions.
After the first few photos, I would say that the motif becomes a bit redundant such that by the time you see another face blotted out with India ink, you’re no longer astonished by the phenomenon.
Throughout most of the book, I kept thinking about the way in which history is written and rewritten -- and often by the victors. The book presents the absolute terminus of where this takes society, where dissenters are hurriedly killed along with their families in some dark room and the population is forced to erase their faces and their existence from all forms of record. It's a terrifying thing to reflect on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Suicide, Murder, and Genocide
This is a book about Stalin making his own history, so a lot of people along with their families die and any record of them erased. This is depressing.
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