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A review by arensb
The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia by David King
5.0
A fascinating and eye-opening look into the use of photographic falsification in the Soviet Union, in the age of Stalin. King shows page after page of photos that were cropped, retouched, airbrushed, or otherwise altered to erase the record of people who ran afoul of Stalin.
Some instances are subtle, as cropping a photo to exclude someone, or setting up a photomontage to give the impression that Stalin played an important role in the 1917 revolution. In other, cruder cases, people's photos in books have been blacked out with ink. In one particularly ridiculous example, a magazine cover depicts Stalin as the sun shining on the grateful masses.
The book is a searing indictment of a regime that clearly knew what it was doing was wrong, but was willing to go to great lengths to hide the truth and push narrative more pleasing to the powers that be — namely, Stalin and his secret police.
This makes the book still relevant today: the tools available for falsifying photos is much more advanced, and human nature hasn't changed. We are still vulnerable to propaganda and terror.
Some instances are subtle, as cropping a photo to exclude someone, or setting up a photomontage to give the impression that Stalin played an important role in the 1917 revolution. In other, cruder cases, people's photos in books have been blacked out with ink. In one particularly ridiculous example, a magazine cover depicts Stalin as the sun shining on the grateful masses.
The book is a searing indictment of a regime that clearly knew what it was doing was wrong, but was willing to go to great lengths to hide the truth and push narrative more pleasing to the powers that be — namely, Stalin and his secret police.
This makes the book still relevant today: the tools available for falsifying photos is much more advanced, and human nature hasn't changed. We are still vulnerable to propaganda and terror.