A review by crowyhead
The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia by David King

4.0

This is a creepily visceral historical record. King has obtained many photographs and artworks from Stalinist Russia, and uses them to demonstrate how the historical record was changed -- often systematically -- to support the increasingly oppressive Communist regime. In many cases, he has managed to locate original photographs and their altered counterparts, to demonstrate how those who fell out of political favor were edited out of photographs and out of history. Perhaps most spooky are the pictures from books and photo albums that belonged to individuals, where people's faces are crudely blacked or cut out; often, to even own an undefaced photograph of an "enemy of the state" was enough to be considered an enemy as well. The artwork is also fascinating, as King calls a lot of attention to the propagandizing and the use of art to insert figures like Stalin into historical events that they were not actually present for. I did find myself wishing for more context at times, but this is mainly due to my own ignorance about much of the history of the Soviet Union.