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emilybryk's review against another edition
4.0
Possibly the most legitimately haunting book I've ever read.
(I wish I knew more Russian history to fully appreciate it.)
(I wish I knew more Russian history to fully appreciate it.)
thelaurasaurus's review against another edition
4.0
An interesting book, but I would have benefited from some background info. I'd anticipated that the book would cover techniques used, rather than just showing pictures with more and more people being cut out of them.
madamegeneva's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a fascinating book - I forgot how chaotic and interesting Russian history is.
arensb's review against another edition
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.
socraticgadfly's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent book.
After Stalin muscled his way to the to of the Soviet hierarchy, he of course then started muscling Trotsky and his allies aside. Later, he threw away people he had once used, of course.
As part of this, Soviet PR flunkies began "disappearing" people from official photographs. People like commissars of people's affairs, etc.
Hence, the title of the book.
On the flip side, a subtitle could be "Stalin appears."
For various reasons, he was not at a lot of early Revolutionary events in 1917-18. So, same flunkies started cutting him in.
King has "before" and "after" documentary evidence in both cases.
In some cases, this pre-Photoshop photoshopping was easy. In some semi-hard cases, it was done crudely. In others, it was done quite skillfully. As a newspaper editor and nature photographer, while decrying the playing with history, I have to salute the skill.
After Stalin muscled his way to the to of the Soviet hierarchy, he of course then started muscling Trotsky and his allies aside. Later, he threw away people he had once used, of course.
As part of this, Soviet PR flunkies began "disappearing" people from official photographs. People like commissars of people's affairs, etc.
Hence, the title of the book.
On the flip side, a subtitle could be "Stalin appears."
For various reasons, he was not at a lot of early Revolutionary events in 1917-18. So, same flunkies started cutting him in.
King has "before" and "after" documentary evidence in both cases.
In some cases, this pre-Photoshop photoshopping was easy. In some semi-hard cases, it was done crudely. In others, it was done quite skillfully. As a newspaper editor and nature photographer, while decrying the playing with history, I have to salute the skill.
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
5.0
▫️THE COMMISSAR VANISHES: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia by David King / 1997 by Metropolitan/Henry Holt and Co.
India ink blots over faces and bodies. Airbrushing. Painting and scribbling over. Scalpels and tears.
Defacements of a photograph and erasure of a life.
A consciousness. A history.
"Photographs for publication were retouched and restructured with airbrush and scalpel to make famous personalities vanish. Paintings, too, were withdrawn from museums and art galleries so the compromising faces could be blocked out of portraits."
The books title refers specifically to the erasure of 'Commissar' Leon Trotsky, who alongside Vladimir Lenin lead the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. He infamously clashed with Joseph Stalin and was exiled and later assassinated in Mexico. Stalin campaigned to erase all images and mentions of Trotsky.
Of course, Trotsky wasn't the only one erased. Faces and names of many citizens were expunged from the records for any number of perceived infractions, and the actual people were sent to gulags, or executed outright. Even owning a book that had not been properly censored could land the owner in the gulag.
David King, a British historian and graphic designer, began collecting these censored photographs and artworks, and seeking out any publications that may have missed the knife or the brush. He amassed the large collection that makes up this book. He also details the 'cult of Stalin' and the use of visual propoganda in the Stalin Era.
The book is primarily a visual resource, but includes a good preface and introduction, detailed captions, and a bibliography with many historical notes.
A fascinating, devastating, and chilling reading experience.
King speaks of censor agents (usually unassuming elderly women) going to libraries and book stores to ensure that each new erasure was followed. They'd bring a bin with them, removing books, and inking or scalpeling out faces in photographs. Books were removed and destroyed directly, or locked into a Soviet archive, deemed not suitable for the public. For anyone who owned books in their own home, they were also expected to comply and blot or deface. Unfortunately, this also went for family photographs - faces and looking bodies removed from time and memory.
I learned of this book many years ago in a history class, and later was reminded in library school courses. Anthony Marra's novel, The Tsar of Love and Techno, includes a storyline of a character who retouched and repaints photographs and art in Stalin's Russia. The final nudge to go ahead and read it in entirety came after reading Tatyana Tolstaya's review of it in her outstanding Pushkin's Children: Writing on Russia and Russians collection that I read in August. Highly recommend both Marra and Tolstaya!
"Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
-George Orwell
India ink blots over faces and bodies. Airbrushing. Painting and scribbling over. Scalpels and tears.
Defacements of a photograph and erasure of a life.
A consciousness. A history.
"Photographs for publication were retouched and restructured with airbrush and scalpel to make famous personalities vanish. Paintings, too, were withdrawn from museums and art galleries so the compromising faces could be blocked out of portraits."
The books title refers specifically to the erasure of 'Commissar' Leon Trotsky, who alongside Vladimir Lenin lead the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. He infamously clashed with Joseph Stalin and was exiled and later assassinated in Mexico. Stalin campaigned to erase all images and mentions of Trotsky.
Of course, Trotsky wasn't the only one erased. Faces and names of many citizens were expunged from the records for any number of perceived infractions, and the actual people were sent to gulags, or executed outright. Even owning a book that had not been properly censored could land the owner in the gulag.
David King, a British historian and graphic designer, began collecting these censored photographs and artworks, and seeking out any publications that may have missed the knife or the brush. He amassed the large collection that makes up this book. He also details the 'cult of Stalin' and the use of visual propoganda in the Stalin Era.
The book is primarily a visual resource, but includes a good preface and introduction, detailed captions, and a bibliography with many historical notes.
A fascinating, devastating, and chilling reading experience.
King speaks of censor agents (usually unassuming elderly women) going to libraries and book stores to ensure that each new erasure was followed. They'd bring a bin with them, removing books, and inking or scalpeling out faces in photographs. Books were removed and destroyed directly, or locked into a Soviet archive, deemed not suitable for the public. For anyone who owned books in their own home, they were also expected to comply and blot or deface. Unfortunately, this also went for family photographs - faces and looking bodies removed from time and memory.
I learned of this book many years ago in a history class, and later was reminded in library school courses. Anthony Marra's novel, The Tsar of Love and Techno, includes a storyline of a character who retouched and repaints photographs and art in Stalin's Russia. The final nudge to go ahead and read it in entirety came after reading Tatyana Tolstaya's review of it in her outstanding Pushkin's Children: Writing on Russia and Russians collection that I read in August. Highly recommend both Marra and Tolstaya!
"Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
-George Orwell
crowyhead's review against another edition
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.
shellyhartner's review against another edition
4.0
I know I'm not the only one reading this book who is old enough to remember a time when the photos we saw in publication were not Photoshopped, when conventional wisdom was that people lied, but photos did not.
How naive we were.
This book is proof that manipulating people through manipulated photos is nothing new, and neither is the kind of personal branding we see in the age of social media. Stalin and Lenin were masters of creating their own brand and writing their own story, and they were doing it nearly a century before anyone had heard of Facebook. Unfortunately, they weren't just retouching photos to remove a few wrinkles, smallpox scars, or extra pounds - they were using it to wipe people who fell out of favor out of history. Absolutely chilling.
How naive we were.
This book is proof that manipulating people through manipulated photos is nothing new, and neither is the kind of personal branding we see in the age of social media. Stalin and Lenin were masters of creating their own brand and writing their own story, and they were doing it nearly a century before anyone had heard of Facebook. Unfortunately, they weren't just retouching photos to remove a few wrinkles, smallpox scars, or extra pounds - they were using it to wipe people who fell out of favor out of history. Absolutely chilling.
harvio's review against another edition
4.0
- Thirty years in the making, David King's book is the product of an immense, one-man, archaeology. Joseph Stalin's censorship of photography was nothing less than the attempted falsification of history itself. Spanning the three defining chapters of his ruthless leadership of Russia (1929 to 1953): 1) his merciless "collectivisation" war against the peasantry (millions died); 2) his murderous police terror against Communist officials (and ordinary citizens) and; 3) his catastrophic political/military maleficence before and after the German invasion of 1941 - nothing of significance could be published that failed to glorify every aspect of Stalin's leadership. Stalin's political opponents were obliterated from all forms of political existence as photographs were "retouched and restructured with airbrush and scalpel to make famous personalities vanish. This book contains some of the most interesting altered images (before/after) from King's immense collection (of over 250,000 images!), complete with background explanations of who was removed and why.
- very interesting
- I really enjoyed it
- very interesting
- I really enjoyed it