The Commissar Vanishes

English language

Published Nov. 5, 1997

ISBN:: 978-0-8050-5294-7

(1 review)

The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia is a 1997 book by David King about the censoring of photographs and fraudulent creation of "photographs" in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union through silent alteration via airbrushing and other techniques. It has an introduction by Stephen F. Cohen.Michael Nyman created a companion album of the same title in 1999. The second disc of the two-disc album contains The Fall of Icarus, the score to an eponymous art installation by Peter Greenaway from 1986 which had previously been unreleased. The first disc, The Commissar Vanishes, is a version of The Fall of Icarus that has been defaced similarly to the photographs reproduced in King's book.

1 edition

arensb reviewed The Commissar Vanishes by David King

Review of 'The Commissar Vanishes' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

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, …

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.