Stalin photo manipulation trotsky biography facts

One day a politician may have been in favor, the next he could be facing the firing squad as an enemy of the people. In Soviet Russia, people were literally written out of the history books. Here are some examples. From , Isaac Zelensky championed the Bolshevik Party. Famous Soviet Alexander Rodchenko was forced to delete Zelensky from one of his photos by unceremoniously daubing him in black paint.

Official photos were retouched with a little more care.

Stalin picture young

This historic picture showed young socialists in before some of them rose to power. Alexander Malchenko standing, on the left was not so lucky: in he was accused of being a spy, executed, and replaced with a white spot. Airbrushing Soviet history was sometimes about adding aspects, not just deleting them. Some political figures were doomed to disappear from everywhere.

A classic example: in this photo from , Trotsky, in a cap, stands nearby Lenin who is giving a speech from a tribune.