So, I've given you a potted history of Stalin and his rule. And I've given you some explanation as to why Stalin employed particular methods when it came to the control of the Soviet Union. And we've looked at some of the iconography, some of the images that the Soviet government used to portray positively or negatively parts of Soviet society. I suppose we actually need to talk about photographs now since supposedly this is what we're here for. Now I'm going to give some examples from a book by David King and I'm referencing this throughout. this is The Commissar, Vanishes. I, on the website for this Coursera unit, will give you a link to David King's own website. but just for reference, there is another URL which I'm going to publicize via this site. Which gives some of the images and you can go and review those a bit later. I'm going to concentrate on a half dozen or so examples of how Stalin chose to manipulate images. And to speculate why those were done. And, and the first one is, appears to be quite a prosaic image. This comes from the 16h party congress in 1930. On the first photograph, you can see the attendant is pointing in a particular direction while standing adjacent but not next to Stalin. The photograph was then altered. Now I've mentioned that people who'd fallen from favor were airbrushed out of history. Why would an attendant supposedly showing directions need to be removed? The implication and the interpretation here, is that the humble worker was there to tell Stalin where to go. This is the way that, King puts it in that regard. So, so concerned was Stalin about his image. He couldn't possibly have a workman being be seen to give him direction in any way. The allegory was too great for that to stand. So, regretfully, that poor individual was airbrushed out of history. It's not just those who are near Stalin that required, quote, correction, so to speak. I've already mentioned the importance of Lenin. To the legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution and to a certain degree to the credence that was given to Stalin after his ascent to power. Stalin portrayed himself as keeping in the tradition of Lenin. the point I make is that Stalin was more an organizer. Whereas Lenin was much more of a, a theorist and thinker. in some respects, the outlook of the two men couldn't have been more different. But nevertheless, Lenin held such a hallowed state in Soviet society that you could gain credibility simply by being seen to be stood by his side. Okay, now this is a photograph from 1920. As you can see its a large group photograph yet we have a little insert here and its reproduced with a few more people over here as well. Where Maxim Gorky is seen to be standing at the shoulder of Lenin. And particularly in this photograph, that it's very much he and Lenin alone. Stalin and Gorky became friends in the late 1920s. So to emphasize the importance of Gorky. These photographs were retouched accordingly. This reconstruction of history to suit Stalin's, current perspectives, goes back to very old images. these two are from the St.Petersburg Union of Struggle for the liberation of workers, or working classes rather and goes back to 1897. Now uh, Malchenko was accused in 1929 of being a "wrecker". And was, executed the following year. So between the two photographs you can, you can just about see that Malchenko has been again removed from the historical record. he'd fallen from favor after Lenin's death the last thing that Stalin wanted was a photograph even implying that again he was at Lenin's shoulder. Now, 1959 Malchenko is quote rehabilitated unquote, so after Stalin's death, this original photograph, photograph becomes currency again, and is the official photograph of the meeting. This is a, another of the disappeared. In this case it's Petrovsky. These photographs are from the 1922 Party Congress. Now in 1938, Petrovsky was sacked from the Central Committee. And again, the way that King puts it, is in terms of accused of having connections with enemies of the people. the following year, this photograph was put up, the official photograph which, has Petrovsky moved and the gentlemen next to him moved a little bit closer to Stalin. So it's a fairly rapid rewriting of history within Stalin's own lifetime. Trotsky. Trotsky really did fall from grace in Soviet eyes, and this is a pair of photographs here, show Trotsky and his wife in the rear seat of a car. It's in, taken in Georgia in 1924. when the photograph is reprinted twelve years later, the gentleman who's standing at the side and the rear of the car has been repositioned so he obscures Trotsky. it should be pointed out that at the time the second image came out, Trotsky was an exile and, I believe, living in Norway. So, those who had fallen foul of Stalin however seriously or, or trivially did find themselves again, obscured from the historical record. It wasn't purely in terms of Stalin's, perspective on who was acceptable and who wasn't acceptable. Nikolai Yezhov was removed from his office in the Soviet apparatchiks in 1938, which is the year of this top photograph. He's actually standing next to Nikita Khrushchev. He was to succeed Stalin as the general secretary of the communist party of the Soviet Union. the photograph below is a 1949 so after Yezhov offered had fallen from grace and he is replaced by wood panelling. Now although it's fairly small, it's significant in terms of the positioning of Yeltsin, I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. The positioning of Yezhov next to Khrushchev, considering Khrushchev's slow ascendency in the late 1940s. And the book is called 'The Commissar Vanishes.' Here is another photograph of Yezhov. The irony was that he was the Commissioner for Water Transport. So as David King points out in the revised photograph which is adjacent here. He's actually replaced by well the water he was in charge of again why would you go through this difficulty of changing the historical record? It tells you something about Stalin's paranoia about being perceived as having made errors in the past. Have been associated with those who've fallen foul of his rule, and therefore fallen out of his favor. Now, I must admit I quite like irony. at least in preparing for today's seminar, one or two questions were asked. Well, do we have any legitimate photographs? Of Stalin standing next to Lennon this is a painting actually done in 1947. and again it's the second congress of the Soviets, Cloning Soviet Power, is the title. and won the Stalin prize in 1948. Here is Lenin. You can see Stalin, again, figuratively, by his elbow by his shoulder. The picture was repainted in 1962, under pressure from Khrushchev. And guess who gets removed from the picture. The fate that Stalin applied to a number of people in his own time was applied to him after his death. In terms of this proximity to Lenin, here are a number of examples in physical form, although they're photographs of memorials and monuments. the first one is a photograph each suggested by David King that this has been falsified. But we have a statue again, of Lenin and Stalin conversing, apparently Lenin taking Stalin's council. If you turn over to drawings, in the same measure. here we have an issue of Stalin placed higher Lenin and appear to be offering advice once more. And finally, another statue. Again, Lenin sitting, Stalin standing and just notice the position of the arm here. In terms of Lenin giving, sort of reassuring support to Stalin. as if, once more, that, Stalin's rule is at least blessed by Lenin. It wasn't just Stalin's image relative to people who'd fallen from favor, that was altered. Here are two examples between the early 20s and the late 1930s of how Stalin had his own image airbrushed. the caption in David King's book says, Hollywood U.S.S.R and certainly the larger image here we might, might politely describe. as beening somewhat more flattering. there's also the issue about why you would go to the trouble of actually having images, airbrushed when you \can actually start from scratch. So here's a sequence that, David King has of the group of 4, the group of 3. The group of two and suddenly the photograph becomes a portrait of Stalin on his own. Now I'm not quite sure how the authenticity of an image being transformed three times makes a difference. But nevertheless, this is one of the ways that Starlin wanted to maintain continuity of his place in history even though everyone else seems to have gone bye bye. And finally, never mind subtlety, these portraits have literally had people blotted out. there is no easy way of recognizing these people. David King has been very thorough to find the originals, and to verify what the people looked like before they were defaced. And in this case literally defaced in those images. So people were simply blotted out when their faces no longer fitted.
