Stalin: He Was Way Ahead of Photoshop

The name Stalin is likely to bring an uncomfortable chill to the spine of many. But before becoming a tyrant, Stalin was studying to become a priest and he was known for his romantic poetry.

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was a murderous tyrant and leader of the Soviet state from 1941–53. He was also a cunning manipulator, whose corrupt regime altered photo images and historical facts, to suit his purposes, to glorify himself and perpetuate the totalitarian state.

Attempting to purge history of unwanted facts and people who were no longer in favour, was not a new thing, as, in ancient Rome, the Senate would destroy the statues and any written reference to emperors who had fallen out of favour, by a decree of damnatio memoriae.

Stalin, however, had a team of artists who worked at the Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press, who would alter photos by airbrushing or painting or razoring out those who had suddenly fallen out of favour, and so, had become enemies to the party (i.e. him).

The photo above shows Nikolai Yezhov who fell out of favour with Stalin. Before his fall, Yezhov had a lot of power, including the role of grand inquisitor and extractor of confessions. Yezhov had organised mass arrests and tortures as part of the Great Purge of the 1930s, which resulted in the imprisonment or execution of about half the Soviet political and military establishment and hundreds of thousands of others who were also suspected of disloyalty. Then, suddenly, Yezhov fell from Stalin's favour. He was tortured and executed. But Yezhov was not quite eradicated from visual history.

This photo shows very clearly how photos were simply altered and people eradicated as they fell from favour. The book, 1984, by George Orwell, captures how The Party changes history to suit its purposes.


"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
1984, George Orwell

Books To Read


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick (made into a film called Bladerunner).

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin - people are identified by numbers.