Customer Reviews:
 Stuff of History, Stuff of Nightmares November 11, 2001
Ruth Edlund (King County, Washington:)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
What would it take to make Hell on earth seem real to you? This profoundly disturbing book had that effect for me.pIt might be possible to view this book as humorous. Mr. King's years of patient scholarship have unearthed unmarred originals of photographs that he presents with little or no comment next to what are frequently crudely butchered falsifications of those who fell out of favor with Stalin. Particularly in the age of computer photomanipulation, the alterations are initially comical to twenty-first century eyes.pAs one works through the book, however, the comic effect is obliterated by mute evidence of the sheer numbers of people who were expunged year after year from the historical record. Particularly frightening are the official portraits self-censored by relatives of the now-deceased in hopes of forestalling the same fate.pAlthough not strictly a falsification, of particular interest to me was a picture of the document officially expelling Leon Trotsky from the Communist Party, complete with angry annotations in the margin by Comrade Trotsky himself.pI'd like to believe that the very existence of this book and its photographic record, despite the Soviet attempt of many years to rewrite history, proves that no regime can stifle all unflattering facts about itself for all time. But then I wonder in how many cases, about how many people, they might have been successful. By all means, read this book. Be a witness. Remember the dead. But be warned. The stuff of this history is indeed the stuff of nightmares.
Unbelievable illustrated history of Soviet-style propaganda March 6, 2001
M. Livshutz (Niles, IL United States)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a great book for all readers interested in how modern totalitarian propaganda works. My family comes from USSR, so I learned much from my grandparents about the events of the 1930s. They told me stories of people taken in at midnight after telling a lunchtime joke two days earlier. My grandfather was, in fact, one of those people. Luckily, that was the time when NKVD chief Yezhov was himself disappeared and replaced with new chief Beria. My grandfather was later released without permanent physical damage.pThis makes it even more interesting to see how cleanly were the NKVD ranks decimated after each purge. There is a 1922 picture on page 90 of the 12 of the top leadership of Cheka. All of them have been executed before 1940, except the few who were lucky enough to die on their own earlier. Makes it easier to understand the secret of a successful dictatorship - eliminate all potential rivals before they even realize who they are.pThe only problem I have with this book is that it needlessly glorifies the victims of Stalin's purges. All those good Communists ascended the ranks of Soviet government because they themselves killed millions of Russians, Ukrainians and others. An example of this is a note on page 100 about Sergo Ordjonikidze. It says that he committed suicide in 1937, ... in protest against Stalin's murderous policies. Right above this line, it says that he was a political commissar in the Red Army during the Civil War. He led the Red Army to destroy a moderate left-wing government in Georgia and killed most of its leaders in 1920-21. Also, he was a key figure in the massive Five-Year Plan. Plus, he was in charge of collectivizing southern Russia and Caucasus mountain regions. He must have been responsible for tens of thousands of murders of innocent civilians during his career. It obviously did not bother him to send non-Communist peasants to Siberia when the Party directed him to do so. So I don't think he and people like him deserve any sympathy for the suffering they were dealt.pThese people wanted to play God and rebuild the world in their own image. They obviously had to destroy the existing world before they could rebuild it. To that end, they happily killed many people. To their surprise they found out they could not control the monster they unleashed. Oops, tough luck. This book shows the kind of behavior that such efforts lead to.
Orwell Was Right On The Money January 27, 2001
R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When Orwell's novel 1984 came out, many on the left scoffed at his portrayal of the lengths a totalitarian regime would go to rewrite history. Surely he was being extreme. The Commissar Vanishes, this marvelous, funny, horrifying book, demostrates how right Orwell was. Example after example is presented of photographs being retouched and artwork being redrawn. It all adds up to a portrait of political reality that a schizophrenic could easily recognize. Especially haunting are the blacked-out faces of fallen figures--someone simply took a pen to their pictures, thus objectifying their oftern horrible real-life fates. Just think what a current like-minded government could do with today's computer-imaging technology. Old George is still relevant; this side of human nature has not gone away.
 Filling in the blanks August 11, 2000
The Sanity Inspector (USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
We can always find another widow for Lenin. So threatened Stalin to Lenin's real widow Krupskaya, whom he hated. So absolute was the Communist Party's hold on all aspects of public life in Russia in Stalin's reign, that famous people, who had been praised to the skies just the week before, could be utterly effaced from the public's mind through sheer terror. Once someone fell from favor with the dictator, his name and picture were erased from the public record--even books critical of the person could be proscribed--and to even mention his name might mean prison or worse. This book is the author's attempt to trace the trail of falsification through Stalin-era photos and artworks.p It is a testament to the censor's thoroughness that the trail is quite incomplete. In many cases, the author hasn't been able to find even the name of the extirpated individual in the before-and-after photos. Some of the examples given here were taken from the folio albums of the Soviet photographer Rodchenko. After the bureaucrats he had photographed were arrested and shot, he went to work inking and scissoring out his own work, the images of the new non-persons.p The heroic photomontages, with the jut-jawed Bolsheviks vanguarding the masses, are appalling when you think of how many would later be arrested, tortured into accusing themselves of the most heinous, yet baseless, crimes, and then shot. The damned were airbrushed out of the picture, replaced with a stripped-in comrade, or a painted-in pillar or staircase, sometimes leaving a shoe or elbow that the retoucher missed. The Western mind shudders at the slavish worship that Stalin had at his command, to cause such colossal lies to be perpetuated. Read this big, lavishly illustrated book, and get the real picture.
Utterly engrossing June 11, 2000
H. J. Wakenshaw (The Netherlands)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was very lucky to see the collaboration between composer Michael Nyman (of 'The Piano') and David King this year in a sort of son et lumiere of Nyman's music and King's images. King only used a mere handful (10 at most) of pictures from The Commissar Vanishes for the concert, and on the strength of those, I bought the book. pFor the show, King used only photographs which had been defaced - those faces eerily blacked out with india ink, faces cut from group portraits leaving unsettling holes. I had little idea that the book would include so much more fascinating evidence of the way in which Stalin changed history by retouching and manipulating images to suit his own highly manipulated image.pParticularly haunting are those pictures in which one person after another is removed, the image subjected to so much cutting and airbrushing that what is left is a painting rather than a photograph. Or the gradual morphing of an image of Stalin and Lenin together to produce rather odd paintings and statues where Stalin goes from being Lenin's bosom buddy to some sort of powerful giant, towering over the weak and submissive Lenin. None of which ever happened - even the original image of the two leaders sitting together was clearly fabricated. pThere are lots of chances to play an absorbing version 'Spot the Difference' with pictures that have had objects like buildings, groups of people, litter and banners moved, removed, changed, or replaced altogther, usually by something far less politically threatening. pNot only is The Commissar Vanishes' fascinating, it is also very well put together; the images, which are stories in themselves, are acccompanied by well written text which is arresting in its simplicity.pThis is one of the best books I've read in the last year; a book of great quality, and perfect for those interested in communism, dystopias or the media.
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