The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs & Art in the Soviet Union

by David King

Release Date: March, 1999

Edition: Paperback

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Utterly engrossing

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 lumi�re 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.

For 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.

Particularly 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.

There 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.

Not 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.

This 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.

Fascinating - even revealing of bungling bureaucracy

This book is fascinating. I really appreciate the explanation of the individuals involved, as most people are not familiar with all the enemies of Stalin who were victims of the man and his underlings' airbrush.

The alterations of photographs are at times sophisticated, but at other times so clumsy it reveals that even the Soviet propaganda machine, in the middle of Stalinist terror, would slip into "government work" syndrome. I suppose even Soviets get senioritis.

The book also reminds me of a personal experience. In around 1979, (communist) China invaded (communist) Vietnam. A high-ranking Vietnamese Communist Party official, Hoang Van Hoan, defected to Beijing. That year, I attended an exhibit of photographs. There's a picture of the Vietnamese Politburo, and to one side, there's a blacked-out shadow of an absent member. I was only 15 years old, but smart enough to realize that that was where Hoang Van Hoan stood.

That was thirty years after Stalin died, in a country thousands of miles away.

How a dictator's legacy can reach so long and so far.

Amazing.