A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

The image above is one of many photographs doctored and altered by the order of Joseph Stalin during his rule of the USSR.  I chose it because I find the history and politics of the Soviet Union fascinating.  At home I own a book called The Commissar Vanishes that contains other before-and-after photos of Stalin's political enemies.  

Political dissent in the Soviet Union was met with severe punishment, usually in the form of exile or execution.  When Stalin had his more prominent enemies exiled or executed, he would strategically have their images removed from photographs.  By doing this Stalin would effectively erase the memory of them, removing them from history.  The man removed from the photo above is Leon Trotsky, a prominent member of the Communist Party who fell out of favor with Stalin and was subsequently exiled.  Stalin removed Trotsky's image from a variety of photographs in order to eliminate him from public memory.  With Trotsky removed from records and photographs, it became difficult to prove that he existed at all and easy for Stalin to claim that he didn't.  This instance of altering photographs is clearly harmful.  Through this act of censorship Stalin eliminated all criticism of his actions by removing those who criticized him from the country and from history itself.  Stalin was able to remove proof of their existence and counted on a scared and confused populace not to ask questions.