TY - BOOK

T1 - Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin's Russia

T2 - Defacing the Enemy

AU - Скопин, Денис Александрович

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This book is devoted to the phenomenon of removal of people declared "public enemies" from group photographs in Stalin’s Russia.The book is based on long-term empirical research in Russian archives and includes 57 photographs that are exceptional in terms of historical interest: all these images bear traces of editing in the form of various marks, such as blacking-out, excisions or scratches. The illustrative materials also include a group of photographs with inscriptions left by officers of Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD. To approach this extensive visual material, Denis Skopin draws on a wealth of Stalin-era written sources: memoirs, diaries and official documents. He argues that this kind of political iconoclasm cannot be confused with censorship nor vandalism. The practice in question is more harrowing and morally twisted, for in most cases the photos were defaced by those who were part of victim’s intimate circle: his/her colleagues, friends or even close family members.The book will be of interest to scholars working in history of photography, art history, visual culture, Russian studies and Russian history and politics.

AB - This book is devoted to the phenomenon of removal of people declared "public enemies" from group photographs in Stalin’s Russia.The book is based on long-term empirical research in Russian archives and includes 57 photographs that are exceptional in terms of historical interest: all these images bear traces of editing in the form of various marks, such as blacking-out, excisions or scratches. The illustrative materials also include a group of photographs with inscriptions left by officers of Stalin’s secret police, the NKVD. To approach this extensive visual material, Denis Skopin draws on a wealth of Stalin-era written sources: memoirs, diaries and official documents. He argues that this kind of political iconoclasm cannot be confused with censorship nor vandalism. The practice in question is more harrowing and morally twisted, for in most cases the photos were defaced by those who were part of victim’s intimate circle: his/her colleagues, friends or even close family members.The book will be of interest to scholars working in history of photography, art history, visual culture, Russian studies and Russian history and politics.

UR - https://www.routledge.com/Photography-and-Political-Repressions-in-Stalins-Russia-Defacing-the/Skopin/p/book/9781032027050

M3 - Book

SN - 9781032027050

BT - Photography and Political Repressions in Stalin's Russia

PB - Taylor & Francis

CY - London

ER -