The Commissar Vanishes

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The Commissar Vanishes
The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia
AuthorDavid King
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish
Subjectart, history
PublisherCanongate Books Ltd (UK)
Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt (USA)
Publication date
October 1997
Pages192
ISBN978-0862417246
Untitled


The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia is a 1997 book by David King about the censoring of photographs in Stalin's Soviet Union through silent alteration via airbrushing and other techniques. It has an introduction by Stephen F. Cohen.

Michael Nyman created a companion album of the same title in 1999. The second disc of the two-disc album contains The Fall of Icarus, the score to an eponymous art installation by Peter Greenaway from 1986 which had previously been unreleased. The first disc, The Commissar Vanishes, is a version of The Fall of Icarus that has been defaced similarly to the photographs reproduced in King's book.

Track listing

Disc 1: The Commissar Vanishes

  1. Earth In Turmoil
  2. Jealousy And Revenge
  3. Look Out For An Enemy!
  4. Ordinary Citizens
  5. A Swift Exit

Disc: 2: The Fall of Icarus

  1. Disaster
  2. Wings
  3. Walls
  4. Water
  5. Utopia