IRL 5, September 23, 2009

URL; http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/24/the_early_read_a_photo_essay?page=0,0

This is an online sample of material that appears in author David King's collection, Red Star Over Russia; A Visual History from the Soviet Union from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin. This page contains several Soviet images (including photographs, art, cartoons) that had been lost over the years and recently uncovered. One example of the images that this page contains is a photograph depicting Lenin and his comrades at a Marx Day rally in Moscow's Red Square in 1919. Another photograph is of Leon Trotsky having a discussion with his officers and men during the Russian Civil War. There are many other images on that link, including mugshots of one of Stalin's political opponents (Zinoviev, before he was sentenced to death), and images of rallies and protests. This connects to what we are studying in class because in class, we are currently learning about Communist Russia and its beginnings, including when Lenin rose to power, and when Stalin was his successor after his death. The value of these images is that it is putting a clearer image in my mind of some of the events that happened during the time, and is also providing enough of a visual image that I can understand the intensity of the events that took place. For instance in the photograph of Lenin and his comrades at a Marx Day rally, I can get a visual image of what these rallies looked like. From the mugshot of Zinoviev, I can see how he looked very worn down and from that I can make inferences that Stalin made life very difficult for his political opponents when he worked to eliminate them. The visual images add significance to what we are learning because I can understand the intensity of the situations and the drama of the communist area. The limitation I am facing with these images is that every image is labeled by what event it came from, but there is not enough background information with each picture that I can fully understand the circumstances. Unless I know the circumstance myself, I am only getting a visual image without the history behind the photograph itself.