Question by Pet: Why did Stalin erase Leon Trotsky from a photograph?
I know he retouched pictures for propaganda purposes. But why Leon Trotsky?
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Answer by Artorius
After the death of Lenin, Stalin & Trotsky were rivals for the leadership of the USSR. If Stalin had his way, he would have erased Trotsky completely from history. Even when Trotsky was in exile, he was still a threat to Stalin’s regime & it’s believed (although not proven) that Stalin sent the agents who assassinated Trotsky.
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Swanneh. says
Trotsky was a Left wing Bolshevik party member whom Stalin once opposed in the power struggle of 1924-1928. In 1927 Stalin exiled Trotsky for opposing his form of ideologies to continue Lenin's methods to build a more socialist state in an effort to make Russia a communist state; after his exile, however, Trotsky became more open and critical about Stalin's ideologies when he gained power calling it 'Stalinism' not Communism. Stalin did not want ANYONE to criticize his methods of leadership so he retouched various pictures which contained Trotsky in them, as he believed his methods were correct whilst Trotsky's ideology was not correct in any way. As well as this, Stalin did not want Trotsky to be seen with Lenin as this would have put him at a great disadvantage throughout the power struggle, so in response to this he began retouching photos which shown Trotsky by Lenin's side, whom was considered a hero among the working class.
An example of one of the many pictures Stalin retouched to essentialy 'remove' Trotsky from Lenin's side – http://lowendmac.com/mac2win/10m2w/art/trotsky-er…