This is one of the spookiest photographs in history.

Who do you see? Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, joyously leaning over the Moscow Canal.

What you don’t see is what makes this one of the spookiest images in history.

In the original photo, Stalin poses with Nikolai Yezhov, chief of the Soviet secret police. From 1936 onward, Yezhov oversaw the height of the purges (approximately half of the Soviet political and military establishment were imprisoned or shot during this period).

However, in typical Stalin fashion, Yezhov fell victim to Stalin’s paranoia about disloyalty. On April 10, 1939, he was executed. By eradicating him from the original portrait, he was equally “eradicated” through Soviet national memory through censorship.

The story behind it proves how “eerie” history can be, especially when represented (misrepresented) by photography.

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