David King

One of Nappelbaum’s portraits of Stalin; from David King’s Red Star Over Russia: A Visual History of the Soviet Union from the Revolution to the Death of Stalin, published recently by Abrams. According to King, Stalin once threw Nappelbaum’s photographs on the floor in fury. ‘It was a bad idea,’ King writes, ‘to show the “Leader and Teacher” reading with his index finger when the campaign for literacy was in full swing.’