Captions

Above left: Joseph Stalin dressed as a tsarist-era policeman (unknown author). The inscription reads “The Will-Supressing, All-Party Policeman Stalin and his Bloodhound Yaroslavka.” The latter is a reference to the party historian Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, head of the Central Control Commission at the time, a group that, in the early years of Stalin’s consolidation of power, was instrumental in collecting compromising information on other party members. Stuffed in Stalin’s boot is a “Resolution of the 15th Party Congress,” the Congress where Stalin vanquished the left-opposition. Above the barred window reads “Prison of the Party Apparatus.”

Above: Sergo Ordzhonikidze at a session of the Defense Committee where he was to battle for funds to develop heavy industry. (unknown author) Once head of the NKVD (secret police), Odzhonokidze committed suicide in early 1934 after heated disagreements with Stalin about the conduct of the purges. His death was reported at the time as caused by a heart attack. The inscription reads, “A rare moment of calm before the battle.”