The Commissar Vanishes

Infobox Book
name = The Commissar Vanishes
The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = David King
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = UK
language = English
series =
subject = art, history
genre =
publisher = Canongate Books Ltd (UK)
Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt (USA)
pub_date = October 1997
english_pub_date =
media_type =
pages = 192
isbn = 978-0862417246
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by = Infobox Album
Name = Music for David King's Book
The Commissar Vanishes
The Fall of Icarus
Type = studio
Longtype =
Artist = Michael Nyman


Cover size =
Caption = Photo of Isaak Zelensky as censored for Alexander Rodchenko's copy of "Ten Years of Uzbekistan"
Released = November 8, 1999 (UK)
November 18, 1999 (USA)
Recorded =
Genre = Contemporary classical, minimalism
Length =
Language =
Label = Virgin Venture, EMI
Director =
Producer =
Reviews =
Compiler =
Chronology =
Last album = Wonderland
1999
This album = The Commissar Vanishes
1999
Next album = Nabbie's Love
1999
Misc =

"The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin's Russia" is a 1997 book by David King about the censoring of photographs in Stalin's Soviet Union through silent alteration via airbrushing and other techniques. It has an introduction by Stephen F. Cohen.

Michael Nyman created a companion album of the same title in 1999. The second disc of the two-disc album contains "The Fall of Icarus", the score to an eponymous art installation by Peter Greenaway from 1986 which had previously been unreleased. The first disc, "The Commissar Vanishes", is a version of "The Fall of Icarus" that has been defaced similarly to the photographs reproduced in King's book.

Track listing

Disc 1: The Commissar Vanishes
#Earth In Turmoil
#Jealousy And Revenge
#Look Out For An Enemy!
#Ordinary Citizens
#A Swift Exit

Disc: 2: The Fall of Icarus
#Disaster
#Wings
#Walls
#Water
#Utopia