4 Image retouching to prettify portraits was widely popular during the early 20th century, but in the Soviet Union, highly skilled retouchers were also employed for a more sinister role: as comrades fell out of favor with Stalin and were removed from office or executed, the politically inconvenient figures were carefully scratched and painted out of the frame. Original photo shows from left to right: Nikolai Antipov, Josef Stalin, Sergei Kirov, and Nikolai Shvernik.