After news of the execution of Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong-un’s uncle and close advisor, broke in December, North Korean state media has been erasing the man from history entirely, deleting him from online archives and photographs.
This extreme measure makes it “the largest deletion ever carried out by the official KCNA news agency and the Rodong Sinmun newspaper,” according to the Guardian.
But it wouldn’t be the first time a political leader has attempted to wipe a person clean out of history — here are five other people who were erased from existence:
Nikolai Yezhov, Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police
Yezhov earned the nickname “The Vanishing Commissar” among art historians for his disappearance from photographs after his execution in 1940.
Yezhov, a loyal Stalinist, was head of the secret police during Stalin’s Great Purge, overseeing mass arrests and executions of those deemed disloyal to the Soviet regime before ironically being arrested, tortured, tried, and executed himself for disloyalty.
Stalin was known for eliminating all traces of those who fell out of his good side, or who he no longer had use for, Yezhov included.
Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister
Goebbels was immensely valued by Hitler for his enthusiasm, brilliant ideas , and vehement anti-semitism. Hitler made Goebbels his chief of propaganda, and sent him all over Germany to establish a Nazi presence and boost morale during the war. Goebbels was one of just a few people in Hitler’s inner-circle, even trusted with helping burn Hitler’s body after he committed suicide.
Like Stalin, Hitler was known for “erasing” people who fell out of his favour, though it remains unknown what Goebbels did that led to his being deleted from this famous 1937 photo taken at the home of German film maker Leni Riefenstahl.
Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary
An influential voice in the early days of the Soviet Union, Trotsky was initially a leader in the Bolshevik revolution, but references to Trotsky were eliminated after he switched his allegiance to the Mensheviks, splitting from comrade and fellow revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
Lenin later denounced Trotsky as a “scoundrel” in 1917, and erased him from multiple photos in which they appeared together. Trotsky was eventually exiled from the Soviet Union completely.
Bo Gu, senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party
Qin Bangxian, better known as Bo Gu, was the “person with overall responsibility of the CCP,”and so had tremendous responsibility under leader Mao Zedong.
However, as a result of some miscommunication on tactical military defence at the Zunyi Conference during the Long March, Bo Gu was criticised for “serious partial political mistakes” and replaced in command by Zhang Wentian in 1935.
The exact miscommunication differs in most historical accounts, but it could be what led to Bo Gu’s fallout with Mao Zedong, and therefore could have been the reason for his elimination from this photo.
Grigoriy Nelyubov, Soviet cosmonaut
Hand-picked for the first cosmonaut detachment in 1960, Nelyubov was a star choice for space flight for being “a remarkable person, an excellent pilot, a sportsman…”
A founding member of the top space team known as the Sochi Six, Nelyubov was likely the third or fourth person in space (though some say the first) before being expelled from the Soviet space program for alcohol-related misconduct, leading to his being removed from program records.
Nelyubov was ultimately struck by a train and killed; his death was ruled a suicide.
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