6 People Who Were Literally Erased From History

by Melissa Stanger

Jang Song-thaek disappears in the photo on the right

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

Stalin (center) with Nikolai Yezhov to his left. 
After Yezhov's execution, he was airbrushed out of the photo.

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 whom he no longer had use for, Yezhov included.

Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister

Goebbels (second from right) appears with Adolf Hitler and others at the home of film maker Leni Riefenstahl in 1937. In later images, he is missing.

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 favor, 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

Formerly close comrades, Trotsky appears in the image on the left at one of Lenin's speeches; the same image, altered after the two split, shows Trotsky deleted.

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 (though Trotsky eventually rejoined the Bolsheviks), and after Lenin's death Trotsky was eliminated from photos by Stalin. Trotsky was eventually exiled from the Soviet Union completely.

Bo Gu, senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party

Bo Gu, far left, appears in the photo with Mao Zedong and comrades; in the later photo, he is missing.

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 defense at the Zunyi Conference during the Long March, Bo Gu was criticized 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

A founding member of the "Sochi Six," Nelyubov is eliminated in the later photograph.

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, some say Nelyubov was the third or fourth person in space; others say he never made it into space before being expelled from the Soviet space program for alcohol-related misconduct. The incident led to his being deleted from program records.
Nelyubov was ultimately struck by a train and killed; his death was ruled a suicide.