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These are people who were executed soon after these photographs were taken. The pictures were taken by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police during the Great Terror of 1937-38.
At the moment the photographs were taken, many of them will have understood or suspected that they would soon be shot. All the individuals shown were “rehabilitated” 15 or more years after their execution. In other words, none of them was guilty of any crime. The Great Terror was part of the way Stalin maintained the power of the Communist Party and himself. People were encouraged to denounce each other. Sometimes they denounced others out of malice. Sometimes they did so out of fear that otherwise they would be denounced themselves. Local officials had to fulfill quotas of executions. They would sometimes exceed their quotas – killing yet more innocent people – in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the party.
We have enhanced the photographs with AI software.
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