Interesting book, misleading cover

Last month, I read Stalin Troçki’ye Karşı (Stalin Against Trotsky), a book published by Yapı Kredi Yayınları (YKY) in April 2025 and written by the French author Alain Frerejean.[*] Frerejean is best known for his biographical works on the history of diplomacy and war. The book, released by YKY, is based on a 2022 French documentary series of the same name; consequently, its visual narrative and dramatic structure are particularly prominent.

However, the focus of this piece is neither the book’s content nor the issues in its Turkish translation. Here, I will focus solely on the historical and editorial problems relating to the presentation of the poster used by the publisher on the book’s cover.

Wrong date, wrong source

The back cover of the book includes the following note about the image featured on the front:

Cover image: A propaganda poster in line with Stalin’s policy of “demonising” Trotsky. PEACE AND FREEDOM IN THE SOVIETS, 1920s.

This brief note contains two fundamental and serious errors regarding the poster’s origin and context. The assertion that the image is a product of Stalinist propaganda contradicts both historical fact and -as even a glance at its iconography would reveal- the visual logic of the poster itself. Moreover, the poster is not from the 1920s but from 1919, produced during the fiercest phase of the Russian Civil War. YKY has managed to fit two major errors into these two relatively short sentences.

Moreover, the image used on the book’s cover is a heavily altered -in other words, a falsified- version of the original poster.

Signs of tampering

When compared with the original, it is easy to notice that the execution order on the Kremlin wall and the necklace around Trotsky’s neck have been removed. These are alterations that lessen the ideological weight of the image.

To avoid any misunderstanding, it should be stated clearly: I do not hold YKY directly responsible for this alteration. A brief online search shows that this doctored version of the poster has been circulating for quite some time. However, the fact that the source of such an iconic, politically charged and historically well-documented image was not verified points to a serious gap in the publisher’s editorial quality control mechanisms.

The White Army's counter-revolutionary "aesthetic"

The source of this image is not the Stalinist regime but the counter-revolutionary White Army, which fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War years that followed the October Revolution. The poster vividly reflects the reactionary propaganda tactics employed by these forces in their struggle to strangle the nascent workers’ state at birth.

The Russian text on the poster clearly shows that the image has no connection to the Stalinist regime. The slogan at the top -“Миръ и свобода въ Совдепiи” (“Peace and Freedom in Sovdepiya”)- uses pre-reform letters from before the orthographic changes introduced by the Bolsheviks in 1918. In particular, the inclusion of characters such as “i” (izhetsa) and “ъ” (the hard sign) indicates that the poster was produced by circles that rejected this reform.

The term “Sovdepiya” (“Land of the Soviet Deputies”) was a derogatory nickname used by the White Army and other counter-revolutionary circles to refer to Soviet Russia. It implied the chaos and dictatorship allegedly brought about by the Bolsheviks.

The composition of the image is a typical example of the White Army’s fear-mongering propaganda, which played upon the most reactionary instincts of the populace. Trotsky is depicted as a red-skinned demon, a sort of King Kong figure, towering over the Kremlin wall and the Kutafya Tower. In this way, the Bolsheviks are portrayed as a demonic force that has seized the holy Russian capital.

The xenophobic depictions in the lower section are equally striking: Chinese soldiers are portrayed executing prisoners and building mounds of skulls. Historically, Chinese volunteers did serve within the ranks of the Red Army during the Civil War years; however, White Army propaganda distorted this fact to spread the lie that the Bolsheviks employed brutal “Asiatic” foreign elements against the Russian people.

The caricature of Trotsky as a red, furry demon symbolises the claim that Bolshevism was hostile to Christian morality and to the traditional values of the people. More significantly, Trotsky’s Jewish background was a central theme in White Army propaganda. In the original poster, the necklace around Trotsky’s neck -depicted as a Star of Solomon (Star of David) or a pentagram intertwined with a red star- follows traditional counter-revolutionary codes in anti-Semitic narratives portraying the Bolshevik revolution as a “Jewish conspiracy.”

In the lower right corner of the original poster, a text is affixed to the Kremlin wall: it is a fabricated execution order (ПРИКАЗ) bearing Trotsky’s signature. In it, Trotsky is referred to as “Главковерх Лев Троцкий” (Supreme Commander Leon Trotsky).

Historically, however, Trotsky served as the People’s Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs -a civilian title- between 1918 and 1925. The title “Glavkoverkh” was a military rank from the Tsarist era; it was never conferred upon Trotsky by the Bolshevik leadership, nor did he ever seek such a title. By employing this fabricated designation, the White Army sought to depict Trotsky as a ruthless military dictator and to undermine the Bolsheviks’ claims of “peace and freedom.”

Editorial weakness

In summary, YKY’s mistake is not limited to the misidentification of the poster’s origin (it was produced by the White Army, not the Stalinist regime) and its chronology (1919, not the 1920s). To make matters worse, the publisher used a version of the poster whose visual integrity had been compromised -with crucial textual and ideological elements (the execution order and the anti-Semitic necklace) removed. This clearly shows that the source image was neither carefully examined nor properly verified by YKY.

[*] Alain Frerejean, Stalin Troçki’ye Karşı, trans. Şehsuvar Aktaş, YKY, Istanbul, April 2025.