The only surviving photograph of one of my great-grandfathers, Johannes Dieser, taken while he was in the army during World War 1, around 1914. He was my Granny Gerk's Dad..dying in 1933. My great-grandmother starved to death also in that year.
Family members in Russia would painstakingly change the photograph, taking out any Tsarist symbols from his uniform. To have a photograph of a loved one with ANY former Russian regime insignia in the USSR, could get your entire family immediately sent to Siberia, or worse, shot, for being an Enemy of the People! The photograph, of a photograph, of a photograph…was all designed to protect the owner.
But heck, they shipped the family off to Siberia anyways!
