I have always wondered whether such historical figures as Stalin experienced any remorse. How did those cruel decisions made by them influence their psyche?
Numerous investigators of Stalin’s psyche consider that he was suffering from paranoia. There is even such an opinion that all the repressions and terror against his own people were nothing but the real proof of Stalin’s sick inner world by himself: enemies and spies everywhere, nobody to trust. But, probably, paranoia is, on the contrary, a consequence, not a cause?
With the purpose to find this out, I went to the places where I could better understand and feel how the leader of nations lived in informal surroundings – to his motherland, the town of Gori, and the favorite place of resort – a cottage house in Sochi. As it turned out, Stalin, wherever he was, surrounded himself with green, which, as is well known, is opposite to red. As if he tried to protect himself from red, to break its influence.
I used infrared survey in my project. The military were using it for reconnaissance, for obtaining information inaccessible to human eye. I used it with the same purpose. Only that hidden information which I wanted to reveal is of metaphorical, not physical, nature. For regret, the infrared film became a great rarity in the modern world, and purchasing it is scarcely possible. But, fortunately, modern digital technologies allow obtaining a picture almost identical to the one received as the result of such survey in the past.
Everything turns upside down through the IR survey prism. The very locality, the very surrounding nature, like from the Biblical legend of Cain and Abel, turns to be a silent witness, changes the tranquil and steady atmosphere to sinister and uneasy. I could not get a clear-cut answer to a question what exactly this paranoia was, a cause or a consequence. In Stalin’s case, it’s hard to get any clear-cut answer at all. But I felt due to this project that those awful decisions took a heavy toll on Stalin.
About Revaz Kacharava
Revaz Kacharava is a photographer from Rostov-on-don, Russia. Graduated from Rostov Construction University in 2014 and Rostov School Academic Pictures in 2016. In 2017-18, he had a number of publications in the Russian Federal and regional media. “Bird in flight”, “Zapovednik”, “NEN”, “Regnum” and other.He makes documentary projects. Explores the themes of human existence within civilization, the conflict of civilization and nature.
