In a rare image from August 1941, a journalist took an unauthorized photo of Stalin slumped in a chair in the Kremlin after hearing about the German advance on Kiev. Unlike those unofficial albeit manufactured images of Soviet strength, this was an image of a man shaken by events, lost in thought with his body language revealing study despair. The photo was taken by the editor of Komsomolskaya Pravda, who was ordered to destroy it but didn't because he thought it would be considered undermining Stalin's image. Rarely, if ever, do we get a glimpse of a leader who appears troubled, anytime you look at images or film of Stalin, you see an image of strength. Moments like this, it seems, remind us that even dictators had moments of doubt.
