Pictorial rug with Joseph Stalin's portrait, [USSR, 1930s]; converted into a Herzl-like portrait with a black beard painted on by an unknown hand at a later date. The rug originally depicted Soviet Union Premier Joseph Stalin; rugs with his portrait were commonplace in 1930s Soviet Union. A black beard was later painted on in order to convert the portrait into a Herzl lookalike. The rug was purchased in Israel. In his book "Jewish Carpets, " Anton Felton recounts how he bought this rug "from an overbearing dealer who assured [him] it had always depicted Herzl" (p. 135). The Stalin-to-Herzl conversion may have been done simply in order to increase the rug's value after having been brought from the USSR to Israel, but it may have also been carried out still in the USSR by its original owners, who did not wish to display Stalin's portrait any more. Either way, the rug's transformation reflects the process of disillusionment experienced by Soviet Jewry from the bright hope of Communism, particularly in view of the failure of the Birobidzhan project – Stalin's plan to found an autonomous Jewish oblast in the Russian Far East. As such, the conversion of Stalin into Herzl is symbolic of the reversion of many Soviet Jews to Herzl's Zionist vision. Wool knot-pile; cotton foundation. 82x67.5cm. Good-fair condition. Some fading. Damage to pile at painted area. Damage and stains to fringes. Literature: 1. Anton Felton, Jewish Carpets. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1997, no. 63. 2. Genosse. Jude: Wir wollten nur das Paradies auf Erden [Comrade. Jew.: We Wanted Only a Paradise on Earth], exhibition catalogue. Jewish Museum, Vienna, 2017, p. 47 (illustrated). Provenance: The Anton Felton Collection.