Final answer:
Stalin's manipulation of images helped create a cult of personality, rewrote history by erasing undesirable individuals, and reinforced totalitarian control by saturating society with his omnipresent image.
Step-by-step explanation:
The effects of Stalin's 'photoshopping' during his regime had profound implications for Soviet society. By manipulating photographic images, the Soviet leadership under Stalin rewrote history and erased individuals from public memory. Those who had fallen out of favor were removed seamlessly from photographs as if they had never existed. This act of censorship was a part of the broader strategy of socialist realism, an official artistic form that aimed to depict Stalin as a heroic, omnipresent leader. In reality, this formed a key part of Stalin's cult of personality and served to control the narrative, allowing the state to establish itself as the sole authority on truth and history.
Artists were restricted to using only state-approved images in their artwork, and this led to a saturation of public spaces with representations of Stalin that often greatly exaggerated his role in events or placed him in events he never attended. The impact on society was that it promoted a totalitarian ideology, effectively eliminated personal agency, and created a culture of fear and conformity. Stalin's presence became inescapable, reinforcing the message that he was an almost divine figure guiding Soviet destiny.