THE BSRP

Soviet philately
BSRP meeting 2nd March 2002. 

By Marcus Sherwood-Jenkins

The year 2002 and the new meeting format got off to a cracking start on March 2nd at The Union Jack Club in London. Members began arriving shortly before eleven o'clock and had ample time to peruse the bourse before the commencement of the displays at around twelve. The meetings theme of Soviet Philately managed to bring a few more members out of the woodwork with some first class material that they had originally thought "not suitable for display". The wonderful array of material really put paid to a couple of hoary old myths, firstly that Soviet and Philately are two words that cannot exist in the same sentence and secondly that old fear of the first time exhibitor that his material is not up to scratch. It became increasingly evident as the day wore on that the Soviet Period is one of the last great philatelic wildernesses with vast areas uncharted or at least still labelled "here be dragons!" Our newer exhibitors also pulled some real rabbits from the hat with lively discussions following each display, this was of mutual benefit to all with questions regarding postal markings answered and several exhibits enhanced by snippets of information from other collectors. For those of you unable to make it I have listed below the displays and followed that with a short synopsis of each display picking out a few of the gems.

Display titles: · 

A brief resume of each display follows:

Aspects of Soviet Philately: This display opened with a range of sheets showing the various War Charity issues that were issued by the Soviet government in the 1920's and 30's including a range of covers. This was followed by a selection of Soviet fiscals used on both covers and documents, including a very attractive pair of Bills of exchange each bearing a range of the "fisherman and farmer" type fiscals of the 30's. Next was a small section of items relating to the Great Patriotic War, of particular note here was the cover returned as "undeliverable - unit in encirclement". The postmarks indicated that the letter was posted and returned during the battle for the Kursk salient. This included the largest tank battle in history which took place near the village of Prokorovka. A photograph followed of a tank crew beside their KV1 heavy tank, no caption was needed here the eyes and faces of the tank crew spoke volumes. The post war era began with a memo from Nikita Kruschev together with a real photograph showing both Krushchev and Kennedy at the Vienna summit in 1961. The 60's also saw a couple of ingenious attempts at postal fraud using fiscal and sporting association labels - one worked (sports association) the other did not. And finally the display ended with a range of letters from prominent Soviets and an example of late usage of Soviet postal stationery in the 1990's.

Soviet Postmarks and Postcards: John Attwood kicked of his first society display with an interesting assembly of postmarks showing the progression from old Imperial marks through a massive range of 1930's variations and ultimately to the familiar late 1970's Soviet datestamps. The display was enhanced further by a collection of bi-lingual postmarks showing languages as diverse as Finnish, Tatar, Uzbek and Georgian. ( How John knows which is which remains a mystery, but full marks for diligence). We were then shown a range of Russian art cards and propaganda envelopes promoting everything from the national lottery to holidays and tractors. These items are a real up and coming area and as John pointed out, there were a vast range of such items produced but some in very limited print runs, so snap them up while you can. The final part of Johns display was another of those forgotten corners of Soviet Philately - the meter mark. He showed a range of these starting with the 1920's (these are very scarce) and finishing with the birth of the Russian Federation.

Soviet St.Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad registration marks Yet another unexplored field and what a range of flowers growing there! George introduced his display as a challenge that someone should follow the recently published Baillie/Peel book on Imperial St.Petersburg and give the same treatment to the Soviet period. Challenge is exactly the right word, the range of registration marks is absolutely staggering and as George pointed out, he had simply selected the more obviously different labels and stampings. As if registration labels were not sufficient his display also gave us a goodly range of express letter, air letter, spravka's etc. Around 70 sheets of material and not a label duplicated. Anyone like to take up the challenge and write the book?

Soviet Military mail: John Brigden treated us to a veritable feast of military mail spanning the whole of the Soviet period, having at first been reluctant to show, explaining that he wished simply to get advice on mounting and displaying better. It did not take long however to realise what a treasure trove he had bought along and for the rest of us to persuade him to put his sheets up. John's method of collecting is novel and a wonderful example of "Social Philately" each item of Russian military mail had a counterpart from the other side in the conflict. This approach gave a really rounded display and some fascinating stories. Items shown included Great Patriotic War material from Russian, German, Italian and Romanian soldiers together with a lovely item of "Partisan Mail" to a radio operator working behind enemy lines in the Orel region. This was complimented with occupation issues; both German occupation of Russia and Russian occupation of Germany. There was a whole section on the Russo-Finnish war which had amongst it a delightful card from an evacuee child to his parents still at the front. Other poignant exhibits included a patriotic card illustrating the sacrifice of Captain Nikolai Gastello. Only four days after the invasion Gastello, his aircraft had been hit and was aflame. He dived his blazing bomber into a column of German tanks and cars destroying many of them. Another was the letter of a German lady writing to her husband of her concern for his safety after having heard that their neighbours husband had just been killed. The letter was returned marked "Zuruck" (undeliverable) - her husband was with Paulus's 6th army at Stalingrad. John's treasures then continued with a selection of covers from the Korean war - the mail of "volunteer" pilots sent home to Moscow.

The postal history of Touva; This was a fascinating showing by Glyn Williams during which I learnt more about Touvan postal history than I have in the last 15 years. Glyn's display was both colourful, informative and very good philately. The show started with some of the philatelically produced covers that were prepared in Moscow, followed with a very nice genuinely used example. The difference can easily be spotted by looking at the transit times between sending and receipt, the Moscow covers took around 14 days to reach their western destination whilst those sent from Touva took around 25 days. After this was a delightful commercial cover addressed to the very man responsible for all those "Woolworths special packets that we used to buy as children and finally some more covers culminating in an internally used cover with both sender and recipient being inside Touva. (Not many of those to the pound!!!)

All in all a great day was had by all but before I close the report I would just like ask you to stop and think for a moment and consider the following fact:

We viewed: Soviet cinderellas, trade union stamps, fiscals, registration marks, meter marks, military marks, propaganda covers and postcards virtually none of which are documented in a way accessible to collectors, especially collectors in the West. The last great philatelic wilderness awaits you and "There be Gold in them thar hills". Happy prospecting.

© 2002 the BSRP