Russia

Russian classic stamps were issued under three different political entities:

• the Russian Empire, up to 1917
• the confused period of the Russian Civil War, from 1917-1922
• the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Cyrillic "CCCP"), from 1922

The first issue was a 10-kopeck imperforate stamp depicting the coat of arms of Russia, and printed using typography in brown and blue in the state printing works at St Petersburg.

The first issue of 1 January 1858 was imperforate. This was followed on 10 January by 20-kopeck and 30-kopeck perforated stamps using the same design but in different pairs of colors, along with a perforated version of the 10-kopeck stamp. The paper was originally watermarked with the numeral, but this was soon abandoned, and later printings in 1858 are on regular wove paper.

8 kopecks, 1875.
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A 5k stamp for local postage was introduced in 1863, and in the following year a new common design, with the arms in an oval, was introduced for 1k, 3k, and 5k values. After 1866 the stamps were printed on laid paper watermarked with a pattern of wavy lines and "EZGB" in Cyrillic.

In 1865 the first Zemstvo, or local stamps, were issued.

Russian POs were opened in Peking, Kalgan, Tientsin and Urga in 1870, and at Shanghai and Chefoo in 1897. Stamps of Russia were used until special overprinted issues appeared in 1899.

 

The coat of arms design was changed in 1875, and used for 2k and 8k values, and a 7k in 1879. The 7k was also printed on revenue stamp paper watermarked with a hexagon pattern; these are quite rare.

7 kopecks, 1883, used in 1889
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A new issue of 14 December 1883 featured an updated design, lower values printed in a single color, and new high values - 14k, 35k, and 70k. January 1884 saw the introduction of 3.50-ruble and 7-ruble stamps, physically much larger than existing stamps.

In 1889 the designs were changed again, this time to introduce thunderbolts across the posthorns underneath the double-headed eagle, and in printings after 1902 the usual grain of the paper was changed to be vertical.

In 1900 the Russians occupied Manchuria and held the area until 1907, when they were forced to give up the region after their defeat by the Japanese. Russian field and civilian POs were established and used either Russian or Russian 'China' stamps.

Orphans Issue (1904)

At the end of 1904 Russia issued its first semi-postal stamps. A set of four denominations was sold at 3 kopecs per stamp in excess of the face-value, this extra sum going to the fund organised by the Imperial Women's Patriotic Union for the benefit of orphans of soldiers and sailors who fell in the war with Japan. The following are the descriptions of the stamps which were printed by the Imperial Printing Office at St. Petersburg in the delicate colour work for which that establishment is justly celebrated; the figure in brackets denotes the price, in kopecs, charged for each, including the 3 kopecs charity contribution.

The stamps appear to have been designed by Richard Sarring, an artist attached to the great printing works of the Russian Government. The subjects represented are—

3	kopecs.	Monument of Admiral Nachimoff at Sebastopol, a hero who was wounded in the Crimean War.
5	"	Monument to two national heroes of the Tartar dominion, Minin and Pascharski.
7	"	Statue of Peter the Great.
10	"	The Kremlin, with statue of Alexander II in the foreground.

1909 Issue

In 1909 a new series came out, using a mix of old and new designs, all printed on unwatermarked wove paper, and with lozenges on the face to discourage postage stamp reuse.

The Romanov Issue (1913)

Russia's first series of commemorative stamps appeared 2 January 1913 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. The 17 stamps featured portraits of the various Tsars, as well as views of the Kremlin, Winter Palace, and Romanov Castle.

(For more on the celebrations see here.)

The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty of Russia, which ruled the country for five generations from 1613 to 1761. The six crowned representatives of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov line include: Paul (1796-1801), Alexander I (1801-1826), Nicholas I (1826-56), Alexander II (1856-81), Alexander III (1881-94), and Nicholas II (1894-1917), last Emperor of Russia. The February Revolution of 1917 dethroned Nicholas II and on July 17, 1918, Bolshevik authorities shot him and his immediate family.

The portraits of the Tsars never appeared on the stamps of Russia until 1913, when a very fine portrait and view series of stamps were issued - they are full of reminiscence of the three centuries of the stirring history of the Romanovs.

The set includes:

• a picture of Peter the Great, after a portrait by the Dutch painter De Moor, on the 1 kopec stamp
• another portrait of Peter on the 4 kopecs stamp, this one being copied from an engraving of the picture painted by Kneller to the order of King William III., and now at Hampton Court
• Czar Alexander II figures on the green 2 kopecs stamp
• Alexander III.is portrayed on the 3 kopecs
• Nicholas II, appears on the 7 kopecs brown, the 10 kopecs blue, and the highest value in the set, viz., the 5 roubles (1 rouble = 2s. 1½d.)
• a portrait of Catherine II, after the painter Skorodoñmow on the 14 kopecs green
• another of Elizabeth II, after Tchemesow, on the 50 kopecs brown
• the other Czars depicted are Nicholas I (15 kopecs), Alexander I (20 kopecs), Alexei Michaelovitch (25 kopecs), Paul I (35 kopecs),
• last, but actually the first and founder of the dynasty, Michael Feodorowitch (70 kopecs).

On three of the rouble values are views which include The Kremlin at Moscow (1 rouble), the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg (2 roubles), and the Romanof House (3 roubles).

180     181     182

War Stamps (1914-15)

Paradoxically, the most beautiful Russian classic stamps were issued as the Czarist rule was crumbling under defeat by Germany and the Russian Revolution.

Following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo, the Russians were quick to support Serbia against Austria and were soon embroiled with German and Austrian armies along the whole front. The defeat of the Russians at Tannenberg allowed Germany to occupy vast areas along the Baltic. German stamps overprinted for use in these areas were issued in 1916.

Stamps as Currency (1915-1916)



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In 1915 and 1916, as the government disintegrated under the pressures of World War I, several of the designs were printed on card stock and used as paper money. 7k and 14k stamps were also surcharged 10k and 20k due to shortages.
The Russian military machine, which depended on a repressive bureaucracy to administer its needs, began to collapse in 1915-16. The minor revolts in the early part of the century had already weakened the Tsar's hold and, following a bloodless coup in March 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated.A Provisional Government led by Kerensky was formed, but although new stamps were prepared they were never issued as the Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. The capital was moved to Moscow, and the government became the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic. Stamps were issued by the new government in January 1918, but no real mail service could operate during the civil war which ensued.

  

Revolution

35k "Sword Breaking Chain", 1918

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During the Russian Revolution, the postal services were disrupted; so much so that a number of factions and breakaway republics issued their own postage with propaganda themes. A few genuine uses have been recorded.

In 1917, the Provisional Government reprinted the old Tsarist designs but sold them imperforate. The first stamps of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (RSFSR) appeared in 1918 with the design of a ‘sword cutting a chain’.



250-ruble stamp of 1921,

surcharged to 7,500 rubles in 1922

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In 1921, another series of postage stamps appeared with values from 1 to 1,000 rubles. But their release occured after the effect of the inflation to the economy. This forced their revaluation in 1922 with surcharges up to 100,000 rubles.

20r surcharge on 15k stamp

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The currency reform of 1922 (10,000-to-1 rate) allowed Tsarist stamps to be surcharged with a five-pinted star containing a ‘hammer and sickle’. Also, stamps with portraits of a worker, peasant and soldier came out throughout the 1920s with some variations to these designs.

Includes edited excerpts from The Project Gutenberg e-Book of The Postage Stamp in War, by Fred. J. Melville.

Russian Empire issues of 1857 - 1888 are described in Stamp-Collecting-World.


Sandafayre Russia Map


The Rossica Society of Russian Philately.

Postage stamps of the Far Eastern Republic.


Czarist Stamps in Lithuania