Russia, RSFSR Inflation covers

Click on Image to Magnify

Inflation covers are popular with collectors and would be more popular if there was not one problem: a large proportion of inflation covers are not complete. At some point, a dealer or collector has decided to remove a stamp - just one - or maybe a block of four needed for an album page. Sometimes it is not immediately obvious from where the stamps / s have been removed.

So buying inflation covers is a time-consuming business; you have to check each one.

The cover above is complete. It was Registered from VOLOCHISK ZHEL DOR P. O. - Volochisk Railway Post Office and addressed to Dr Brender in Berlin. There is a Berlin 47 receiver cancel for 20 11 22 - you can see it towards the top of the image in the middle. The Volochisk cancels are weakly struck and even though there are about 300 of them, I hesitate to identify the day in November when this letter was sent.

It is franked correctly at 300 roubles, the Foreign Registered tariff introduced on 3 November 1922. 

The franking is provided by six complete sheets of 1 rouble imperforate Imperial Arms stamps, each sheet comprising 50 stamps.

I suspect the addition of all these stamps to the envelope would have actually taken the letter into the second or third weight step and I sometimes wonder if there were clerks who tried then to charge additional weight step postage for the postage stamps they had stuck on the envelope and so on ad infinitum.

The cover above nicely illustrates just how disruptive inflation could be at the post office counter when not matched by appropriate stamp supplies. Three hundred stamps are used up here, each sheet laboriously attached to the envelope and each stamp separately cancelled. In addition, there must have been temptation at times for postal workers to steal such exotic looking covers in transit.

Somewhere someone must have recorded what is believed to be the largest number of adhesives attached to a single RSFSR cover of the 1917 - 23 period. Can anyone tell us what it is?

RSFSR: Two Interesting Covers from 1922

Click on Image to Magnify

Click on Image to Magnify

We think of the Bolsheviks as specialist in propaganda, extensively using methods old and new, before and especially after the revolution. Everyone has heard of Agitprop and knows about the posters, the films and even the Agit trains.

But as far as the postal system was concerned, the Bolsheviks took several years to even begin to use postage stamps, postal cancellations and postal stationery illustrations for purposes of propaganda. For all practical purposes, post - 1917 Revolution mail looks just like Imperial mail, except dirtier. Aside from the Kerensky Chainbreakers and stationery cards used by the Bolsheviks - and some censorship marks - there is nothing to signal the change of regime until the Arts and Industry stamps appeared in the Autumn of 1921 - and even then not in sufficient quantities for the change to be sustained.

Take a look at these covers from 1922. At the top, an ordinary letter to Finland sent from the Nicholas Station in Petrograd on 14 October 1922 - still with that name and still using the oval Imperial cancellation. On the front, only the Soviet Three Triangle censor mark marks this as a distinctively Bolshevik item.

The effects of the censorship can be seen on the back, at the right side of the cover. The recipient opened it with scissors, slightly reducing it. But the censors had already been inside, through the triangular flap, damaging the stamps and the tissue paper lining of the envelope. The two Petrograd 1st Exspeditsia cancellations dated 16 10 22 are transit marks applied after the censor's work had been done, though it looks a bit as if they were applied on the right side to cover up the mess left by the censor.

The cover is franked as an ordinary foreign letter, correctly, at 75 roubles. This is interesting in relation to the date it was sent: 14 October is the first day of the new Tariff schedule - or rather, of a Tariff schedule for which Alexander Epstein notes two possible dates of introduction (14 and 18 October): see his article on Foreign Mail tariffs in Zeitschrift für Klassische Russland-Philatelie 2 (1998)

Last but not least, the stamps are scarce ones. They are perforated 12.5 not the regular 13.5. These stamps are from a post - 1917 printing: Michel dates the printing to 1918 and catalogues the stamp at 30 €uro in used condition (Michel 80 C x b II - I think that is what you call a really Unhelpful Numbering System).

___________

Now the second cover. This is addressed to Czecholovakia and also starts out from the Nicholas Station in Petrograd but a few months later on  6 10 22 - oval cancellation on the top. The Three Triangle Bolshevik censor mark is at the bottom of the cover dated 9 10 22. But this is a Registered cover, and to indicate that the clerk ahs reached back to pre-1914 times and come up with an R-label inscribed "S. - PETERSBOURG. / gare Nicolas." This use in 1922 of a reminder of the Imperial past is known from other covers - it is hard to find but not impossible. It shows the Bolsheviks as enthusiasts for recycling.

On the back we again have a block of 10 of the 7 rouble stamps, but this time with the regular perforation 13. 5. There are transits of the both the 1st and 6th Exspeditsia post offices in Petrograd. I think the censor got in to the envelope at the base, using the flaps on either side of the 5 kopeck stamps. These have been revalued x 100 to make 5 rouble stamps (Revaluation of March 1920) and the total franking of 90 roubles is correct for a Foreign Registered letter according to the Tariff of 17 6 1922. 

It looks as if the letter was received and opened normally, but there are no receiver cancellations. The only unexplained mark is what looks like a pencilled "6" right in the middle of the front of the envelope.

Russian Brides

Click on Image to Magnify

I guess this Blog post is going to get a lot of hits ...

The card above is of interest in at least four ways.

For the Russian Tariff collector, it's a nice example of the RSFSR's  27 rouble foreign postcard rate, in force from June to October 1922, and paid for here by a combination of kopeck stamps revalued x 100 together with three one rouble stamps used at face value. So 5 + 5 + 14 + 1 + 1 + 1  = 27 . But the Tariff is not a particularly scarce one and on its own makes the card worth maybe 30 €

For the Russian Censorship collector, there is a Petrograd Three Triangle civilian censor in the middle of the card. But it's upside down and only a part strike, so you wouldn't choose it if you had the choice of a better one.

For the Russian Stamp collector, this is really interesting (and I didn't at first see it). Look at the one rouble stamps on an enlarged image. They are perforated well off-centre. More importantly, they are examples of the scarce post - revolutionary perforation 12.5 which all catalogues give a big premium on. I hate measuring perforations and rarely do but I have checked these all round and, yes, they are 12.5. Pity about the brown toning at the top. That said, I have absolutely no idea what this card is worth as an example of that perforation used on a regular item of mail. But examples must be scarce if the catalogues are right about the basic stamp.

For the social historian - and this is what I first noticed - the interest is in the addressee, Mrs L F Mead. She was the wife of Lieutenant Leonard Frank Mead (b 1898) who served with the Royal Flying Corps and then with the Royal Air Force in British-Occupied Batum. His letters home are well-known to collectors of British Batum. 

He also visited Tiflis and it was probably there that he met Nadia Archangelsky who became Mrs L F Mead. [See now the Postscript] The card is from her family who had by 1922 moved to Petrograd.

Click on Image to Magnify

Postscript added 25 November 2015: Here is an envelope sent within Tiflis by Leonard Mead (his initials bottom left) to Mlle. Archangelsky; the billet doux is no longer inside the envelope:

Added 22 March 2016: And here is a card from TIFLIS VOKSAL 13 12 24 addressed to the same Nadia Archangelsky but now Mrs Mead living in Reading, England. That the card was underfranked was noted in Tiflis and Postage Due was raised by London's Foreign Section:

Russia 1917: the transition from the Provisional Government to Soviet power

In the Soviet Union, the anniversary of the (Bolshevik) Russian Revolution was celebrated on 7 November, the New Style equivalent of 25 October. The Russian calendar was changed (by the Bolsheviks only) in 1918, when the calendar jumps from 31 January to 14 February. Before that, all Russian mail (but not Finnish mail) is cancelled with Old Style dates.

It might seem that the 25 October is the first day of Soviet mail. However, as I understand it, the Second Congress of Soviets meeting in Petrograd did not vote to depose the Provisional Government until late in the evening of the 25th. So mail cancelled on the 25th is still Provisional Government mail. Only on the 26 October did the Soviet mail period begin - and then perhaps only in Petrograd.

It was, however, not until the 27 October that a Decree was issued subordinating the Department of Posts and Telegraphs to the authority of the Council of People's Commissars and the first Commissar of Posts and Telegraphs, Nikolai Glebov-Avilov.

The Bolsheviks did not at any point close the post offices, before or after the coup of 25th October, and it should be possible to find mail from Petrograd cancelled right through the immediate revolutionary period (say, Tuesday 24 October - Thursday 2 November: the Ten Days Which Shook the World, to take the title of John Reed's famous book). At the moment I have examples of mail posted in Petrograd on 24,25,26,30 October and 1 November (and then after that 3,4,5,6 November).

I would welcome Comments on the accuracy of my views.

Darling, I think someone is opening our mail ...

Click on Images to Magnify

It doesn't get more clumsy than this. In World War One, Imperial Russian mail censorship was extensive and acknowledged - when letters were opened they were re-sealed with official wax seals or paper strips. In Bolshevik Russia, the censorship of mail was never acknowledged but is usually indicated in some way, notably in the 1918 - 23 period by what are called "Three Triangle" cancellations. There are a large number of these in use in the early Soviet period.

The letter above was posted (as a registered letter) from OMSK VOKSAL 18 4 21 using a hand-made envelope. It is addressed to Sevastopol and there is a receiver cancel SEVASTOPOL ... "2" , 12 5 21 which is repeated with the date 14 5 21. But there is also a Sevastopol Three Triangle censor cancellation, smaller in size than the regular postmarks, which seems to be dated 11 5 21 - quite often the date will fall after the date shown on the regular arrival cancellation but in this case not.

There are various registry marks in manuscript. 

In May - June 1921, Omsk was still a city quite recently captured by Red forces. Sevastopol was even more recently taken by the Reds - it was from the Crimea that the remaining White forces of General Wrangel evacuated at the end of 1920. The letter is an obvious candidate for a censor's interest. 

Added February 2020: Most of my Ukraine-related Blog posts are now available in full colour book form. To find out more follow the link:

http://www.armeniazemstvo.com/2020/02/just-published-trevor-pateman.html

Russia: Foreign Mail Tariffs in 1920 - 1921

From 30 September 1920, all mail sent from Bolshevik Russia to foreign destinations had to be franked - the Free Post for foreign mail was abolished. Letters were charged at 5 roubles for an ordinary letter and 10 roubles for Registered. This Tariff persisted into 1921 and was not formally changed until 25 August 1921 when a new Tariff of 1000 roubles for ordinary letters and 2000 roubles for Registered mail was introduced. I am using here data from Alexander Epstein's publications.

But as is so often the case, the old Tariff was remarkably persistent. Here are three registered letters from Petrograd in August 1921, one before the Tariff change (10th), one on the day of the change (25th) and one a few days later (30th). You would expect post offices in Petrograd to know what they were supposed to be doing, and even if the stamps on the second and third letters have been silently revalued  x 100, they are still franked at the old rather than the new rate:

Click on Images to Magnify

The next two examples of 10 rouble mail from earlier in the year (April and May) helpfully show how Registered mail was routed through Berlin. The April cover from Tambov to France has picked up a Registration label in Berlin and the May cover Syzran to the USA has got a violet Berlin Auslandstelle cachet - upside down at the bottom of the cover - which (I think) says that it has been received from abroad as registered mail:

Click on Images to Magnify

I would also like to make a study of postcards abroad in 1920 - 1921 but I don't have very many. So if you have any for sale, let me know at trevor@trevorpateman.co.uk

21 August 2014: Alexander Epstein comments:  I have studied this matter of RSFSR foreign rates in 1920 - 21 in detail and collected a lot of information concerning the existing covers. I described my conclusions in an article in Deutsche Zeitschrift für Russische Philatelie #94. You can also find it  in English at:  http://www.arge-russland.de/1634328.htm. Since then I have continued to expand the data base. I published an updated version of this article in Russian (Journal RUS).  The matter was very complicated in 1921 on the local level. I would like to add also that there was  official permission from the Central Postal Administration to use the old 1921 tariffs (instead of those of 25 August) till October (!) while post offices were waiting for the delivery of the new Arts and Industry stamps. 

The Igor Gorski Collection of the RSFSR

Like many of this Blog's readers, I just received the catalogue for the sale of the Igor Gorski collection coming up at Cherrystone Auctions in New York on 20 February 2014. If you don't get the catalogue, just go to www.cherrystoneauctions.com to see it all.

It's a spectacular collection with many rare and attractive archival items with price tags to match.

But it struck me that until you get to the last Lot (338) where an unbroken postal history collection of 224 covers and cards is on offer, it's mainly about stamps, including their essays and proofs.

Particularly for the period 1917 to end of 1920 or even 1921, the gap between what was passing through the postal service and what was being projected in Moscow is enormous. Most of the designs submitted to the authorities in Moscow - and present in this collection - came to nothing.

It's not really until the second half of 1921 that mail going through the regular post begins to suggest the ideology or the aspirations of the new Bolshevik order. Until then, the order of the day was Improvisation using Imperial Arms adhesives to serve the postal needs of a much-reduced postal system. Remember, for example, that Bolshevik Russia had no publicly-available facilities for sending mail abroad from the beginning of 1919 until the middle of 1920 - and even then, foreign mail services got off to a slow start.

As for philately in this period, the typical philatelic covers illustrated from the Gorski collection have an amateurish appearance. I think there are three reasons. First, the initial hostility of the Bolshevik regime to philately (stamp collecting = speculation) discouraged any boldness. Second, no one had any money anyway. Third, many of the old collectors from the middle and upper classes had emigrated or, like everyone else, had no money to spend on their old hobby. The result is some pretty disappointing stuff. The non-philatelic parcel cards and money transfer forms which you can see in the Gorski collection for 1921- 22 look much more attractive to me.

RSFSR /Sovdepia, Ordinary [Einfach] mail abroad 1920 - 1921

In his article on RSFSR Mail Abroad, detailed in my previous Blog, Alexander Epstein inventories 129 Registered letters going abroad in 1920 and until end of August 1921. But he is only able to inventory 13 ordinary (Einfach, non-Registered) letters - so that these make up just 9% of all letters inventoried.

I can only illustrate two. The first is an extraordinary item posted on the Ryazhsk 61 Vyazma TPO on 24 10 20 and addressed to Belgium ( a country which does not appear at all in Epstein's 142 item inventory!). It is franked at the officially correct 5 rouble rate for an ordinary foreign letter, using an imperforate 5 kopeck revalued x 100. Censored in Moscow 27 10 20 ( and opened through the back flap), this letter received a BRUXELLES - BRUSSELS reciever cancel on 8 XII 20.

If Soviet postal history was taken seriously, this cover - October 1920! TPO! Belgium! Ordinary letter! - would be a 1000 dollar / euro / pound item though minus whatever discount is due for the idiot Biro marking, bottom right of the cover front.

The second cover, from the end of the period when 5 roubles is the generally correct franking, was posted in VETLITSKOE SMOL[ensk] on 1 7 21, though the date has slipped to August. A Transit from another town in Smolensk guberniya is dated 2 7 21, the Moscow roller cancel 5 7 21, and the inevitable three triangle Censor 21 8 21 - clearly they were busy and this letter has been opened through the back flap. It is also roughly opened on one side, suggesting that it did indeed arrive in Switzerland, a country which accounts for 9 items in Epstein's 142 item inventory. The 5 rouble Tariff is paid for with a 1 kopeck imperforate and pair of 2 kopeck perforate stamps, revalued x 100. The sender did plan to send this letter as a registered letter - you can see Zakaznoe crossed out top right on the front of the cover. Fortunately for postal history, the sender changed their mind... :

Recycling in the RSFSR

Click on Images to Magnify

Here is a March 1923 commercial registered cover from Petrograd to Berlin, the stamps cancelled with an oval railway station  PETROGRAD NIKOL. VOKS. 3 3 23. But the Registration label - in French, for foreign mail - is  pre-First World War, reading S.PETERSBOURG gare Nicolas.

I have seen this before - but possibly it was this cover that I saw. It shows - if you like - how relaxed Soviet authorities were about using up old Imperial paper stocks.

The cover is correctly franked to 10 roubles in 1923 new currency (each stamp revalued to 1% of its former value) or 10 000 000 roubles in the immediately preceding currency period - it is probably some "collector"  who has written the "10,000,000 Rubel" at the bottom of the cover back, underlining it twice in case we miss the point.

The real challenge is to find a 1924 cover which manages to have postal markings or labels showing all three possibilities: St Petersburg, Petrograd and the new Leningrad ...

Improvisation and Recycling after the Russian Revolution

Between 1914 and 1923 industrial  and agricultural production in Russia was devastated by the effects of war and civil war. Only after the introduction of Lenin's New Economic Policy in 1921 did some modest revival begin - but from a very low base. 

So though Soviet authorities might have liked to create a completely new image for their postal services, for the most part they had to make do with what they inherited. They had to improvise and they had to recycle - and, in fact, were quite good at it. 

These letters of 1922 and 1923 were sent from Bershad and Snitkov in Podolia / Podillia, Ukraine to Dr Brender's Aid Committee in Berlin. On both, the old Imperial cancellers continue to be used. And because supplies of international R labels had run out, the post offices found something else to take their place.

In this case, both offices are using labels which would have been used on Imperial period Bulletins d'Expedition accompanying parcels going abroad.  So they give the town names in Roman. And conveniently they have a space for numbering. You can be pretty sure that very few parcels were going abroad at this time - the parcels were coming the other way in response to letters (like these) requesting assistance.

Problem solved. A nice collection can be made of the various ways in which between 1917 and the mid 1920s (or even later), improvised solutions were found to problems at the post office counter. Of course, the  principal improvisation was the continued use of Imperial stamps, which lasted until 1923. Imperial cancellations also continued in use and for longer - until 1925 or even later. This makes the pace of Sovietisation slower than the pace of Nationalisation in newly independent countries like Finland or Latvia which had emerged from the break-up of Imperial Russia and which replaced stamps, cancellers and labels much faster than did Russia.

Added 6th January 2013

From Greece, Vasilis Opsimos sends me these scans of two more interesting examples of improvised R-labels, the first from Livny, Orlov shows later use (1925) than I showed  and the second is from the same 1923 Podolia family as I illustrate at the top of this Blog:

Added 7th January 2013

In response to Dr Ivo's Comments, I now illustrate examples of two more types of Provisional label. On the January 1922 letter from Ekaterinodar to Berlin, the Registration label is improvised from a type of label used on Imperial period Inland Money Transfer Forms and Parcel Cards - so it is in Cyrillic rather than Roman type. Note also the EKATERINODAR EXSPED 22 1 22 three triangle censor mark - newly manufactured. The Imperial period Ekaterinodar cancel is directly below it and in poor condition.

I also show a March 1922 cover from Kiev to Berlin. Here the Registration label is improvised from a type of label used on Imperial Inland Cash on Delivery letters, so again it is in Cyrillic even though the letter is going abroad. Once again, there is a Three Triangle censor (this one KIEV ...).

Both labels have the advantage that they are pre-numbered so adapted to use as Registration labels

RSFSR Mail in the Free Post period 1919 - 21

Anyone who collects Russian postal history will have come across postcards and maybe covers from the Free Post period in the RSFSR. For unregistered ordinary inland postcards and letters (first weight step) the period lasted from 1st January 1919 until 15 August 1921. For mail abroad, Free Post was also available from 1st January 1919 but only until 30 September 1920.

However, the RSFSR had no regular mail connections to foreign countries from the beginning of 1919 until late June 1920. None. Extraordinary but true. When mail services were resumed, mail was first of all routed via the Arctic Circle Norwegian port of Värdo, which involved mail being sent up from Moscow to Archangel or Murmansk. Fortunately, agreement was soon reached on a route through Estonia.

These dates imply that there was a three month period (end June - end September 1920) in which people living in the RSFSR could - in reality and not just in theory - send mail abroad for free. I show an example above.

This letter started out in UNDOL VLAD[imir] G[uberniya]  25 .. 20. The month date is not clear on the beaten-up canceller but is almost certainly June because the Moscow three triangle censor mark reads MOSKVA EXSPEDITSIA 22 7 20. Addressed to a doctor, Herman Schumacher, in independent Lithuania ("Litva" in the first line of the address - but helpfully followed by "Kovno guberniya")  it did indeed arrive there, as shown by the new style Lithuanian canceller on the reverse ANYKSCIAI 13 IX 1920. 

There are some remarks written in Lithuanian on the reverse. Can one of my readers translate them I wonder?

Acknowledgement

I used Alexander Epstein's article on RSFSR Foreign Mail Tariffs (Journal of Classical Russian Philately, #2, 1998) to write this Blog post.

Russia RSFSR 1917 - 1923 Provisional Cancellations

One can guess that provisional cancels come into use during the Civil War period for several reasons:

- the old canceller got destroyed in fighting
- the last lot of people to control the post office took the canceller with them when they left
- the old canceller just broke and could not be repaired
- the post office became very busy so there were not enough cancellers for every clerk
- a new post office was waiting for its canceller

Provisional cancellations can be frustrating, just like dumb [mute] cancels, when it is not possible to identify where they came from.

I illustrate three items.

The fragment of Insured Prarcel Card with 10 kopeck stamps is from LUDONSKOE PETROGRAD probably in 1920 or 1921 with the 10 kopeck stamps revalued x 100. A Soviet seal with hammer and sickle provides the cancellation.

The Imperial seal in black with posthorns and thunderbolts, used to cancel 10 rouble stamps, can be identified as from ..ATOKA in Kostroma Guberniya, but I cannot work out the first letter: nor can I find it by trying all the likely letters in Gary Combs' post office list.The item is part of a Money Transfer Form used as a Parcel Card. On the back there is a PETGROGRAD 19 3 21 receiver.

The final item has 10 rouble stamps cancelled with an improvised grill, a bit like those you see on Post Office Savings Bank cards. It's dated 15 X 1920 and has part of a PETROGRAD receiver on the reverse. The cachet at bottom looks like it is inscribed PETR GUB and the place name commences RO .. but I cannot complete it. ROMANOVKA would be a guess.

A nice little collection could be made of such items, though they are not very common.