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.

What Can We Learn from Philatelic Covers?

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They are horrible aren't they? Petrograd March 1918. People are cold, hungry and in some cases frightened. But philately goes on. This collector has sent himself - his name and address is also on the back - these ugly, messy but quite expensive covers. What did he think he was doing?

He has picked four kinds of stamp to decorate the envelopes - and probably he sent himself more.

First, a regular Romanov 1 kopeck

Second, currency stamps - 3, 10, 15 and 20 kopeck denominations

Third, imperforate Arms stamps in the denominations of 1,2,3,5,15 kopecks and 1 rouble. All except two of these are marginal copies, so the collector probably realised that this helps guarantee a stamp as a genuine imperforate. The two exceptions are 3 kopeck stamps in a darker shade of red

Fourth, varieties on the 10 kopeck perforated Arms stamp: there are two examples of misperforations and two examples of offsets [ Abklatsch], the stamps being stuck to the cover face down so that you can see the offset.

Foolishly, the collector has put the stamps very close together and even overlapping so it's not possible to remove stamps one by one by cutting them out - something you could do when you realised the covers are a disaster. A couple of stamps have in fact been peeled off one cover.

What do we learn?

First, that Petrograd 4 post office did not tell the sender to Go Away and make a more useful contribution to the Revolution. Nope, the post office took the covers and cancelled them

Second, that these covers show what this [ordinary ?] collector could obtain and what he thought more important to have used on cover than as mint stamps. The choice of Currency Stamps is easy to understand; the regular imperforates less so since the values shown here were freely available.

Third, this collector did NOT have the following imperforates: 4, 10,20,25,35, 50,70 kopeck [ ignore the higher values as too expensive for him ]. Now this is really interesting because these are values which either cannot be found AT ALL in Petrograd at this period [ say March 1917 - March 1918 ] or which are rarities used in Petrograd. I checked my own collection: I have one loose 4 kopeck cancelled PETROGRAD  30 3 18 and a block of 70 kopeck cancelled PETROGRAD 11 6 19. That's it for the values missing from these philatelic covers.

So my guess is that these imperforate values (except perhaps for the 4 kopeck) had not been distributed to Petrograd post offices at this time ( March 1917 - March 1918), or not distributed in significant quantities.  And they were perhaps available to some philatelists with privileged access since at least some of the values I have listed had been printed in Petrograd in the period in question.

The One Kopeck Tariff in Russia, Imperial and Soviet

Imperial Russia had a One Kopeck tariff from 1866 to 1917. The items of mail which qualified for this concessionary tariff varied throughout the period, but still it should be possible to find every variety of Imperial one kopeck stamp used as a single franking. This includes the 1 kopeck imperforate of 1917 (I have one example). Below I illustrate an early item from the well-known Gunzburg correspondence. This is a single sheet of printed matter sent in June 1869 from St Petersburg to Vilnius, franked with a 1 kopeck on horizontally laid paper. I show both sides of the lettersheet (Click on Images to enlarge them) :

Perhaps more surprising, a 1 kopeck tariff was re-introduced in the early Soviet Union. I have only a few examples and illustrate them below. The first from October 1923 is a printed item sent locally in Petrograd franked with an imperforate Worker stamp. The second item is an unsealed envelope containing Printed Matter (PECHATNOE) sent locally within Leningrad in 1925 and franked with a perforated Worker stamp. You can see that it was unsealed, with the flap tucked into the envelope, because the roller cancel on the back does not run all the way across the flap. The final item is a single printed sheet sent locally in Leningrad in 1929 and franked with a large Head Worker definitive. The printed text would make it a nice item for a Pushkin collector

Whereas auctions are full of high-value frankings you will very rarely see 1 kopeck frankings in auction. But some of them are much scarcer than the 30 or 40 or 50 kopeck frankings. You will have to look for the 1 kopecks in dealers' boxes ...

Recycling in the RSFSR

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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 ...

Censorship at the Finland Station, Petrograd, August 1917

Here is letter which  puzzled me - until I looked at it more closely. Now I think I may have an explanation.

On the front, the letter is addressed to London.There is a 20 kopeck stamp with a violet seal cancellation. 

On the back, there is a large "Examined" label applied at the Finland Station in Petrograd and dated 12 VIII 17, so during the period of the Provisional Government. In the bottom left corner is the same violet seal.

The label and the seal are designed for use in the Examination of Passenger Baggage - in the centre of the violet seal it says simply "Passenger Baggage".

So someone leaving Russia from the Finland Station had their luggage examined and this letter was found and opened (there is a large wax seal under the label). A comment was added on the left of the label which I read as "Commercial correspondence"

But what about the stamp? One possibility is that the traveller had prepared this letter for sending, put on a 20 kopeck stamp [ Correct for a Registered letter to London], but did not have time to get to the Post Office - so decided to carry the letter instead. The Censor simply decided to cancel the stamp.

Alternatively, this letter was unstamped and the traveller was its Courier. The Censor may have decided that this was an attempt to evade either censorship or the postal service and insisted that a 20 kopeck stamp be affixed and paid for and cancelled....

Any other suggestions? Whatever the truth, this is certainly a most unusual item!