World War One: It Seems That Your Letter Was Delayed ....

This cover is from the Harry von Hofmann collection. It was Registered in Warsaw, the location disguised by the Mute cancel and halved Registration label but given away by the address top left. There is no dated cancel and the contents have been removed but a pencil note bottom right reads "26 7 14". The franking of 20 kopecks is correct for that date.

The cover was routed to Petrograd where it was censored - but also a Return to Sender cachet applied which gives the outbreak of hostilities with Germany as the reason why the letter cannot be forwarded.

Fast forward to March 1918 when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk re-opened the mail connections between Russia and Germany, The mail bag containing letters held in Petrograd since 1914 was opened and the mail finally sent on its way - this one arriving in CÖLN 18 7 18 - though the pencil note gives the date of final delivery as 31 7 18.

Russia in World War One - Prisoners of War

This is another example of Look Inside!

For Russia, First World War Prisoner of War - related correspondence is very common: cards from prisoners,to prisoners, to international organisations involved with prisoners of war. It's possible to build enormous collections at very little cost.

The item illustrated below is relatively unusual. The 1916 Registered letter from WOLMAR [Valmeira] is addressed to the Russian sub-section of an organisation offering help to prisoners of war, based in Neuchâtel. It contains first of all a printed receipt for 3 roubles 60 kop which Madame Birzhall has transferred to the Sub-Section through Crédit Lyonnais in Petrograd. The printed form suggests that many such transfers were being made.

The letter accompanying the receipt,and also written in French, gives the name and address of the Prisoner of War (Jan Birsgal in the Prisoner Camp Heilsberg, Germany) and asks that bread be sent to him twice a week ("je vous prie d'envoyer à mon marie [sic] Jean Birsgal deux pains par semaine". The phrase "deux pains" has been underlined in blue crayon, no doubt in the offices of the sub-section.

It is an entirely reasonable inference that Jan Birsgal is an Officer whose wife is able to write in French and access the appropriate part of Russia's banking system.

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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!