USSR: Stamps and Covers - Printable Version
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USSR: Stamps and Covers - Hugh - 02-10-2025
Kim Philby ... A British intelligence officer and a double agent for the former Soviet Union. In 1963 it was revealed he was a member of the Cambridge Five -- a spy ring during WW2 and in the early years of the Cold War. Philby lived in Moscow until his death in 1988.
He was featured on a stamp issued by the USSR in 1990.
[attachment=407]
Stamp:
USSR - Soviet Agents Series
Kim Philby (1912-1988)
Issued on November 29, 1990
5k
Sc. 5948
RE: USSR: Kim Philby - RICHARD - 08-11-2025
Leningrad To Hamilton July 22 1960 post card ,Winter Palace
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Hugh - 08-11-2025
Here's an interesting cover on postal stationary from the USSR.
[attachment=1040]
According to the single ring CDS, it was posted in СВЕРДЛОВС[K] [SVERDLOVSK]. This is confirmed by the Registration etiquette [Sverdlovsk Tz.] Tz. is the Latin letter equivalent for Ц which is short for central. In other words, it was registered at the Sverdlovisk Central Post Office [Свердловск Ц]. It was posted on December 31, 1933 [311233] and processed during the late evening shift as evidenced by the 0 on the bottom of the CDS.
It was sent by I. Popov [И. Попов], P.O. 161, Sverdlovsk. In 1924, the city of Екатеринбург [Yekaterinburg] was renamed Sverdlovsk to honour Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov shortly after his death. In 1991 the name was restored following a local referendum.
The cover was sent to A. W. Twiner, 187 Gough Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
As for routing, the various postal markings indicate that it was registered and mailed in Sverdlovsk. It would then have travelled by rail to Moscow and forwarded to a European port. From there, it would have gone by steamer (in Winter) to Halifax, by rail to Montreal and on to Toronto. There is a 9am, January 22, 1934 transit mark from Montreal and two strikes of an arrival stamp at Toronto's Registration Division, Terminal A on January 23rd.
Another hand-stamp indicates that it was then forwarded to Toronto's Station J on the same day. There is another Station J stamp dated January 24, probably when the item was sent out for delivery.
[attachment=1041]
Total transit time was, therefore, December 31, 1933 to January 24, 1934. 25 days from the USSR to Canada and across the Atlantic in Winter sounds very reasonable.
The cover is a postal stationery envelope. Including the 5 kon indicium and two 10k definitives, the cover was franked with a total of 25k. I understand that as of February 25, 1933 the foreign letter rate was 10k up to 20g. The registration surcharge would have been another 15k.
The name A. W. Twiner shows up in WW1 casualty lists. In the April 3, 1917 edition of the Victoria (British Columbia) Daily Times he is listed in the Artillery section of the casualty list as Gnr. [Gunner] A. W. Twiner of Toronto.
As an aside, Canada had no diplomatic relations with the USSR between 1927 and 1942. However, as can be seen from this cover, mail still moved under UPU rules.
Cheers, Hugh
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Carmen - 09-11-2025
Wow Hugh! I had NO IDEA that Russia had actually issued a stamp for that Traitorous Weenie, although I knew about the story of course! Thanks for posting this!
I actually have quite a few Russian stamps, simply because at the height of stamp collecting in the 60s-80s they could be counted on to issue some beautiful series (albeit CTO) for sale to overseas collectors (or as I like to put it <insert Russian accent here> "Capitalism BAD... unless we can make money off Capitalist Pigs, of course. Then Capitalism GOOD!"
My husband and I had a friend who came from Russia with her family as a girl, and when I showed her some (gorgeous!) Russian stamps I had bought earlier that day, she laughed and said, "Uh, no... we never saw anything like this in MY house in Russia!"
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Hugh - 09-11-2025
Hi Carmen ... the Kim Philby stamp was one in a series of five stamps issued by the USSR in 1990 to mark the 70th Anniversary of Soviet foreign intelligence. (Sc. 5947-51).
As an aside, the USSR postal administration issued stamps until December of 1991. So the Kim Philby stamp was issued in the final year of the Soviet Union. As you no doubt remember, the USSR was formally dissolved on December 26, 1991 and Russia took over the issuing of new stamps. The first new Russian stamp came out on January 10, 1992 -- in connection with the winter olympics.
Interesting is it not ... this issuing of stamps by one country that are considered controversial (to say the least) by another?
This has sometimes given rise to what has been called Postal War (Postkrieg). This occurs when one country refuses to accept the stamps of another. It flares up form time to time.
During the cold war, for example, East Germany on several occasions refused to accept mail with some of the stamps) of West Germany. Sometimes they accepted the mail, sometimes they returned it and sometimes they just blacked out the stamps. Other member states of the Warsaw-pact countries would sometimes pile on.
Some countries have on occasion also refused to accept certain stamps from Israel.
Algeria once refused to accept mail from France that had a 1989 stamp that France issued to honour the Harkis -- Algerian auxiliaries who fought with the French during the Franco-Algerian War.
Both Ireland and India have also issued stamps to honor people that the UK once branded as terrorists.
During the Vietnam War .. West Germany used a slogan cancel on some mail to the US that supported North Vietnam. Other countries in the Soviet block used hand-stamps or overprints to support Egypt over the UK during the Suez Crisis.
I have copies of most of those stamps and covers. Not to mention many similar stamps cancels and covers issued during military or civil occupation over the last 150 years. In fact, that's the core of my collection. When a country issues a stamp to deliberately irritate another country, or to make a point to the people in an occupied territory, I consider that another kind of occupation ... an occupation of the mind.
The UPU treaty (Universal Postal Union), which governs the flow of international mail, requires member countries to forward other members mail by the quickest and most secure routes possible. This is known as 'Freedom of Transit'. If a country doesn't do that, it can lose its UPU membership. Article 19 of the treaty, however, allows members to deem mail to be inadmissible if it violates their own national laws (e.g. mailing drugs, weapons, etc.). But most feel that the focus of Article 19 is on the content of the mail, not the images on the stamps Nonetheless, it's a grey area and some countires have used this provision to prohbit (at least temporarily) the passage of mail with stamps, slogan cancels or hand-stamps they don't like.
It's an example of the use of 'soft' power (influence) in trying to get a message across. I find it an endlessly interesting collecting area.
Cheers, Hugh
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Carmen - 10-11-2025
Indeed sir! One of the features in Stamp Mag years ago was in the Strange but True department. I can't remember the details of the countries, but one country in South America issued a stamp showing a map with that country and the country next door, and between them, a circled area called "the disputed territory"... which came as a bit of a surprise to the other country since it belongs to them. Following some rioting in the streets and threats from country number 2, country number 1 wisely withdrew the stamp.
Now that's political moxy, my friend!
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Hugh - 11-11-2025
That sounds like a stamp issued by Bolivia in 1928 (Sc. 191) showing the Gran Chaco Region ... the source of a long-standing dispute between Bolivia and Paraguay.
Booth countries issued stamps between 1924 and 1932 in which they portrayed their imagined (and disputed) bordersr.
[attachment=1056]
Sourced: Wikipedia / Public Domanin Image
As you say, when the 1928 stamp was issued showing Chaco as part of Bolivia, the people of Paraguay were not amused. A few years later, the two counties went to war. The Chaco War (1932-35) is known in Spanish as La Guerra del la Sed (The War of Thirst) as the troops fought in a semi-dessert.
Of course, it was really about money ... control of what were seen as a region rich in petroleum. Royal Dutch Shell supported Paraguay and Standard Oil supported Bolivia. The high command of Bolivia included former WW1 German officers and Paraguay engaged the services of 80 former White Russian officers who fought in the Russian Civil War. Italy also provided them with advisors who provided military training. US politician Huey Long was strongly in support of Paraguay. At one point in the war, Paraguay named a captured for after him .. Fort Long.
It was the bloodiest war in South America in the 20th century. When a ceasfire was negotiated, Paraguay controlled most of the region. The war formally ended with the Chaco Peace Treat in July 1938 when the two countries agreed to divide the region. Paraguay was awarded about 75% of what was, essentially, a dessert.
It took a long time to find it but both countries did end up with significant oil and gas fields.
I love the way there is a story behind every stamp.
Cheers, Hugh
RE: USSR: Stamps and Covers - Carmen - 11-11-2025
Preach, Hugh! And those stories are FASCINATING!