09-11-2025, 11:23 PM
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
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
Hugh MacDonald, Wolfe Island
Member: BNAPS. PHSC, Auxiliary Markings Club, Postal Stationary Society, British Postmark Society,
AMG Collectors Club, China Stamp Society, France and Colonies Philatelic Society
ArGe Deutsche Feldpost: 1914-1918 e.V.