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Issues of 2008
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Soviet airmail in 1920s
The first international air route operated by Soviet aircrafts was established in 1922. On May 1, legendary pilot I.F. Voedilo (a hero of the Russian Civil War 1918–1921 who had been awarded with two Orders of the Red Banner) managed to make a flight Moscow — KÃnigsberg (now Kaliningrad) in one day (1300 kilometers). First, regular flights transported only courier mail, while since June 4 planes started to deliver usual mail too. Mailing units of Soviet Russia and Germany delivered during the period June 4–7 are considered to be extremely rare. Contemporary philately experts are aware of only 5–7 of such mailing units. Now we have an opportunity to see an original envelope (coming from a private collection), which was delivered on June 6 by the second flight from Moscow via KÃnigsberg to Berlin. First, one had to pay Soviet airmail services by usual postal stamps, but by the fifth anniversary of the Great October Revolution (November 7, 1922), the Soviet government issued the first special airmail stamp. That sort of stamps was printed on extremely thin paper; reportedly, only about ten similar stamps were issued. Unfortunately, the great demand for airmail stamps among collectors worldwide caused production of fakes. For instance, a renowned Tallinn-based group of stamp dealers and forgers headed by Simpson and Kuhl made a «first-rate» fake stamp No1.
The further development of international routes gave birth to some more rare and unique pieces that are little known even to the leading specialists in that branch of collecting. Among them are the first mailing pieces Moscow — Nizhni Novgorod — Moscow, featuring calendar or registered stamp of the Nizhni Novgorod Fair. Only about ten of such mailings are preserved up to now. The first mailings Moscow — Kazan — Moscow (the functioning of the line was prolonged in 1924) are considered even rarer than the ones mentioned above. Nowadays, there are about twenty original envelopes and postal cards, which were delivered during the first operating year of the line. After the establishment of the USSR in 1922, the government issued a four-stamp series depicting a mail-plane Fokker F3. Stamps of that kind had no postal circulation as the air traffic was temporarily stopped because of the winter season. Nevertheless, contemporary collectors have an opportunity to feast their eyes upon one of the most interesting and important stamps issued in the Soviet Union — the so-called «big-bellied five». The rare and unique stamp is highly sought-after among collectors as the circulation of it was only about one hundred pieces. A year and a half ago a stamp of the kind was sold at one of the major world auctions for impressive thirty five thousand dollars. A year after the issue of the series a new nominal value was overprinted on those stamps, thus making them even more precious for serious aero philately collectors. Curiously, stamps with the face value of ten, fifteen and twenty and kopecks turned out to be the upside-down ones. There is also a fifteen-kopeck stamp with double overprint.
Here is a letter Leningrad — Riga with a stamp with a face value 15 kopeck with an upturned overprint. One could see a similar piece at an auction fifteen years ago (the piece was coming from the collection of renowned philatelist Z. Mikulsky). The next series of Soviet airmail stamps was issued to commemorate the opening of the First International Airmail Conference in Hague (the Netherlands). The stamps of that series depict the airplane ANT-3 with a map of the world in the background. There is a variation of the stamp with the nominal value 10 kopecks: the figure «7» in the date (1927) is printed very poorly (one stamp per pane). A big printed sheet was divided into two half sheets by a wide stamp-sized edge. According to aerophilately experts, similar stamps are very rare, but still it is possible to find ones with special stamping by the Soviet Philately Association. In summary, the author would like to note that the early series of stamps connected with the Soviet airmail are rather rare and infrequently become a subject of specialized discussion.
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