Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
This question is particularly relevant when external matters (political upheaval, war, etc.) might have some effect on stamp issues. Here are a couple of examples.
First up, the first of a long series (12 in all) marking the new Soviet Constitution. All Union republics submitted their own coat-of-arms - this is Armenia's (picture of Mount Ararat, supposed site of Noah's Ark and celebrated local landmark). The set was issued on 17 March 1938.
But the Constitution was adopted on 5 December 1936, and the last of the stamp emblems designed (as far as I can establish) no later than March 1937. Why the year's delay? The only evidence I can adduce is the existence of a handy pocket-size version of the Constitution, which all good comrades must have been wise to be seen to own, that was published in 1938. Does that really explain a stamp-issue time-lag?
The second stamp is the first of a series commemorating the hugely popular exploits of Soviet aviators Chkalov and Gromov in their transpolar flights. These stamps are clearly marked "1937", which is when the flights were made (June 18 and July 12), the first aeroplanes ever to overfly the North Pole. The stamp sets, though, were not issued until February and then April 1938. Why the delay?
There is a possible answer to this, and that is because there were not two, but three North Pole flights in 1937. The third, about which we do not speak, was made in August, and it is not spoken of because it was a tragic failure, in which the plane disappeared and neither it nor the crew were ever found. It was not Soviet policy to admit to failure, and it is possible that the ill-fated Levanevsky flight was also to be the subject of a stamp issue. Discussions may have been held as to the advisability of risking such a commemorative in the middle of Stalin's Great Purge, when all manner of professional people might be in mortal danger if they deviated from the Party line. Heroic exploits, rather than heroic tragedies, were the order of the day. Levanevsky was quietly forgotten.
Ironically Valery Chkalov, the first man to make the transpolar trip and a great favourite amongst Russians at the time, would himself perish while on a test flight in December 1938. The aircraft designer was immediately arrested.
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It being the SUUS (Soviet Union Under Stalin), I would suggest that the designs needed to be approved by a line of people, all of whom were full of caution and in no hurry to stick their necks out.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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Here are some Soviet time-lags, in ascending order:
1. Stratosphere altitude record, 30 September 1933. Stamps issued November 1933 (31-61 days). It may have been assumed before the event that the record would be broken.
2. Papanin's North Pole-1 rescue (actually more of a recall), 19 February 1938. Stamps issued 21 June 1938 (122 days). However, the Papanin party had already been working on the ice-floes for 234 days, and it is probable that the 'rescue' was planned some time before it took place.
3. The Osoaviakhim balloon disaster, 30 January 1934. Stamp set issued 15 September 1934 (227 days). This seems a genuine (i.e. the event cannot have been known beforehand) and therefore perhaps typical time-lag. It still seems a long time, though.
4. Gromov's North Pole air flight, 12 July 1937. Stamps issued 13 April 1938 (275 days). Fate intervened. See original post.
5. Rescue of Chelyuskin survivors, ended 13 April 1934. Stamp set issued 25 January 1935 (287 days). This was a genuine rescue, though warnings had been sent out as early as January, and the Chelyuskin sank 13 February, the passengers and crew surviving 59 days on the ice before rescue. It seems to be tempting fate to have planned a 'successful rescue' commemoration before the rescue actually happened, though cynics might suggest that if things had gone badly, a celebratory set could easily have been converted into a memorial.
6. Adoption of the new Soviet Constitution, 5 December 1936. Stamps issued 17 March 1938 (467 days, though a precursor was issued in November 1937). I've no explanation for this one at all. Which is where we started.
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Your two Soviet puzzles have rather straightforward answers, with no conspiratorial overtones.
The set of 11 stamps (Scott 647-657, SG 753-763) were issued in May-June 1938 to mark the elections for the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics that were held on June 26th, 1938. Scott is mistaken in referring to the Soviet constitution, although these were the first elections after the adoption of the constitution. The last stamp included in the set, as per Scott and SG (658,764), was actually issued in December 1937 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the October revolution.
Your second set of stamps (Scott 625-628, SG 769-772) was issued in February 1938 to commemorate the creation of the “North Pole 1” scientific drift station in 1937 (hence the year on the stamp). They are NOT related to the transpolar flights.
The stamps depict the 4 ANT-6 planes that were used to transport an initial group of 35 people in late May 1937 to a location about 12 miles beyond the Pole. After setting-up the camp, most of the group departed, leaving on the station Ivan Papanin (the chief of all Soviet polar stations) and 3 scientists (plus a dog). During the 274 days that the ice “island”, on which the station was located, drifted southwards, a significant number of scientific measurements were performed. After a drift of nearly 1000 miles, as the ice was breaking-up, the team was picked up by a fleet of icebreakers on February 18th, 1938. Only a week later (February 25th) the set of stamps came into circulation. Another set of stamps (Scott 643-646) were issued in June 1938 to commemorate the actual evacuation of the crew of "North Pole I" back in February.
See the interesting article in the Journal of the Rossica Society of Russian Philately (volume 93, p.23) here:
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00020235/00053/24j
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Many thanks, Vasilis, for this. Your post underlines how inaccurate and misleading some of these earlier Stanley Gibbons (and evidently Scott) attributions are. (And makes fools of us who rely on them to pronounce or speculate in public forums!)
Presumably some form of stamp identification was released on issue by Goznak (or Diezpo), though to whom or to what organisation I'm not sure, nor how the information made its way to worldwide stamp cataloguers, becoming garbled or inaccurate on the way. Incompetence at some level, no doubt, but where and how remains a mystery.
Further emendations on my album pages become necessary!
For other Russia collectors, especially those who use Gibbons (may be applicable to Scott, too), recent emendations are therefore:
1. Russia 735 and 737. Delete attribution "G.P.O.", substitute "OGIZ Headquarters building".
2. Russia set 753-764. Delete heading "New USSR Constitution", substitute "Elections for Supreme Soviets of Union Republics, 26 June 1938".
3. Russia set 769-772. Delete heading "North Pole Flight", substitute "Creation of North Pole-1 Scientific Station".
For clarity, the following might also be useful:
4. Russia 804. Delete attribution "Crimean rest-house", substitute "Dzerzhinsky Commune house, Crimea".
5. Russia 841, 842. Delete attribution "Crimea suspension and arched bridges over River Moskva", substitute (841) "Krymsky Suspension Bridge" and (842) "Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge".
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Here are 2 photos related to the "North Pole I" station: the first taken during the setting-up of the station in May-June 1937 (with one of the Antonov-6 planes visible in the background) and the second picturing the team of four, with Papanin at the far right, after their return.
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Having successfully eviscerated the stamp catalogues in the matter of identifying buildings that were (mostly) never built (well done, SOR members!), it's time to ask some searching questions about the time-lag between events and the stamp issues which commemorate them.
This question is particularly relevant when external matters (political upheaval, war, etc.) might have some effect on stamp issues. Here are a couple of examples.
First up, the first of a long series (12 in all) marking the new Soviet Constitution. All Union republics submitted their own coat-of-arms - this is Armenia's (picture of Mount Ararat, supposed site of Noah's Ark and celebrated local landmark). The set was issued on 17 March 1938.
But the Constitution was adopted on 5 December 1936, and the last of the stamp emblems designed (as far as I can establish) no later than March 1937. Why the year's delay? The only evidence I can adduce is the existence of a handy pocket-size version of the Constitution, which all good comrades must have been wise to be seen to own, that was published in 1938. Does that really explain a stamp-issue time-lag?
The second stamp is the first of a series commemorating the hugely popular exploits of Soviet aviators Chkalov and Gromov in their transpolar flights. These stamps are clearly marked "1937", which is when the flights were made (June 18 and July 12), the first aeroplanes ever to overfly the North Pole. The stamp sets, though, were not issued until February and then April 1938. Why the delay?
There is a possible answer to this, and that is because there were not two, but three North Pole flights in 1937. The third, about which we do not speak, was made in August, and it is not spoken of because it was a tragic failure, in which the plane disappeared and neither it nor the crew were ever found. It was not Soviet policy to admit to failure, and it is possible that the ill-fated Levanevsky flight was also to be the subject of a stamp issue. Discussions may have been held as to the advisability of risking such a commemorative in the middle of Stalin's Great Purge, when all manner of professional people might be in mortal danger if they deviated from the Party line. Heroic exploits, rather than heroic tragedies, were the order of the day. Levanevsky was quietly forgotten.
Ironically Valery Chkalov, the first man to make the transpolar trip and a great favourite amongst Russians at the time, would himself perish while on a test flight in December 1938. The aircraft designer was immediately arrested.
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re: The Soviet Time Lag - is there an explanation?
It being the SUUS (Soviet Union Under Stalin), I would suggest that the designs needed to be approved by a line of people, all of whom were full of caution and in no hurry to stick their necks out.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
Login to Like
this post
re: The Soviet Time Lag - is there an explanation?
Here are some Soviet time-lags, in ascending order:
1. Stratosphere altitude record, 30 September 1933. Stamps issued November 1933 (31-61 days). It may have been assumed before the event that the record would be broken.
2. Papanin's North Pole-1 rescue (actually more of a recall), 19 February 1938. Stamps issued 21 June 1938 (122 days). However, the Papanin party had already been working on the ice-floes for 234 days, and it is probable that the 'rescue' was planned some time before it took place.
3. The Osoaviakhim balloon disaster, 30 January 1934. Stamp set issued 15 September 1934 (227 days). This seems a genuine (i.e. the event cannot have been known beforehand) and therefore perhaps typical time-lag. It still seems a long time, though.
4. Gromov's North Pole air flight, 12 July 1937. Stamps issued 13 April 1938 (275 days). Fate intervened. See original post.
5. Rescue of Chelyuskin survivors, ended 13 April 1934. Stamp set issued 25 January 1935 (287 days). This was a genuine rescue, though warnings had been sent out as early as January, and the Chelyuskin sank 13 February, the passengers and crew surviving 59 days on the ice before rescue. It seems to be tempting fate to have planned a 'successful rescue' commemoration before the rescue actually happened, though cynics might suggest that if things had gone badly, a celebratory set could easily have been converted into a memorial.
6. Adoption of the new Soviet Constitution, 5 December 1936. Stamps issued 17 March 1938 (467 days, though a precursor was issued in November 1937). I've no explanation for this one at all. Which is where we started.
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re: The Soviet Time Lag - is there an explanation?
Your two Soviet puzzles have rather straightforward answers, with no conspiratorial overtones.
The set of 11 stamps (Scott 647-657, SG 753-763) were issued in May-June 1938 to mark the elections for the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics that were held on June 26th, 1938. Scott is mistaken in referring to the Soviet constitution, although these were the first elections after the adoption of the constitution. The last stamp included in the set, as per Scott and SG (658,764), was actually issued in December 1937 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the October revolution.
Your second set of stamps (Scott 625-628, SG 769-772) was issued in February 1938 to commemorate the creation of the “North Pole 1” scientific drift station in 1937 (hence the year on the stamp). They are NOT related to the transpolar flights.
The stamps depict the 4 ANT-6 planes that were used to transport an initial group of 35 people in late May 1937 to a location about 12 miles beyond the Pole. After setting-up the camp, most of the group departed, leaving on the station Ivan Papanin (the chief of all Soviet polar stations) and 3 scientists (plus a dog). During the 274 days that the ice “island”, on which the station was located, drifted southwards, a significant number of scientific measurements were performed. After a drift of nearly 1000 miles, as the ice was breaking-up, the team was picked up by a fleet of icebreakers on February 18th, 1938. Only a week later (February 25th) the set of stamps came into circulation. Another set of stamps (Scott 643-646) were issued in June 1938 to commemorate the actual evacuation of the crew of "North Pole I" back in February.
See the interesting article in the Journal of the Rossica Society of Russian Philately (volume 93, p.23) here:
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00020235/00053/24j
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re: The Soviet Time Lag - is there an explanation?
Many thanks, Vasilis, for this. Your post underlines how inaccurate and misleading some of these earlier Stanley Gibbons (and evidently Scott) attributions are. (And makes fools of us who rely on them to pronounce or speculate in public forums!)
Presumably some form of stamp identification was released on issue by Goznak (or Diezpo), though to whom or to what organisation I'm not sure, nor how the information made its way to worldwide stamp cataloguers, becoming garbled or inaccurate on the way. Incompetence at some level, no doubt, but where and how remains a mystery.
Further emendations on my album pages become necessary!
For other Russia collectors, especially those who use Gibbons (may be applicable to Scott, too), recent emendations are therefore:
1. Russia 735 and 737. Delete attribution "G.P.O.", substitute "OGIZ Headquarters building".
2. Russia set 753-764. Delete heading "New USSR Constitution", substitute "Elections for Supreme Soviets of Union Republics, 26 June 1938".
3. Russia set 769-772. Delete heading "North Pole Flight", substitute "Creation of North Pole-1 Scientific Station".
For clarity, the following might also be useful:
4. Russia 804. Delete attribution "Crimean rest-house", substitute "Dzerzhinsky Commune house, Crimea".
5. Russia 841, 842. Delete attribution "Crimea suspension and arched bridges over River Moskva", substitute (841) "Krymsky Suspension Bridge" and (842) "Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge".
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re: The Soviet Time Lag - is there an explanation?
Here are 2 photos related to the "North Pole I" station: the first taken during the setting-up of the station in May-June 1937 (with one of the Antonov-6 planes visible in the background) and the second picturing the team of four, with Papanin at the far right, after their return.
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