The Rossica Society publishes two journals per year, the first in the Spring and the next in the Fall.
The journal consists of scholarly articles focused on all aspects of Russian philately that may include information on the pre-stamp days of Russia, Imperial postage, prison mail, World War correspondence, or the postage of post-Soviet states. The fascinating and sometimes incredibly confusing history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet states make our hobby a most interesting one!
Contact the Editor
Online Journals at the University of Florida
Prigara Monograph Online
Bazilevich Monograph Online
CSRP Journals Online
Added on 2018-03-28
Summary: In this exhibit, all known types of St. Petersburg censorship marks and stamps on postal correspondence are shown. All of them are scarce and known in single digits and some are very rare, having only been recorded with one or two examples....See the Exhibit
Added on 2017-11-05
Summary: The history of clandestine (and not so clandestine) mail surveillance in Russia is a long one, extending from 1690 under Peter the Great, when all letters going abroad were opened at Smolensk, up to the present day. Perlustration under the communist...See the Exhibit
At the American Philatelic Society's StampShow 2018 in Columbus Ohio (August 9-12) the Rossica journal has once again share second place among ALL philatelic publications! This is the third year in a row that the jury has awarded us with the Reserve Grand and Large Gold medals. The number one spot (Grand) was awarded to: "U.S. Contract Mail Routes by Railroad (1832-1875)". We shared Reserve Grand with "Bermuda: Crossroads of the Atlantic, A Postal History". Thanks again to all of the authors who make our continuing success possible!
This year's Rossica Society's annual meeting will take place at 10:00 am on Satuday September 1, 2018, in Room B of the Delta Baltimore Hunt Valley Inn. As in years past BALPEX is being held over the Labor Day weekend, August 31-September 2. The hotel's address is 245 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley, Maryland 21031. It is very close to Exit 20 East from I-83. For more information about this year's Balpex see http://www.balpex.org/balpex.html
If you would like to support the Society with some of your free time, we are
looking for volunteers to support our website, our journal, provide translation or expertizing services and more!
You can volunteer online using the Volunteer Form (click this link or find it at the bottom of this page).
Rossica has introduced a new identification service, free to members, and a minimal $5 fee for non-members. This is not an opinion of authenticity service,
but is offered to help collectors tap the vast wealth of knowledge at the Society to help identify items in their collection that might be difficult to identify.
There is a link at the bottom of the Rossica home page, or you can access it at this link: http://www.rossica.org/ris.php.
The Samovar is the Rossica Society's discussion forum, where all things philatelically Russia and related are discussed. Every forum except the Society Forum is available for viewing by the general public. Visitors that wish to participate in our forum discussions must register first.
Ever since the early 1980s, the Rossica Society would preserve information and material contained in its members' exhibits, and make that information
available to members through photocopies (usually black-and-white) or CDs/DVDs. Today, the Rossica Society is pleased to share our award-winning
exhibits to the public through our digital forum, The Rossica Society Virtual Gallery, or RVG. We have more than 36 exhibits digitized, and available
for viewing on a computer.
The Rossica Society is a world-wide society devoted to all aspects of Russian philately, from the pre-stamp days of Imperial Russia to current post-Soviet philately. The purpose of the Society is to unite all philatelists throughout the world with an interest in Russian philately and provide them a means of broadening their philatelic knowledge through inter- communication via the award winning Rossica Journal and this award winning web site.
Read moreThe full online article mentioned in Journal 170 (ppg 88 - 90) The "Bible of Clandestine Mail Surveillance": Political Control Office Operations and the Regulations that Governed Them, by David M. Skipton and Steve Volis is available on our website on the Web Articles page or directly via the link to the article below. There is also a document posted online that describes Perlustration Terminology.
Read the ArticleThis full-color handbook and catalog provides clear information regarding the origins, stories, and uses of private and official perfins of Imperial Russia and its post offices abroad. It is a greatly expanded version of the original 2010 handbook issued by the author. The new 8.5x11-inch (22x28 cm) handbook is profusely illustrated; it contains images of all the perfins listed in the catalog, identifies almost all of them by their city of use, and rates them by their level of scarcity. The final section of the handbook, Official Perfins on Revenue Stamps of Imperial Russia, contains a nine-page summary of perfinned revenues that have been found by the author.
Read more
The article is an overview of Dr. Raymond Casey's Russian ship mail collection by well-known German philatelist Bernd Essler. Dr. Casey's collection was sold through a David Feldman auction in December 2016.
See the article
The series that appeared in the Rossica Journal under this same title has now been greatly expanded and extended,
with many new discoveries and hundreds of clandestine censor marks (and censorship-related date stamps) illustrated.
Soviet Clandestine Mail Surveillance, 1917-1991 by David M. Skipton and Steve Volis (a publication of the Collector's Club of Chicago) is an unusual hybrid of empirical philatelic research, argumentation and history presented chronologically. It examines the secret police's political control offices - the PKs - that secretly watched the correspondence of Soviet citizens and foreigners alike in the USSR, and demonstrates that the PKs used censor marks masquerading as postmarks to convey information and instructions between themselves. Hundreds of these censor marks are recorded here, along with hundreds more that the authors argue were used to aid in the "classification campaigns" of the 1920s, the prelude to collectivization and the purges. The book will be useful to philatelists and historians alike.
The case-bound, all-color, 530-page book is available now for immediate shipping! Order yours from the Rossica Bookstore.
Order Your Copy Today!Ever since the early 1980s, the Rossica Society has made an effort to preserve the information and material contained in its members' exhibits. Up until now, that effort has consisted of making photocopies (usually black-and-white) or CDs/DVDs and putting them in the Rossica Library so that members could check them out, study them and learn, using them as a research tool. Given the technology back then, this was the best that could be accomplished, and it could never reach more than one individual at a time, it had to be posted through the mail, and it was cumbersome enough that few availed themselves of the opportunity.
Read moreThe Rossica Society is pleased to offer all Russia and related collectors and enthusiast services to help identify stamps, postal history, or any other philatelic items related to Russian philately or erinnophilia. The service is offered free to Rossica Society members, and for a nominal fee to non-members. Although this service does not provide an official opinion of authenticity, the Society will reach out to experts on the items in question on your behalf. This is a great way to identify those hard-to-figure out cancels, town names, and get translations of addresses, cancellations, etc.
Read more