The Rossica Society

Rossica Journal

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!

Previous Editions of the Rossica Journal issues 44 - 171, are available in various formats for purchase. Remaining printed issues can be purchased for $15.00 + postage (Members) and $18.00 + postage (Non-members) while supplies last. We also provide single issues as a download for a reduced price of $5.00 (Members) or $8.00 (Non-members). Please contact the Rossica Society Treasurer if you are interested in purchasing paper or electonic copies of single back issues.

The Rossica Society is pleased to offer Rossica Journals 1 - 43, in Russian, on a single DVD. Issues 44 - 171 are also available on a single DVD. Please see the Bookshop for more details.

The Rossica Journal editor is William Moskoff, Editor.

Here's what is in our last 10 Issues......

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Issue No. 175, Fall 2020

Editor William Velvel Moskoff

• President's Report - Raymond J. Pietruszka
• From the Editor - William Velvel Moskoff
• Rossica Library News - Dr. Gregory Mirsky
• Russian-Language Synopsis - Alexander Kolchinsky
• A Conversation with Rossica's Historian, David M. Skipton - Nikolai Sorokin
• The Odessa Quarantine Harbor - Semyon Brayman and Vladimir Tyukov
• Early Mail from Nikolaevsk on the Amur - Howard L. Weinert
• The Zemstvo Post of Usman District of Tambov Province - Dr. Dimitry Nikitin
• Letters from the Levant: Philatelically Inspired, or Fakes? - Vitaliy Katsman
• Regulations on Issuing Registered and Insured Correspondence to Illiterate Recipients -Lev Ratner
• PCh = Au - Howard Weinert
• Constant Plate Varieties of the 14-Kopek Stamp - John Iakovino
• Mail from the Interrupted Campaign (1903-1904) - Vladimir Berdichevsky and Semyon Brayman
• Postcards Depicting Russian Imperial Banknotes - Mark Cooper
• A Look at Georgy Narbut's Graphics and Postal Art - Andrey Dyachenko
• The Russian Post's Struggle with the Reuse of Stamps - Meer Kossoy
• 1919 Russian Provisional Stamps from Gdov- Dr. Vitaly Geyfman
• Foreign Forgeries and Cyrillic Script - Igor F. Myaskovsky
• More About Items of Mail With Notable Dates - Alexander Epstein
• A Soldier's Letter from North Russia- May 18, 1919 - Raymond J. Pietruszka
• The "Generals Series:" Digging Deeper - Steve Volis and Emil Allakhverdov
• Finding Rossica Among Liechtenstein's Stamps - Nikolai Sorokin
• Hotels in Moscow and Leningrad from the 1920s to the Early 1950s - Alexander Kolchinsky
• Resettlement of Germans from the USSR to Germany. 1939-1941 - Vitaliy Malov
• A Lithuanian Gamble: Evading Soviet Mail Surveillance in the LSSR- David M. Skipton and Steve Volis
• Russian Anti-German Propaganda Postcards in World War I - William Velvel Moskoff and Carol Gayle
• The USS Brooklyn in Vladivostok 1917 - Howard L. Weinert
• More About a Postcard with an Original lndicium - Carri Izraitel
• Sheet and Pane Placement of the Horizontal Dash Above the Upper Left Frame of the 100 Ruble 1923 Definitive Stamp - John Iacovino
• About Catalogs and Cataloging - Vitaliy Katsman
• Obituaries: - G. Adolph Ackerman, Edward Klempka, George V. Shalimoff, and Yuri A. Sandulov

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Issue No. 174, Spring 2020

Editor William Velvel Moskoff

• President's Report - Spring 2020
• From the Editor
• Rossica Library News
• Russian-Language Synopsis
• Rossica Interview with Rostislav Polchaninoff
• Money Letters to Mont Athos: New Information
• Development of Postal Communication on the Territory of Belarus in the 18th Century and the Earliest Use of Postmarks on its Correspondence
• " ... Five letters received; all with the handstamp of our benefactor Ginsburg"
• How the Zemstvo Post Operates
• The Shtandart Roadstead Temporary Post Office
• The Liberty Loan Lottery of Odessa
• Paper Characteristics of Russian Stamps, Including a Discussion of Fomin' s Type K, KS and M Paper
• The Three Lives of Igor Sikorsky: Commemorating the 130th Birthday of Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky
• Circular Traveling Post of the USSR
• An Undescribed Variety: Absent Tics Along the Right, Upper, Lateral Margin of the 1000-Ruble Stamp, Scott 190
• An Ordinary American Collector and a Leading Soviet Philatelist: The Backstory of a 1923 Inflation Cover
• One More Look at the Postal Rates of Abkhazia and the Influence of Political Geography on Mail Services
• Escaping Soviet Russia in the 1920s (Addendum)
• The Attempt to Introduce Countrywide Postal Indexing in the USSR From 1920 to 1940
• Russian Boy Scout Postcards
• Harbin, China: Philatelic Evidence of the Rise of a Russian City
• On the 80th Anniversary of the Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940
• Breaking the Siege of Leningrad
• Curiouser and Curiouser: New Developments in the Case Against the Mezhdunarodnoe Handstamps
• Book Review
• Obituary

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Issue No. 173, Fall 2019

Editor William Velvel Moskoff

• President's Report-Fall 2019
• From the Editor
• Rossica Library News
• Russian-Language Synopsis
• Rossica Interview with Christoph Gartner
• Postmarks of the Moscow Post Offices Nos. 1-72, 1821-1917
• Repin Topicals in Philately
• Post Office Measures to Prevent the Resuse of Postage Stamps
• The Life and Art of Evgeny Klimov (1901-1990)
• Mail from the Alexandrovsky Station in Moscow
• Administering the Oath of Service to Employees of the Imperial Russian Postal Service
• A Death in Vladivostok
• Discovering a Cache of an Ussury Cossack Family's Early 20th Century Letters
• The Prison Correspondence of Pyotyr Kholodilin, a Doukhobor Political Prisoner in Tsarist Russia, 1909-1911
• A Blagoveshchensk-Nikolayevsk Line Steamship Postcard
• The Liberty Loan
• Local Revaluations of Postage Stamps Without the Application of a Surcharge - 1918-1923
• Contract to Rent and Convert a Private House to a Post Office, 1916
• The First Day of the 1917 October Revolution
• Russian Emigre Postcards Issued by the "Znaniye" Bookstore in Istanbul
• The 500 Ruble Stamp of the Second Definitive Scott 185, Zagorsky RSFSR 12
• The Story of Ferrary's Zemstvo Stamp Collection
• Izhitsas on Parade
• Unofficial Use of Postal Stamps of the Russian Empire as Revenue Stamps and Vice-Versa
• The Puzzles of a Registered Letter
• The "Flower and Labyrinth" Watermark
• The Jewish Colonization Organization
• A Few Words About a Postcard with Original lndicium, or What the lndicium Was Hiding
• Continuing the Discussion about the 1911 Shchigry Zemstvo Cover: Once Again About an Alleged Zemstvo Forgery
• Rejoinder
• The Stockholmia 2019 Experience

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Issue No. 172, Spring 2019

Editor Nik Sorokin

• President's Report
• From the Editor
• Rossica Library News
• Russian-Language Synopsis
• Happy Ninetieth Birthday, Rossica!
• Rossica Interview with Nikolai Kondrikov
• Philately Seminars at the Popov Museum of Communications
• Small Size Seals for Insured Private Correspondence
• Registered Items Taken From the Postbox
• The 150th Anniversary of the First Tambov Zemstvo Stamp
• Previously Unknown Zadonsk Zemstvo Proof
• Continuation of the Uncataloged Ust-Sysolsk Rarity Saga
• Regarding Forgeries in Zemstvo Philately and Not Only There
• A Rare Petrograd Main PO Postmark from October 24, 1917
• Vladivostok's Brief Incorporation in the Far Eastern Republic
• Russian Expeditionary Forces in France from 1915-1917
• It Takes Two (Possibly Three?) to Tango: the Situation in 1920 Sejny
• Who is Shown on the 1919 Ruble Stamps of the Georgian Republic?
• The Abkhazian Post in 1921-1922
• A New Year's Greeting from Vladivostok - in Japanese
• Trade Relations Between Lithuania and the USSR in the 1930s
• The 3- and 5-Ruble Stamps of the Gold Definitive Series
• The "OL" (OA) Flaw on the Small Head, 10-Kopek Stamps
• The 1938 "Kharkov" Variety of Circular Date Stamps
• Soldier Stamp Varieties in the 4th and 5th (1936-43) Def. Series, Part II
• A Gray Area of Postal History: Soviet-Finnish War and the Eastern Conflict
• Rare Postmark of Western Belarus 1940
• An Odd Propaganda Stamp Issue: The So-called "Vlasov Stamps"
• The Long Journey of One Remarkable, Ratty WWII Cover
• More from the "Vynuto" Files
• Manolis Glezos and Greek Democrats
• Commemorating Nikolai I. Vavilov
• The Last Cruise of the Mikhail Lermontov
• Stapled Booklets of the State Tretyakov Gallery Postcards
• Nikolai Navoyev and His Postcards

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Issue No. 171, Fall 2018

Editor Nik Sorokin

• Philatelic Shows in 2018
• Interview with A. Mramornov
• Dave Waterman obituary, 1928-2018
• Flyspecker 171 -- Paper Story, Part Four: 1948-1950
• Septinsular Republic Post
• Some New Information about the Postal Stationery Card for City Mail
• Early Railway P.O. Registration Labels on Registered Mail, 1899-1901
• Pskov Zemstvo Stamps and the Evolution of a Stamp Collector
• The Cherleniovsky Zemstvo Correspondence
• Taken from the Postbox with a New Address
• Koloman Moser and the Russian Culture
• Austro-Hungarian Censor Markings on Prisoners' Postcards
• A Brief History of the 5- and 10-Ruble Stamps of 1906-1917
• Postal Remnants of the Romanovs
• Comments on the Tsar's Collection
• The Republic of Armenia's Post (May-October 1918)
• Essays and Color Trials of the Georgian SSR Definitive Issue
• Gems of Russian Philately: The Postage Stamps of 'Autonomous Siberia'
• The 100-Ruble Stamp of the 4th Anniversary of the October Revolution Commemorative Issue (Scott #188, Zagorsky RSFSR #14)
• Correspondence with Mixed Franking from Polish Territories Annexed in 1939
• Soviet Military Censorship and Its Subordination to the GUGB/NKGB
• Varieties of Soldier Stamp 4th (1936-1939) and 5th (1939-1943) Definitive Series, Part I
• My Visit with David Burliuk, the Father of Russian Futurism
• Postcards of the New Root Hermitage in Mahopac, N.Y.

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Issue No. 170, Spring 2018

Editor Nik Sorokin

• Mikulski Obituary
• New Discovery: Sixth Sample of the First Adhesive Stamp of Russia
• Negotiating the Labyrinth of Pereslav Zemstvo's 1879-1880 Issue
• Interview with Valery Zagorsky, Publisher of Zemstvo Catalog
• Postal Markings of the Type "Taken From the Postbox"
• Prelude to Murder
• Centennial of Lithuania's Independence
• Repeating Varieties of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic Stamps
• The 200-Ruble Stamp of the Second Definitive Issue of the RSFSR
• Some Peculiarities of Odessa Postal Operations, 1920 - 1923
• An Unknown Proof
• Kerch and/or Enikol
• The 100-Ruble Stamp of 1922/1923 Small Heads Issue
• Soviet Railway Postmarks Converted From the Old Orthography
• One More Mystery
• Two Newly Discovered 1933 Soviet Propoganda Cards
• The 'Bible of Clandestine Mail Surveillance': Political Control Office Operations and the Regulations that Governed Them
• Provisional Postmarks of Western Ukraine, 1939 - 1941
• Soviet Express Mail after the Second World War
• Consolation Stamps
• Russian Credit Payment Receipt Stamps from the Kultura Corporation
• Anti-Semitic Propoganda Parodies
• A Very Early Russia-Related Advertisement Card from Chicago
• History of Postcard Publishing by the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY
• Tretyakov Gallery Postal Cards of the Soviet Period
• New Zemstvo Catalog Book Review

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Issue No. 169, Fall 2017

Editor Nik Sorokin

• Impressions of Bandung 2017 World Stamp Exhibition
• Rare Postcards From the February Revolution
• List of Upcoming Philatelic Exhibitions
• Postal Cards from the 1917 Revolutions
• Obituary - Another Giant of Russian Philately Passes: R.J. Ceresa, 1929-2017
• Blagoveshchensk During the Civil War - More Information
• The First Definitives Issue of Georgia: St. George & Queen Tamar
• Eugene Prince and Russian-American Relations
• From Russia to the Baltic by Diplomatic Post
• American Red Cross Military Surgical Hospital in 1920 Wilno
• The Mennonites in Khiva, 1924-1935
• Removing the Hard Sign: How Old Russian Empire Railway Postmarks Were Converted to the New Orthography in the 1920s and 1930s
• Collecting the Lenin Mourning Issue on Cover
• Postcards from World War I POWs in Russia that Indicated the Senders' Workplaces
• Klaipeda Region Post After World War II
• The Souvenir Sheet of My Youth (Michel #2938)
• "Extracted from a Mailbox" Markings and Clandestine Soviet Censorship
• Ust-Sysolsk #48 - A Zemstvo Stamp Detective Story
• Five Recent Zemstvo Discoveries
• Finding Traces of German Participation in the Soviet Air Force's History
• The Art of Ivan Aivazovsky in Philately
• Printing Variations of the 5- and 10-Ruble Arms Issue
• Russian Emigre Postcards in North America: Revolutionary Movement, 1903-1919
• Flyspecker 169, Paper Story Part III
• Rossica Library News
• Book Review: Agathon Faberge - Portrait of a Philatelist

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Issue No. 168, Spring 2017

Editor Nik Sorokin

• Pre-Stamp Period Cancellations From Dushet, Tillis Province, Georgia
• Finland's "3" Registration Labels
• Circular No. 9 of 3 February 1903 On new types of postmarks and seals
• A History of the Gryazovets Zemstvo Post
• New Zemstvo Discoveries
• The Acceptance of Postal Correspondence Recorded in Private Registry Books
• Mourning Tsar Alexander ID: The French Connection
• The Franking of Mail in Blagoveshchensk during the Civil War
• Skull and Bones Labels
• 250-Ruble Scott 189 Undescribed Varieties
• Ideas for a Topical Collection Dedicated to Wassily Kandinsky
• Varieties of the "Miner" Stamp in the Fifth (1939-1940) Definitive Series of the USSR
• Geographical Twins in Russia and the United States
• Letters From the Rocket Island Gorodomlya
• The Watch on V.M. Tkachenko
• Forgeries of the Naval Mail Cancellation Number 1135
• Foreign Diplomatic Mail, Picture Postcards, and other Stories
• The Rite of Spring: May Day in the Soviet Union, 1917-1991
• Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
• Schedule of Philatelic Exhibitions
• Okhrim Sudomora's Anti-Soviet and Anti-Nazi postcards
• The Painting Cards of the Tretyakov Gallery in the 1920s
• Flyspecker
• Russian and Soviet Censorship of the Mail in Review
• A New Catalog of Russian Federation Stamps
• Rossica Library News

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Issue No. 167, Fall 2016

Editor Nik Sorokin

• World Stamp Show, New York 2016
• "ROSSICA"
• Dr. Raymond Casey, PhD, DSc, FRS
• Dr. Raymond Casey, Philatelist
• A Tribute to Kaj Hellman
• From Russia With Love ...
• The Police (Special Zemstvo) Post: A Blank Spot in Imperial Russian Postal History
• Bugulma Zemstvo Rarity: Schmidt #22
• Seasonal Post Offices in Transcaucasia
• Sent by Siberian Express
• "Improperly Charged." How the Moscou 1st Dispatch Office Date Stamps were Cleared of Wrongdoing
• Thoughts on the Round-Corner 1923, 250-Ruble Stamp
• The Former East Prussian Post Under Soviet Administration, 1944-1950
• Before There was Israel, There was Birobidzhan
• The War in 1941-1945 as Viewed by Children
• The Early Days of a New Nation: Azerbaijan 1992-1994
• Kazimir Malevich on Stamps
• All in the Family ...
• Communist Pary Purges (1921 - 1930) Traced Through Philately
• Postal Usage of the Second RSFSR Famine Stamps - New Discoveries
• Postcards by K.N. Poduschkin
• Flyspecker 167: Paper Story - Part One, 1917 - 1940
• Russian Philatelic Society in China's Sixth Anniversary Magazine (1941)
• WWII Russian Fieldpost Card

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Issue No. 166, Spring 2016

Editor Nik Sorokin

• Ancient Greek Goddess Vessels of the Russian Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War
• Preface to the First Russian-Language Zemstvo Catalog
• Zemstvo Stamp Varieties Found
• Correspondence of an Imperial Tutor
• The Philatelic Legacy of Stephan Aristol Pappadopulo from his Time in Vladivostok, 1920-1922
• Rosette Fantasies of the Denikin Stamps
• The Cost of Nansen Stamps for Refugees
• Identifying the Genuine Overprints on 1922 Air Post Officials
• A Rare Moscow-to-Berlin Airmail Discovery
• Richard Zarrinch's Airplane Stamp
• Konstantin Ol'khin's Correspondence - 1941
• Letters from Belarus During the NEP Period
• Engelhardt Station: Astronomers and the Soviet Secret Police
• Ivan Bilibin -A Unique Russian Stamp Designer
• Children's Drawings of War
• Factory Worker Stamp Varieties of the Fourth and Fifth USSR Definitive Issues
• How I Began Collecting Rossica
• Bilingual Postmarks on Registered Mail from Soviet Ukraine - 1920s-1930s
• St. Petersburg Surcharges Applied to Postal Stationery, 1992-1995: A Postal History Perspective
• Flyspecker 166: Stamp Size Does Matter, and Every Millimeter Counts
• From Bibles to Cinderellas - Francysk Skaryna and Philately
• Singer: a Revolutionary Business Model in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
• Patriarch Tikhon Stamp Ceremony in NY
• Rossica Commemoratives - Book Review