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 – 179, are available 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, as PDF files. Issues 44 – 179 are also available, as PDF files. Please see the Bookshop for more details.

The Rossica Journal editor is William Moskoff, Editor.

HERE’S WHAT IS IN OUR LAST ISSUES……

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

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

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

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

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.