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.