St. Petersburg, Russia

"St. Petersburg hallway"

From daarhan for the June 2010 RR.

The stamps on the left are definitives. On the right is a 2007 stamp of Sergey Korolev, from a set of 3 on "50th anniversary of the space epoque of Mankind."

Kotovasiya Christmas

From Olya for the favorites tag. She writes "This card perfectly depicts what happens every morning in Moscow buses not only in Christmas day, but every day when people go to work, school, university." I love the looks on the squished cats' faces. Seems a bit like the Tokyo subway at rush hour. How are people without cars supposed to get their Christmas tree home if not on the bus? I have a tiny fake tree so I don't have to worry about that.

 Two stamps from 1996, unfortunately damaged in the post. :(

Moscow Metro Map

A plan of the Moscow metro, from Xenia for the favorites tag.

Lots of nice stamps! The one on the right is from here. Top row: In the middle we have a stamp from 2005 commemorating the 275th anniversary of the birth of A. V. Suvorov, a military commander. The one on the left is from 1998... predating the info on the UPU website. Bottom row: on the left, a 2000 commemorative featuring chess player Mikhail Botvinnik, and on the right, Schisandra chinensis, or five-flavor berry, a plant native to the Russian far east, from 1998.

Russian Horse

A card from SixthSense for the favorites tag. Actually I received a second copy of this card as an official. I think they were travelling at the same time (post from Russia tends to take a long time). Gorgeous!!

Great stamps too. These are all from the same 2006 set - in fact, it is the entire set of 5. Top row: horse (Equus caballus), raindeer/caribou (Rangifer tarandus). Middle row: Ross's gull (Rhodostethia rosea), Siberian crane (Grus leucogeranus). Bottom: polar bear (Ursus meritimus). These are all animals of the Sakha Republic.

Russia

This card is from sixth-sense for the favorites tag. I don't know what the picture is of, but I like it. :)

And I looooooove the stamps. Especially the one with the horses. The one with the horses is from 2000, in the series on Regions of the Russian Federation. This stamp depicts the Republic of Kalmykia, the only Buddhist region in Europe.
The child crossing the river is poster art for EUROPA 2003.


Then we have a bull mastiff from a set of 5 dogs issued in 2002.
And a chihuahua from a previous set of 5 dogs issued in 2000.

Yoshkar-Ola, Russia

This official is one of the first PC cards I ever received. Yoshkar-Ola is the capital city of the Mari El Republic, a federal subject of Russia, and this card shows Jubilee Square, where there is a 1975 sculpture of a man flying into space. According to wikipedia, the ethnic Mari people of this region are under heavy "Russification" and their language, culture, and faith have been under attack by the Russian government. :(

However, the image on the card is so bright and inviting... like a good place to take someone for a walk on a first date.

Polar bear definitives from 2008.

Kotovasiya

Now back to your regularly scheduled "Cards I Love"!



This one is from the favorites tag. I have so many awesome cards from those tags. For a while I was doing mainly tagging instead of sending officials, but now I have gotten back into sending officials. The thrill of picking an address and not knowing where or what kind of person it's going to be is my favorite part of postcrossing. I love that even more than getting awesome cards (which comes in a close second :).

Anyway.

Made that much more awesome by these stamps:

Top left: Europa stamp issued in May 2011. I'm not sure what the image is of, though.
Top right: One in a set of three endangered animals from 2007: snow leopard (Uncia uncia)
Bottom left: From 1998, but I don't know what it is of.
Bottom right: Sixth definitives series from 2009 - Russian Kremlins. This is Kazan Kremlin. See other kremlins from this series here and here.

Moscow, Russia

The Ascension Church in Kolomenskoe, Moscow, Russia, is one of the places that I like receiving multiple cards of (as long as the pictures are different, of course). It is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1994. Built in 1532, it is one of the earliest tent-roofed churches in Russia, and the earliest extant structure of this town, which became Kolomenskoye, an estate of the grand princes of Muscovy. It was actually built to commemorate the birth of a prince who would grow up to be Ivan the Terrible.


RU-182195 from Katya. She writes about walking in the park with her grandmother as a little girl, pretending to be alone on an old planet when there were no people there. Now, however, it is a popular spot and there are always people there, even in her old secret places.


From Olga for the UNESCO round robin group.


From a different Olga for the June 2010 RR.

So many awesome stamps!!

The two stamps on the right are from a 2004 set of four stamps on wolverines. On the left is an eagle from a 2005 joint issue by Russia and Belarus.


On the right are two stamps from a 2009 set of 4 on "Culture of the Russian People - National Head Dress." The gentleman on the far right is sporting a men's hat from Tver Province in the latter half of the 19th century. The woman in the center is sporting a headdress from Nizhniy Novgorod Province, mid-19th century. The stamp on the left is a painting by M.A. Vrubel called "The Swan Princess." It was issued in 2006 in a set of two (the other was a self-portrait by the same artist).


On the bottom are two definitives, Kolomna Kremlin from 2009 and a rabbit from 2008. Upper right is the EUROPA 2010 issue on children's books. Upper left is the fountain of Nizhniy Novgorod from set of 4 Fountains of Russia.

Altai Mountains, Russia

This gorgeous card is from Siguanea for the favorites tag. It's one of the giant cards - 21cm by 15cm! And sooooooo pretty. The back of the card says "View of the North-Chuysky Ridge from Sagandu." The Altai are located in central Asia, with parts of the range in Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. The name comes from the Mongolian words for "gold" and "mountain," and the area is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site under the name "Golden Mountains of Altai." It is critical habitat for the endangered snow leopard and Altai argali, a wild sheep; however, in a 2009 incident, several Russian VIPs were killed in a helicopter crash here during an alleged poaching expedition.

The large stamp on the right is a 2009 commemorative from a set of 4 on the subject of "National Head dress." This one comes from middle of XIX century (honestly, I'm not clear on what century that would be), Moscow district. On the left are two definitives from 2009, Zaraisk Kremlin on the bottom and Moscow Kremlin on the top.

Kotovasiya In Space

I used to not like cats; now I do. I used to not like cat cards; then I discovered Kotovasiya.
I love this as much as Krtek!

Awesome stamps!!

The little one on the left is second in a set of two on Coats of Arms issued in 2010, this one being that of the Yaroslavl region: a bear rampant with a halberd on his shoulder. Legend has it that the original inhabitants loosed a bear on Yaroslavl the Wise, trying to drive him away. Instead, he killed the bear and founded the city.

Top right is, of course, Belka and Strelka, the Russian canine cosmonauts, the first living creatures to come back from outer space alive. This stamp was issued last October to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their voyage.

Bottom right is a stamp from 2000. This predates the info on the UPU website, but I think this is from the series "International Co-operation in Space," here the "sea take-off point" international space project. Judging by the flags on the top of the stamp, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Norway, USA, Netherlands, France, UK, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Sweden, and Germany were the countries involved.


This card and stamps totally made my day. Actually, my week. Huge thanks to Peregrina on the forum, for the favorites tag. :D

From Russia With Love

This Russia map card came from mzk for the big groups midmonth RR. I'm actually not sure what the two photos are. In the middle is, of course, the Russian coat of arms, with its two main symbols a two-headed eagle, and a horseman slaying a dragon.

Four great stamps! This big one is textured and has a shiny gold frame. It is one of a set of five issued in 2002 commemorating Monasteries of Russian Orthodox Church. This one is the Pskov Cave Monastery of the Holy Assumption. The one on the bottom is the definitive showing a hare.


These two are from a 3-stamp set of 2009 representing regions of Russia. Left is Saratov Region, right is Chelyabinsk Region.

Russian Propaganda

This was a thank-you card for an official I sent to Russia. The text says "The honor of the USSR army!" On the back of the card, he pasted a used bus ticket:

So cool!

And the stamps. The one on the right is one of a set of four featuring tanks (this one is the BT-7M), commemorating the 65th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Did you know that stamps are not copyrighted material under the Russian civil code? There are lots of pictures of them on wikipedia. I couldn't find the one on the left, though.

Mysterious Russian Print

RU-107251, received from Janna in Orel, Russia.

This is a self-printed card of a picture by one of her favorite artists. She writes that this work is called "An extraordinary affair in the house of baron von Kuhelklopf." There are zero Google results for that title, and all I'm getting for "Kuhelklopf" is a band by that name. Anyone have any light to shed on the situation?


On the left, two 2008 definitives, elk and bear. On the right, the 2009 "Happy New Year" stamp.