July 5, postage stamp ”50th Anniversary of the First Woman in Space” is issued.
After the first successful space flights of Soviet cosmonauts, it was decided to send a woman to space. Two women’s crews were to have flown simultaneously but later that idea was abandoned, with the task of selecting one of five candidates substituting the former plan. Valentina Tereshkova was selected a favorite among other contenders.
June 16, 1963 spaceship “Vostok-6” was launched from the “Baikonur” space-vehicle launching site, carrying the world’s first woman-cosmonaut to space. In spite of the physical discomfort, Tereshkova endured 48 orbits around the Earth and spent almost 3 days in space. During the flight, she was keeping a logbook and was making photographs of the Earth’s horizon, which were later used for detection of aerosol layers in the atmosphere.
The stamp has an illustrated cover and a FDC with cancellation inside
Design: S. Ul’yanovskiy.
Face value: 14.25 rub.
Size of stamp: 32.5x65 mm.
Form of issue: sheet of 8 (4x2) stamps.
Circulation: 424 thousand copies. (53 thousand sheets).
July 5, a series of postage stamps “Arts and Crafts of Russia. Shawls” is issued.
Postage stamps depict Pavlovoposad shawl and Orenburg, Karabanovsk and Tryokhgornaya manufactories headscarfs.
Pavlovo Posad products represent lush bouquets of garden and wild flowers in the corners of a shawl and garlands on its hem, as well as oriental ornaments imitating the Indian and Persian shawls. Moscow Oblast’ is also famous for its patterned silk fabrics and scarves.
Orenburg shawl is a knitted shawl made of goat's fiber and base (cotton, silk or other).
There are several kinds of Orenburg shawls. The first is the grey (seldom white) thick down hair shawls. These shawls started the tradition of Orenburg down-hair knitting. The second is the quite dense kerchiefs and pautinkas. They are used for every day wear and they give similar warmth to shawls. The third kind of Orenburg shawls are very thin (compared with “spider web” pautinkas and tippets). As a rule thin pautinkas have fancy patterns and are used as decoration on special occasions.
Scarves and shawls of Baranovs’ Troitsko-Alexandrovsky manufactory can be traced back to 1846. The main space in the products is occupied by multicolored floral patterns. Red, being present in every element of the pattern, unites centerpiece, hem and background. Geometric and oriental (‘cucumber’) motifs are present on the scarves along with the floral patterns.
Scarves and shawls always have played an important role in the diverse range of Tryokhgornaya manufactory.
Most products of Trekhgorny factory had a ‘classical’ arrangement of the ornament: a broad hem with lush flower garland, and a large middle part with rhythmically balanced bouquets or branches, creating a feeling of some static pattern.
The stamps have an illustrated cover and FDCs with cancellation inside.
Design: H. Betredinova.
Face value: 15 rub.
Size of stamp: 50x50x70 mm.
Form of issue: sheet of 4 stamps.
Circulation: 200 thousand copies. (50 thousand sheets) on each subject.
July 16, envelope with a commemorative stamp “200th anniversary of the Central Museum of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation” is issued.
The Central Museum of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation is the oldest museum, which reflects the history of the railways and the national railway equipment. The museum’s collection comprises the model of the Cherepanovs engineers’ steam locomotive, model of a steam locomotive with “Provorniy” tender, model of a steam locomotive type 1-3-0 series D, model of the superstructure with two bridge pillars over the Verebe ravine on Petersburg-Moscow rail road, collection of full-scale rolling stock. The museum’s collection was shown at national and international exhibitions in 19th and 20th centuries.
The envelope with a commemorative stamp has a picture of a steam locomotive type 1-3-0 series D, the first locomotive built by the Alexander factory in 1845 for the mail Petersburg-Moscow rail road, and the modern look of the museum building.
Design: A. Drobyshev.
Face letter: letter “A”.
Circulation: 1 million copies.
July 28, in a joint issue of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine a souvenir sheet with one stamp “1025th Anniversary of the Baptism of Rus” is issued.
Baptism is one of the most important cultural events in Russian history, which brought an end to the pagan era and marked the beginning of Christian part of history of Russia. The adoption of Christianity strengthened the power of the government and territorial unity of the Old Russian State. It was of a great international importance, which lay in the fact that Russia, having rejected primitive paganism, became equal to the other Christian nations. The adoption of Christianity played an important part in the formation of the state and Russian culture. It contributed to the development of architecture and art and promoted Byzantine culture as a successor to the ancient tradition. The spread of the Cyrillic alphabet and book tradition was especially important – only after the Baptism of Rus did the first monuments of ancient literary culture arise.
The fresco by Vladimir Vasnetsov “The Baptism of Rus” (1885-1896) from the State Tretyakov Gallery is depicted on the souvenir sheet.
Design: A. Moscovets.
Face value: 30 rub.
Size of sheet: 70x85 mm; size of stamp: 37x50 mm.
Circulation: 85 thousand copies..
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