State Signs of Postal Payment to Be Issued in May

The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is a sports event organized and held by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) since 1920.At first, the tournament was held as part of the Olympic Games only but shifted to an annual format in 1930.The Soviet Union made its debut at the 1954 World Championship and immediately came to the forefront of the world hockey. In all the USSR/Russia has won 27 gold (the most of all participating countries), 10 silver and 7 bronze medals at World Championships.
 

The 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, the 80^th edition of the tournament, is hosted by Russia and will take place at two arenas in Moscow and St Petersburg from 6 till 22 May. Sixteen teams will be participating in the tournament, including Russia as the host nation.
 

The postage stamp features an official mascot of the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship: Laika the Dog in a hockey sweater.

 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture an illustrated cover with a block of four stamps and a first day cover with cancellation (Moscow) inside. A first day postmark for St Petersburg will also be made.

 

Design: O. Shushlebina.

Face value: 19 RUB.

Size of stamp: 37×37 mm, size of sheet: 131×131 mm.

Form of issue: sheet with illustrated margins of 9 (3×3) stamps.

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891‒1953) was one of the major composers of the 20^th century, pianist, conductor and teacher.

 

Prokofiev was born in Sontsovka (now Krasne, Krasnoarmiisk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine), a remote rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire, into a family of an agronomist. He composed his first piano composition at the age of five and he took theory and composition lessons from Reinhold Glière in 1902‒1903. In 1909, he graduated the Saint Petersburg Conservatory as a composer and in 1914 as a pianist.

 

Prokofiev left his mark in history as musical language trail-blazer. His most famous works are opera War and Peace, Op. 91 (1943; 2^nd edition, 1952), ballets Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1936), Cinderella, Op. 87 (1944), The Tale of the Stone Flower, Op. 118 (1950), oratorio On Guard for Peace, Op. 124 (1950), cantata Alexander Nevsky, Op. 78 (1939) and a children’s story Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67.

 

The envelope with an original stamp features a portrait of Sergei Prokofiev against the background of Romeo and Juliet musical score, a cover of the score and musical notation of the ballet.
 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture a special cancellation postmark for Moscow.

Design: V. Khablovskiy

Circulation: 1,000,000 copies.
 

Alexey Petrovich Maresyev (1916–2001) was a legendary WWII military aviator and a Hero of the Soviet Union.
 

He was born on 20 May 1916 in Kamyshin, Volgograd Oblast. After the 8^th grade, Alexey Maresyev got a profession of a metalworker. He tried to enroll into a flight school twice but was rejected due to health problems.
 

In 1934, Alexey Maresyev went to Khabarovsk Krai to build Komsomolsk-on-Amur. There, he started to learn to fly in a local aero club. Three years later, Maresyev was called up for military service and sent to the 12^th Aerial Border Guard Detachment on Sakhalin Island. Later, he was transferred to a flight school in Bataisk, which he finished holding the rank of Junior Lieutenant and was appointed an instructor. In August 1941, Alexey Maresyev was sent to the front.
 

Alexey Maresyev performed his first combat flight on 23 August 1941, and by March 1942, he had four shot-down German planes under his belt. On 4 April1942, his fighter aircraft was shot down near the Demyansk Pocket (the Novgorod Region) during a bombers covering operation. Maresyev had to make a forced landing on the enemy-occupied territory and was working his way to the front line for 18 days; he got severely frostbitten, which resulted in his both legs being amputated. Despite this, the pilot managed to return to flying. In total, he completed 86 mission sorties and shot down 11 enemy’s warplanes during the war.
 

On 24 August 1943, under a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Alexey Maresyev was awarded a title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for exemplary accomplishment of combat missions, personal courage and a high order of airmanship.

It is Alexey Maresyev that was a prototype of the character of The Story of a Real Man novel by Boris Polevoy.
 

The postage stamp depicts a portrait of Alexey Maresyev with La-5FN plane in the background.
 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture first day postmarks for Moscow, St Petersburg and Kamyshin (Volgograd Oblast), as well as an illustrated cover with a stamp sheet and first day covers with cancellations inside.

 

Design: R. Komsa.

Face value: 21.50 RUB.

Size of stamp: 42×30 mm, size of sheet: 155×170 mm.

Form of issue: sheet with illustrated margins of 10 (3×4) stamps and a coupon.

Nicholas Krasnoff’s works, being a part of the Art topic, have been chosen a as a common theme for the joint issue of postage stamps of the Republic of Malta and the Russian Federation.
 

Nicholas Krasnoff (1864–1939) was an Academician of Architecture, artist and the chief architect author of the city of Yalta.
 

The most-known buildings designed by Krasnoff are the Livadia Palace (1909–1911) built in Italian Renaissance on the Black Sea shore in Livadia, a mansion of Duchess Natalya Baryatinskaya in Selbillyar Estate in Lower Alupka, a palace of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia in Miskhor called “Dulber”, his own house on Nikolaevskaya St and St Nina Church in Yalta, Yusupov Palace in Koreiz, etc.
 

In 1920–1922, he lived in Malta, where he taught pictorial art and took up water-color painting. The artist also made several sketches of Maltese stamps. The most-known paintings are Dulber, Charax Estate of Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, East-facing façade of the Livadia Palace and View from Vittoriosa Gate.
 

The postage stamps feature fragments of such paintings as Dulber from the Yalta Historical and Literature Museum and View from Vittoriosa Gate from the National Museum of Fine Arts of Malta.
 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture an illustrated cover with Russian and Maltese stamps and first day covers with cancellations inside.

 

Design: O. Shushlebina.

Face value: 21 RUB.

Size of stamp: 37×50 mm, size of sheet: 168×170 mm.

Form of issue: sheet with illustrated margins of 10 (4×3) stamps and two coupons.

Rosa Khutor is a mountain resort in Krasnaya Polyana in the Adler District of Sochi, Krasnodar Krai. It is the largest venue of the XXII Olympic Games and XI Paralympic Games 2014. World Ski Awards named Rosa Khutor the best mountain ski complex three times — in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
 

Nowadays, the Russia’s largest skiing area (77 km of slopes of any difficulty level) is available at the visitors’ service. The resort has 24 lifts, and the skiing season amounts up to 140 days a year thanks to the slopes location and the largest artificial snow-making system in Europe.
 

In summer, Rosa Khutor’s unique location allows its customers to combine mountain and sea recreation. The resort has its own beach on the Black Sea shore and another Rosa Beach Complex boasting two swimming pools with clear mountain water. The resort also offers various outdoor activities — hiking, horse-riding, Nordic walking, cycling and Panda Park (ropes course).
 

The postage stamp features Rosa Khutor hotels and restaurants with their patrons.
 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture an illustrated cover with the stamp and first day covers with cancellation (Moscow) inside.

 

Design: A. Moscovets.

Face value: 31 RUB.

Size of stamp: 65×32.50 mm, size of sheet: 160×140 mm.

Form of issue: sheet with illustrated margins of 6 (2×3) stamps.

The Russian Orthodox Chapel on the Vršič pass dedicated to Saint Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, was built in 1916 in the memory of the fallen Russian prisoners of war.
 

The history of the Chapel is inextricably connected to World War I, in which Slovenia was drawn being a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. In July 1915, a work camp for prisoners of war, mainly Russian soldiers, was established on the Vršič pass. The POWs’ task was to build the road and to clear it of snow. On 12 March 1916, a tragedy occurred at the pass near a small town of Kranjska Gora: a huge avalanche buried a Russian POW group killing approximately 500 people. No less than 10,000 Russian POWs died from 1915 till 1917 throughout the time the Austro-Hungarian functioned.
 

The 2016 marks the centenary since the Russian Chapel was founded that became a symbol of friendship between the peoples of Slovenia and Russia, as well as a memorial to all the Russians, who died in these places.
 

Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” will manufacture an illustrated cover with Slovene and Russian stamps and first day covers with cancellations inside.

 

Design: S. Ulyanoskiy.

Face value: 21 RUB.

Size of stamp: 32.50×65 mm, size of sheet: 160×160 mm.

Form of issue: sheet with illustrated margins of 7 (4×2) stamps and a coupon.