The lives of Sergey Aksakov and Savva Mamontov were closely connected to the Abramtsevo Museum Reserve located 60 km from Moscow, not far from Sergiyev Posad.The museum complex comprises monuments of architecture of the 18th and the 19th centuries (6 of them are monuments of federal importance), a park and a scenic surrounding area of the Vorya River, where outstanding Russian artists created their works of art. The museum collection contains more than 25,000 objects: paintings, drawings, ceramics, photographs, sculptures and others.
In 1843, Sergey Aksakov (1791–1859), a writer, civil servant and public person, book and theater critic, as well as an author of memoirs and books about fishing and hunting, bought Abramtsevo. There, he created his best works
Notes on Fishing,
Notes of a Hunter in Orenburg Province, autobiographical novels
A Family Chronicle and Childhood Years of the Bagrov Grandson, as well as a fairy tale
The Scarlet Flower. Such writers as Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Aleksey Khomyakov, Mikhail Shchepkin and others visited the estate when the Aksakovs owned it.
Savva Mamontov (1841-1918), a railway mogul, philanthropist and founder of the first private opera in Russia, purchased Abramtsevo in 1870. During this time, Vasily Polenov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Ilya Repin, Ilya Ostroukhov, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, Mikhail Vrubel and other artists, musicians and actors lived and worked in the estate. The creative collaboration of these artists left its mark in the history of art as the Abramtsevo Circle, which laid the foundations of national, neo-Russian art movement of the Art Nouveau style and determined the work of the World of Art association, the Konstantin Stanislavski Moscow Art Theatre and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev at the turn of the 20th century. The members of the Abramtsevo Circle founded the Abramtsevo workshops that initiated the revival and development of old crafts, such as woodcarving and majolica production.
The stamps depict the portraits of Sergey Aksakov and Savva Mamontov; the souvenir sheet margins feature the Abramtsevo Museum Reserve main mansion.
Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” has manufactured first day covers and special cancellation postmarks for Moscow, Abramtsevo (Moscow Oblast) and Ufa. Besides, a souvenir sheet with additional text on the margins printed with a transparent ink glowing in the UV radiation is also issued. Its circulation is 15,000 copies; it is sold as part of the presentation pack only.
Design: S. Ulyanovskiy.
Face value: 25 RUB.
Size of sheet: 130×110 mm, size of stamp: 37×50 mm.
Circulation: 75,000 stamps.
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