The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established in 1802 by a Manifesto of Emperor Alexander I. The type of uniform for diplomats — the ceremonial, the workaday and travel clothes — was set up in 1834 under Emperor Nicholas I in the “Regulation on Civil Uniform”. The uniform included a uniform jacket, a uniform tailcoat and a green-dark frockcoat.
The modern uniform for diplomats having the ranks of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and an Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 1st and the 2nd grades was introduced by a Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on November 17, 2001. It is solely ceremonial and is used for official diplomatic protocol events.
The postage stamps bear the following images:
- a privy counselor and a chancellor. The MFA of the Russian Empire (1834);
- a state counselor and a collegiate registrar. The MFA of the Russian Empire (1904);
- an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR and an attaché of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR (1945);
- Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation (2001).
Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” manufactured an illustrated cover with four postage stamps and first day covers with cancellation (Moscow and St Petersburg) inside.
Design: S. Ulyanovsky.
Face value: 19 RUB.
Size of stamps: 32.5×65 mm, size of sheets and sheetlet: 154×154 mm.
Form of issue: sheets with illustrated margins and a sheetlet of 8 (4×2) stamps.
Circulation: 224,000 each stamp (28,000 each sheet), 55,000 sheetlets.
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