Emissions of state valuable postal matter in January

On January 12, a postage stamp devoted to the 100th Birth Anniversary of Nicolay G. Basov, scientist, the founder of quantum electronics, will go into postal circulation in the Noble Prize Winners Series

Nicolay G. Basov (1922-2001) was a Soviet and Russian physicist, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1964), the Lenin Prize (1959) and the State Prize of the USSR(1989), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1969, 1982).

From 1948, he worked as a research assistant at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN), where he continued his work after graduation from MEPhI. In 1958-1972, Basov was a Deputy Director of FIAN, and from 1973 to 1989, he was the Director of this Institute. In 1963, he established a Quantum Radio Physics Laboratory in FIAN. In 1962, Basov was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1966, he was elected an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Nicolay Basov was the Editor-in-Chief of the Nauka (Science), Kvantovaya Elektronika (Quantum Electronics), and Priroda (Nature) journals and a member of the Editorial Board of the Kvant (Quantum) journal. N. Basov and A. Prokhorov were awarded the Lenin Prize in 1959, and in 1964, in collaboration with Ch. Townes, they received the Physics Nobel Prize for "fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle".

The postage stamp provides a portrait of N. Basov, Nobel Prize laureate, scientist, fragments of formulae and the logo of the Kvantovaya Elektronika journal.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka will produce First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and Voronezh.


Design Artist: M. Podobed.
Face value: 50 rubles.
Stamp size: 32.5×32.5 mm, sheet size: 119×123 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 9 (3×3) stamps.
Quantity: 117 thousand stamps (13 thousand sheets).


On January 12, an envelope with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 250th Birth Anniversary of political leader and public figure Mikhail M. Speransky will go into postal circulation

Count Mikhail M Speransky (1772-1839) went down in history as a great Russian reformer, the founder of the Russian legal science and theoretical science of law.

His practical activities were in many resects related to the reformation of the state legal system of the Russian Empire. M. Speransky's concept provided the basis of famous Decree On free grain farmers (1803) by Alexander I, which enabled landlords to manumit serfs by granting them land.

In 1816-1819, Speransky was the Governor of Penza, and in 1819-1821, the Governor-General of Siberia. During the reign of Nicholas I he headed the work on codification of legislation, thereby laying the foundation of theoretical jurisprudence (legal science) in Russia.

On January 19, 1833, during a special meeting of the State Council, he presented to the Emperor 45 volumes of the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire and 15 volumes of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.

The commemorative stamp provides a portrait of M. Speransky; the illustration features painting by A.D. Kivshenko Nicholas I laying the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called on Count Speransky (1880, the Central Naval Museum).

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka will produce special cancels for Moscow and Vladimir.


Design Artist: R. Komsa.
Quantity: 1 million items.


On January 17, an envelope with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 175th Birth Anniversary of Nikolay Ye. Zhukovsky, scientist in the field of mechanics, the founder of fluid dynamics, will go into postal circulation

Nikolai Ye. Zhukovsky (1847-1921) was a Russian mechanician, the founding father of aero- and hydrodynamics. He was a Professor Emeritus of Moscow University (1911), Honorary Member of Moscow University (1916), Professor Emeritus of the Imperial Moscow Technical School (since 1918, the Moscow Higher Technical School), a Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of Mathematical Sciences (1894).

In 1902, he supervised the construction of the suction-type wind tunnel facility at the Mechanical Department of Moscow University, and in 1904, he headed the Europe’s first Aerodynamic Institute, established at the expense of D. Ryabushinsky in the village of Kuchino near Moscow. In the same year, Zhukovsky formulated a theorem, providing a quantitative value of the lifting force of an airplane wing; he defined the basic profiles of airplane wings and rotor blades; and developed the vortex theory of an airplane propeller. In 1905, he was elected the President of the Moscow Mathematical Society. In 1909, N. Zhukovsky headed the creation of the Aerodynamic Laboratory at the School. In 1916, he topped a Calculation-and-Testing Bureau at the Aerodynamic Laboratory of Moscow Technical School, where he developed methods of aerodynamic calculations and airplane structural calculations.

N. Zhukovsky’s research results were set forth in his papers. With his active involvement, Brief Theoretical Courses of Aviation were established in 1913, which were reorganized first into the Moscow Aviation Technical School in 1919, then into the Institute of Red Air Fleet Engineers in 1920; and ultimately, into the Military Air Academy and Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI).

The commemorative stamp provides a portrait of Nikolay Ye. Zhukovsky; the illustration features a flat wind tunnel, Zhukovsky’s lever pattern, and formulae.

In addition to the issue of the envelope, JSC Marka will produce special cancels for Moscow and Vladimir.


Design Artist: V. Khablovsky.
Quantity: 1 million items.


On January 20, a postage stamp devoted to stories and myths will go into postal circulation in the framework of EUROPA Stamp Issue

In Russia, mythology is closely and inextricably linked to pagan culture; it is filled with tales of gods, rituals, and customs. Over the course of history, people had been inventing various mystical creatures to explain the unknown world around them. As time went on, many of the characters took root and became part of the culture of the peoples; they safeguarded, helped to gather a rich crop, to bring prosperity, recover from diseases and donated happiness.

Many of them are described in the narratives of Russian writers. For example, in poem Ruslan and Lyudmila by Aleksander Pushkin we read a passage about a sacred place Lukomorye and fairy tale personages living there: a learned cat, a mermaid, Kashchey, Baba-Yaga, and a warlock.

The postage stamp provides images of fairy tale personages from poem Ruslan and Lyudmila by Aleksander Pushkin.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka will produce First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, as well as a maxi-card and an illustrated envelope with the postal stamp, a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Moscow inside.


Design Artists: V. Vatolina (stamp); N. Karpova (design of margins).
Face value: 55 rubles.
Stamp size: 37×50 mm, sheet size: 176×178 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 12 (4×3) stamps.
Quantity: 132 thousand stamps (11 thousand sheets).


On January 26, an envelope with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 150th Birth Anniversary of composer Alexander N. Skriabin will go into postal circulation

Alexander N. Skriabin (1872–1915) was a Russian composer and pianist, educator, representative of symbolism in music. He was the first to introduce the concept of “color music".

Scriabin’s music is very distinctive. It clearly conveys nervousness, impulsivity, restless pursuit no stranger to mysticism. Scriabin's major compositions for orchestra are three symphonies (Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 3 composed in 1900, 1902 and 1904, accordingly), The Poem of Ecstasy (1907), and Prometheus (1910). The orchestral score of the Prometheus symphonic poem includes a part for a color organ, which made Skriabin the first composer in history to use color music.

A. Scriabin toured many Russian cities and performed abroad. On the outbreak of World War I, he gave charity concerts for the benefit of the Red Cross and war-stricken families.

The main image features covers of sheet music books, a grand piano, and a line from a composition by A. Scriabin; the commemorative stamp provides a portrait of the composer and a scene of his performance with an orchestra.

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka will produce a special cancel for Moscow.


Design Artist: A. Moskovets.
Quantity: 1 million items.


On January 27, postage stamps devoted to songbirds will go into postal circulation in the Fauna of Russia series.

Songbirds are predominantly members of Passeriformes, wood habitants in the forest, capable of producing harmonious sequences of sounds that are perceived by humans as songs. There are more than 5,000 species in the world common in all countries.

Most of these birds are migrants, but there are also resident ones, who do not leave their usual inhabitations for the winter. They feed on insects and spiders, seeds, berries, fruits and grains of plants, and flower nectar. They live in nests, in pairs, keeping typically to flocks; they are not afraid of people and always settle nearby.

About 300 species of songbirds live in Russia. The well-known and most beautiful of them are a bunting, a kinglet, a jay, a robin, a chaffinch, a siskin, an oriole, and a greenfinch.

The postage stamps provide images of a black-headed bunting, a yellow-headed kingfisher, a jay and a robin.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamps, JSC Marka will produce First Day Covers and special cancels for Astrakhan, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Sevastopol, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, as well as maxi-cards and an illustrated envelope with postage stamps, a label and a First Day Cover with a cancel for Moscow inside.


Design Artist: N. Karpova.
Face value: 25 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 108×148 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 8 (2×4) stamps.
Quantity: 70 thousand stamps each (35 thousand sheets each).


On January 28, a postcard with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 175th Birth Anniversary of Ivan P. Borodin, a botanist, the founder of the Russian preservation movement, will go into postal circulation in the Geographic Projects of Russia series

Ivan P. Borodin (1847–1930) was a Russian botanist, popularizer of science, the founder of the Russian preservation movement.

In 1876, he received a master’s degree in botany for his dissertation Physiological Investigations of Respiration in Leaf Shoots. He is also known for the discovery of crystallizing chlorophyll, which played a major role in the study of this substance. In 1873, Borodin initiated a study of flavonoids in Russia.

In different years, he was a professor and lecturer on botany at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, the Forest Institute, the Novorossiysk and St. Petersburg Universities.

Since 1887, Ivan Borodin was a Corresponding Member, and since 1902, an Academician of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. From 1902, he held the position of the Director of the Botanical Museum of the Academy of Sciences.

Borodin repeatedly promoted the idea of nature protection. In 1912, a Standing Environmental Commission of the Russian Geographical Society was established with his active participation. On the initiative of I. Borodin, in 1915, a Russian Botanical Society was instituted of which he was the permanent President till the end of his life.

The main image features a portrait of I. Borodin against the background of the covers of his papers and the logo of the RGS; the commemorative stamp provides images that show symbolically geographic projects.

In addition to the issue of the postcard with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka will produce special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg and Veliky Novgorod.


Design Artist: S. Kapranov.
Quantity: 7 thousand postcards.


On January 29, an envelope with a commemorative stamp dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Moscow State Academic Philarmonia will go into postal circulation

The Moscow State Academic Philarmonia (MSAPh) is one of the largest concert organizations in the world, holding annually more than 3,000 concerts at venues in Moscow, in regions of Russia and abroad.

The grand opening of the Moscow Philarmonia was held on January 29, 1922, in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Throughout its history, the Philarmonia has maintained a leading position, introducing first-rate musicians. In 1996, the Moscow Philarmonia received the status of "academic".

The Moscow State Academic Philarmonia has seven active concert venues, namely: the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Philarmonia Chamber Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and the halls making part of the Philarmonia-2 concert complex: the Rachmaninov Concert Hall, the Small Hall, the Game Hall (for events with children) and the Virtual (cinema) Hall.

The commemorative stamp provides an image of the building of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the emblem of the celebration; the illustration features a photo taken during a concert of the Symphony Orchestra conducted by N. Golovanov, soloist E. Gilels (May, 1942).

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka will produce a special cancel for Moscow.


Design Artist: M. Bodrova.
Quantity: 1 million envelopes.

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