The event was held at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Oleg Dukhovnitskiy, Head of the Federal Communications Agency, and General Lieutenant Khalil Arslanov, Head of the Chief Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – Deputy Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, took part in the event.
The history of the postal and courier communication begins in 1716, when Peter I approved the “Military regulations”, which stated the necessity to create field post in the army.
Later on, the “field courier” service that substituted old-Russian “tsar’s messengers” and “faithful heads” expanded drastically, mainly at times of wars.
Emperor Paul I laid the foundation of a robust postal and courier communication corps by issuing a decree on 17 (28) December 1796, in which he approved the corps personnel, the wages, uniform and equipment.
The size and staff structure of the corps was constantly changed at various times depending on the tasks to perform.
After the October Revolution, the system used in the Russian Army was taken as a basis of the field postal communication in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army since the creation of the Red Army up to 1922. In 1918, a Service of External Communication at the Command Personnel Directorate of the All-Russian General Staff was established, which provided for delivery of governmental and military mail across the country, to headquarters of fronts and military command regions.
During the Great Patriotic War, an extraordinary scale of combat operations forced a switch of the existing delivery structures to war footing and a mobilization of all the postal communication capacity behind the lines and at the front. The field post amounted to more than 90% of all mail in the belligerent countries.
Nowadays postal and courier communication of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation provides for control of troops and navy by delivering secret and postal correspondence (telegrams) to headquarters of military units, troops, commands and military educational institutions.
The postage stamp bears an image of the Memorial to the Front Mailman sculpture by A.I. Ignatov in Voronezh (M.B. Grekov Studio of Military Artists).
Additionally, FSUE PTC “Marka” has manufactured a first day cover and a first day postmark for Moscow.
“It is very significant the postage stamp bears an image of a military mailman. Opened in Voronezh in 2015, the memorial to the front mailman is a symbol of heroic deeds and dedication of all postal sphere workers during the war”, said Mr. Dukhovnitskiy.
Design: S. Kapranov.
Face value: 21 RUB.
Size of stamp: 32.5×65 mm, size of sheet: 146×146 mm.
Form of issue: sheet of 8 (4×2) stamps.
Circulation: 240,000 stamps (30,000 sheets).
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