The Gelendzhik Front Range Lighthouse is the oldest working lighthouse on the Black Sea coast. It is a monument of architecture. The Front Range Lighthouse is located in Gelendzhik at the address: 1 Mayachnaya Street, Lermontovsky Boulevard. The lightnouse was built on August 19, 1897. It is a two-story building styled after Art Nouveau with ornate finishes and a balcony. The working part of the lighthouse is topped by a graceful weathervane and is highlighted by a bright red stripe of a sea going range. The light emitting part of the range is hidden in a small bay window where the equipment is located. The author of the building is considered to be French architect François Joseph de Tonde. The rear range of the lighthouse is located on the offset of the Markotkh Ridge in the form of an obelisk near the Safari Park.
Range lighthouses, in contrast to identification beacons, which are used to indicate a point or danger, always work in pairs. They point to a certain line and warn sailors of a necessity to change course. Range lighthouses are built in different heights. The rear range of a lighthouse is always higher. The one on the quay is the front range, closest to the ship. The tower of the lighthouse has a built-in box with shutters, which are, in fact, the ranges that gave the name to this type of lighthouses. These ranges cover the light of the green and red lanterns. The green light signals that the ship is to the right of the safe area for the ships approaching the shore, and the red light signals that the ship is to the left of that area. In this way, lighthouses regulate a safe entry into the bays.
The Krasny Partizan Lighthouse came into operation on July 14, 1897, and until 1926, it had the name of the Nikolaevskii Lighthouse. The author of the project and the main builder of the lighthouse was an engineer with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel K. Leopold. The building of the lighthouse is located on the shore of the Tatar Strait, 60 meters from the shoreline and 12 km from the town of Sovetskaya Gavan. The one-story, rectangular in plan building was constructed of granite blocks. On the eastern side of the building, a triangular tower of the lighthouse is cut into the building space. In case the siren malfunctioned, a bell and an artillery gun were installed in the lighthouse grounds. In 1961, a radio beacon was installed in the same building.
In 1919, during the Civil War, near the lighthouse there was a battle between the partisans and the White Guards punitive forces. The core of the partisan detachment was made up of the lighthouse keepers, but only the watchman managed to escape from pursuit. The rest of the lighthouse workers were captured and executed by shooting in Mayachnaya Bay along with with other partisans and residents of the village of Znamenskoye. In memory of these events, the cape and the lighthouse were renamed Red Partisan, and in 1926, a memorial obelisk was mounted on the place of the execution. The lighthouse is registered in the list of objects of cultural heritage of Russia.
The postage stamps feature the Gelendzhik Front Range Lighthouse against the background of the map of Gelendzhik Bay in the Black Sea and the wind rose and the Krasny Partizan lighthouse against the background of the map of Cape Krasny Partizan in the Tatar Strait and the wind rose.
In addition to the issue of the postage stamps, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Penza, Krasnodar and Khabarovsk, as well as two maxi-cards, and an illustrated envelope with postage stamps, a label and First Day Covers with cancels for Moscow and Khabarovsk inside.
Design Artist: M. Bodrova.
Face value: 40 rubles.
Stamp size: 42×30 mm, sheet size: 146×176 mm.
Emission form: sheets with 15 (3×5) stamps.
Quantity: 135 thousand each stamp (9 thousand each sheet).
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