On August 7, a postage stamp dedicated to the 400th Birth Anniversary of Artamon Matveev, the Head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz and the Little Russia Prikaz, was put into postal circulation in the History of Russian Diplomacy series

Artamon Matveev (1625-1682) was a close boyar of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He was born in 1625, was raised along with the future Tsar Alexei. He later became the head of the Streltsy (riflemen) and was a member of the Embassy to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. During the Russo-Polish War of 1654-1667, Matveev participated in the siege of Smolensk; he traveled to Lithuania and Poland to negotiate the election of Alexei Mikhailovich as Polish king. In 1657, he revealed the treason of I. Vygovsky and tamed the unrest in Ukraine. He took part in the suppression of the Copper Rebellion in 1662. In 1669, he was in charge of the Little Russia Prikaz; from 1671, he was in charge of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Streltsy Prikaz, and the Kazan palace Prikaz. He considered the main task of the foreign policy to be the attachment of entire Ukraine to Russia and for this aim he thought it possible to temporarily give up the struggle with Sweden for the Baltic. On February 22 of 1671, Matveev was appointed head of the ambassadorial seal. Three years later, he was granted the rank of boyar and butler with the title of governor of Serpukhov. He suppressed uprisings in Kolomenskoye, in Putivl, and in Pereyaslavl. In 1672, during negotiations with Poland, he attained the Kiev affixture to Russia. In 1674, A. Matveev went to the Chinese Emperor as an envoy.

After Tsar Alexei had married his distant relative Natalya Naryshkina, Matveev became the most influential figure at the Court. He assembled an extensive library and organized a pharmacy and a court theater in Moscow, where The Action of Artaxerxes and other plays were staged. After the Tsar’s death in 1676, he was excommunicated from the Court under the guise of being sent for voivode service to Siberia, accused of sorcery, deprived of ranks and the estate and imprisoned in the Pustozersky jail, where he stayed for seven years. The conspiracy was initiated by Princess Sophia and the Miloslavsky family, with the participation of the Apraksin family. In 1682, he was returned to the Court, but on May 15 during the Streltsy rebellion in Moscow, he was captured by rebels in the palace and killed.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of Artamon Matveev.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and a special cancel for Moscow.


Design Artist: S. Ulyanovsky.
Face value: 80 rubles.
Stamp size: 37×37 mm, sheet size: 131×104 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 6 (3×2) stamps.
Quantity: 42 thousand stamps (7 thousand sheets).

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