On July 17, a postage stamp dedicated to the 150th Birth Anniversary of statesman Maksim Litvinov was put into postal circulation in the History of Russian Diplomacy series

Maksim Litvinov (1876–1951) was a Soviet revolutionary, a diplomat, a statesman, and a People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR. He was born on July 5(17) of 1876 in Białystok, in the Grodno Governorate of the Russian Empire. After graduating from school in 1893, he enlisted as a volunteer in the army and served for five years in Baku in the 17th Caucasian Infantry Regiment. In 1898, he worked as an accountant in Klintsy, and subsequently as a manager at a sugar factory in Kiev. In 1898, he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP); in 1900, he became a member of the Kiev Committee of the RSDLP. He set up the operation of an underground printshop, where revolutionary pamphlets and leaflets were printed. Litvinov was involved in the distribution of the Iskra (Spark) newspaper as the agent responsible for transporting it to Russia; he was a member of the administration of the Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy. He was a delegate to the 3rd Congress of the RSDLP (1905) and helped organize the first legal Bolshevik newspaper, Novaya Zhizn’ (New Life), in St. Petersburg.

From 1907, Litvinov lived in exile. He worked as secretary to the RSDLP delegation at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart. In 1908, he was arrested in France in connection with the Tiflis robbery case. He lived in London for ten years. He was secretary of the London group of Bolsheviks and secretary of the Herzen Circle. In June of 1914, he became the representative of the Central Committee of the RSDLP to the International Socialist Bureau. In February of 1915, he spoke on behalf of the Bolsheviks at the International Socialist Conference in London. From January to September of 1918, he served as diplomatic representative of Soviet Russia in Great Britain. On September 6 of 1918, M. Litvinov was arrested in response to the arrest in Russia of British diplomat Lockhart. After spending 10 days in Brixton Prison, he was released, and a month later, the two countries arranged an exchange of these diplomats.

On his return to Russia in November of 1918, M. Litvinov was appointed to the Collegium of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR. In November of 1919, he left for Copenhagen, where he held negotiations with British representative O’Grady, which terminated on February 12 of 1920 by signing the Anglo-Soviet Agreement on the Exchange of War Prisoners. In 1920, he was appointed Plenipotentiary Representative of the RSFSR in Estonia and Plenipotentiary of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) for gold value operations abroad. From 1921 to 1930, he served as Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR (and from 1923, of the USSR) under G. Chicherin. Concurrently, M. Litvinov was a member of the Collegium of the Council of People’s Commissars for State Control and a Deputy Chairman of the Main Concession Committee. From 1927 to 1930, he headed the Soviet delegation to the League of Nations Preparatory Commission on Disarmament. From 1930 to 1939, he was People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

From 1941 to 1946, Litvinov was a Deputy People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR; concurrently, from 1941 to 1943, he was the Soviet Ambassador to the United States, and from 1942 to 1943, the Soviet Envoy to Cuba. In September of 1943, he headed the Commission on Peace Treaties and Postwar Arrangements, established under the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR. He retired in 1946.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of statesman Maksim Litvinov against the background of the former building of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

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


Design Artist: R. Komsa.
Face value: 80 rubles.
Stamp size: 37×37 mm, sheet size: 130×104 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 6 (3×2) stamps.
Quantity: 42 thousand stamps (7 thousand sheets).

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