On October 8, an EWCS dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of the completion of the Nuremberg Tribunal was put into postal circulation in the On the 85th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 series

On August 8 of 1945, the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France concluded an agreement on organizing a trial of the chief war criminals. Subsequently, 19 more states officially joined the agreement, and the tribunal could with full right be referred to as the Court of Nations.

The trial began on November 20 of 1945 and lasted almost 11 months. 24 war criminals who belonged to the chief leadership of Nazi Germany appeared before the tribunal. Besides, it was for the first time that consideration was given to the issue of recognizing a number of political and state institutions as criminal, among them being the leadership of the NSDAP, its stormtrooper (SA) and security (SS) detachments, the security service (SD), the secret state police (Gestapo), the government cabinet, the Supreme Command and the General Staff.

The accused were charged with planning, preparing, unleashing or waging an aggressive war for the purpose of establishing the world domination of German imperialism, that is, with crimes against peace; with the murders and torture of prisoners of war and civilians of the occupied countries, the deportation of the civilian population to Germany for forced labor, the murder of hostages, the plundering of public and private property, the senseless destruction of cities and villages, and devastation not justified by military necessity, that is, with war crimes; with extermination, enslavement, exile and other cruelties committed against the civilian population on political, racial or religious grounds, that is, with crimes against humanity.

Each of the four countries sent to the trial its chief prosecutors, their deputies and assistants: Sir Hartley Shawcross from Great Britain; R. Rudenko, Prosecutor of the Ukrainian SSR (deputy prosecutor Yu. Pokrovsky, assistants N. Zorya, D. Karev, L. Smirnov, and L. Sheinin) from the USSR; US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson from the USA; and François de Menthon from France.

On September 30, the tribunal began reading the verdict, which was completed on October 1 of 1946. The accused were found guilty of grave crimes against peace and humanity. The tribunal sentenced twelve of them to death by hanging. Others were sentenced to life imprisonment or long prison terms. Three persons were acquitted.

The main illustration shows a historical photograph from the Nuremberg Tribunal, an eight-volume book edition based on the case materials, archival documents, and a folder of R. Rudenko; the commemorative stamp features the emblem of the celebration of the 85th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artists: A. Moskovets and S. Kapranov.
Quantity: 500 thousand items.

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