Here are some useful tips for deciphering the Cyrillic alphabet, as used on Russian stamps (and also Serbian and Bulgarian).
Most Cyrillic letters on stamps are in upper case capitals, which makes things easier - there is a cursive ('handwritten') alphabet which is tricky, but not so often used. We can divide the letters into groups, as follows:
1. Letters which spell the same as ours.
A E K M O T. No problem there.
2. False friends. They look the same as ours but sound different! Be wary!
B C H P X. Get to know them: they are very common. They are pronounced:
V S N R H
The X is an aspirate H (a bit like the Scottish loch).
3. Greek letters.
D F G L P
Do you collect Greece, or remember the letters from school? If so, these are easy, but otherwise you'll have to learn them.
4. Common Cyrillic letters which don't give much of a clue as to what they say.
B I U ya zh ch yu
sh ts shch
Reading along the top line, the first one is a B (a sawn-off B, but easily confused with V).
Next is the reverse N, which is very common - it is an I.
Then there is what looks like a Y, but which is pronounced like a U.
The reverse R is quite common, but is pronounced 'ya' - it is a sort of vowel.
The magnificent six-legged letter is that most common of Russian sounds, the 'zh'.
The upturned h is a 'ch'.
The combination i-o is pronounced 'yu'.
Finally the three on the second line, which all make similar sounds.
The first (three prongs) is a 'sh'
The second (two prongs and a tail) is a 'ts'
The third (three prongs and a tail) is a 'shch'.
There are a few other letters in the Cyrillic alphabet, but they are not common and we shall ignore them here.
Using the above, you might try writing 'pochta' in Cyrillic - a word often seen on Russian stamps. 'SSSR' (the Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik) will look familiar if you write it.
Try writing 'Lenin' or 'Pushkin' - two of the most frequently seen names on Russian stamps. When you are more confident, go for 'Vladimir Putin', or 'Yuri Gagarin'!
I hope this helps those of you who collect Russia or the other countries that use the Cyrillic alphabet. With a bit of practice it does get easier!
Ian. I'm in total agreement with Clive and my ol' buddy Ernie. This post is really helpful.
As I was reading this and then looking at some older Eastern European stamps they sounded out so nicely phoenetically that figuring out where they originated was much easier.
I'll have to try this out on my glassine full of "Stamps to Identify" this weekend. Probably 80% are Cyrillic.
"Secondly, why is there a London FS registration label affixed?"
I can't read the address but it appears to be in London so I guess the British label was applied when received to make it clear to local staff that it was a registered item.
"I can't read the address but it appears to be in London so I guess the British label was applied when received to make it clear to local staff that it was a registered item.
"
"?????? : Razhitsa is a village in Ruen Municipality, in Burgas Province, in southeastern Bulgaria."
Razhitsa in Bulgaria is spelt with a hard sign as the second letter.
"Secondly, why is there a London FS registration label affixed?"
There appears to be a VALEUR DECLAREE label at the top left of the cover and maybe this was the only non-Russian indication that it had been registered apart from the numbered label.
You often see a large R within a circle of dots or a label with a capital R or Russian Z.
The crossed blue lines were added after the LONDON FS label was applied.