"This, then, will be a far from complete album, unlike its thematic predecessor (pre-war Third Reich), which omits only a couple of stamps and sheets. The next task (2018, I think) is to mount them up in my familiar style into an album."
Well, 2018 is here and I have just finished mounting my 1923-1939 Soviet album, with only a handful of stamps yet to be delivered from dealers in Canada and Russia.
As implied in that last post, there are several USSR sets (mostly 1934-35) which are beyond my pocket, and a few more stamps which, while catalogued cheaply, are simply not offered anywhere individually. A possible solution may be to waive my insistence on mint stamps and insert a few postally used - which I have done in a few cases where the mint stamps are in a different album.
I have discovered that Stanley Gibbons is not a wholly reliable source of information, though it is the easiest to consult. There will doubtless be articles in the Rossica journal which might add to my store of knowledge, if they can be accessed simply via the internet.
It has been an interesting period and, as ever, I have tried to link the political trajectory of Soviet Russia to its stamp issues - too often with a degree of speculation which has alarmed SOR readers! Technically, the stamps stand poor comparison with the contemporaneous stamps of Third Reich Germany, but I nevertheless have some favourites. One in particular is the 1939 set entitled "New Moscow" designed by N.Sheverdyaev, its clean-lined, airy illustrations a contrast to the rather botched set of a couple of years earlier which depicted the fantastical designs of Stalinist architecture, but in a muddy and indistinct way. Sheverdyaev was a graphic designer one of whose magazine covers can be seen on the internet, but he was not asked to do any further stamp issues. Here are the first three of the 1939 set:
Moscow - Gorky Street
Moscow - Council of Commissars Building
Moscow - The Lenin Library
...and here is a sample page from the album, showing another favourite set, the Moscow Metro extension issue of 1938:
The next project (after a suitable break to catch up on non-philatelic books, films, box sets, etc.) may be to extend the Stalin era stamps up to his death in 1953.
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re: Soviet Album completed
I hear you on the USSR collection. Between USSR and DDR - I find the propaganda stamps very interesting from an historical political perspective.
I actually began my USSR collection because it complements my DDR collection.
Both are on hold right now as I work through creating my WW 1840-1950 collection.
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Very nice work! I especially like your careful mounting. Your attention to the detail that your borders are large enough to allow for the mount, that's a very clean look!
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