the other thing that this helps document is the amazing number of political entities that existed in what we once called Czechoslovakia, some for a day, many for generations, several for a couple of different iterations and completely different governments.
David
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 28 Oct 2014 10:00:19am
re: Eastern European / Russian postcard
I suppose some collector, knowing what was about to happen, m,ay have felt the need to scurry around and find a useable card and write something innocuous, which documented the existence of the rump state before the Hungarians troops made their way c=down the street.
On the other hand, someone with the presence of mind to do that should also have been able to think of some traditional holiday to extend his good wishes that was not nine months away.
Then it is possible that the common phrase was a secret code word or phrase such as ".... Blessent mon cœur d’une langueur monotone. ...." an part of a well known French poem which alerted underground agents that the invasion of Europe was imminent.
I like the last possibility, notwithstanding its being unlikely.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
I think it was amazing that they could generate any type of material for a country that had only one day of existence. Was the card made before or after the country was actually it own country? I would think after, since there is the mention of Christmas. Are there any postal items that were authentically used available?
Mike
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"It's been three years now, since I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven't met yet..."
I'm a little late in posting a response, but here are my two cents...
Being half Latvian, I'm fairly well-acquainted with propaganda cards from that country. This might be a similar product. Patriotic organizations would often ignore the political reality of the day and continue to issue cards, labels, etc. in the name of the "country" they supported. The Carpatho-Ukraine state might have ceased to exist after a day; but that didn't mean that its concept ceased to exist for the Ukrainian minority in the region. Tangentially, it's an interesting contre temps to the situation in Ukraine today.
Most Latvian patriotic/propaganda cards steadfastly portrayed Latvia as a still-independent state throughout the 1950's to the early 1990's; and I can tell you that most of our family friends thought of it no differently throughout the Soviet Occupation (I guess I did too... hmmm). I can't do Cyrillic; but it would be interesting to know what the subscript on the back of the card says in terms of printer, city, etc. It doesn't look like there's a date on it for a reference point.
This stuff is all hugely interesting from the propagandist perspective, whatever the source. I have a cancelled Danzig stamp with a postmark for the date of the German "liberation" of Danzig at the start of World War Two. The postmark is from Danzig and contains the slogan (paraphrasing because it's buried in my collection somewhere) "Der Fuehrer hat uns befreit" - The Fuehrer has freed us. Whether it is real or not (and I don't care if it is because of the interest it holds for me), it's an interesting concept. Were the Germans so organized that they prepared postal cancellations for letters in a city they were certain to occupy? Remember the propaganda machine that was the Third Reich and its invasion of every aspect of everyday life to ingrain the totality of their rule. Perhaps possible (and it makes for a better story that way), otherwise, it was a fake; but a fake that was so well thought out that it treated the political and military reality as yet another instrument to ingrain a political opinion for the populace. Stamps, postcards and letters are propaganda tools for each and every government and organization that has ever issued the same. Make no mistake about it. Some were just more obvious in their efforts than others.
Andrew
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""If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." Rush"