FOCUS ON PHILATELY
by Ingert Kuzych
The Zemstvo posts of Ukraine
While true Ukrainian philately may be said to start with the issuance of Ukraine's first postage stamps in 1918, there was a postal system in place on Ukrainian territories much earlier. How this precursor system came to be, how it functioned, and what sorts of stamps it produced will be the subject of this special survey article.
Background
The abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861, along with the other peasant reforms that followed, brought about a reorganization of government in the countryside. A county-like institution for municipal self-government, known as a "zemstvo," was set up throughout most of the European "gubernias" (provinces) of the empire. Various functions assigned to zemstvo governments were introduced in Left Bank (eastern)Ukraine and in Steppe Ukraine between 1865 and 1869. These functions extended to municipal, economic, social and educational affairs.
Among the activities of the zemstvos were the building and maintenance of roads; the improvement of agriculture, trade and industry; the oversight of medical and sanitation services; the administration of public education; the management of property and insurance; and the establishment of rural postal services (Figure 1).
In addition, zemstvo institutions in Ukraine were able to improve the living conditions of peasants closer to home by supporting cultural and educational projects. In the 20th century, they strove to introduce the teaching of the Ukrainian language into the elementary schools (the Poltava Zemstvo was especially important in this regard). Zemstvo governments also conducted numerous valuable economic, geological and statistical investigations, and surveys. In Right Bank (western) Ukraine, zemstvo self-government was not introduced until 1911.
The zemstvo postal service
Posts operated by zemstvo councils functioned outside the imperial (state) postal service. They had their own regulations and postal rates, and each zemstvo produced its own stamps. Although some zemstvo posts operated in the empire as early as 1865, their creation wasn't authorized until September 3, 1870, when the governor of the Interior Ministry, Prince Lobanoff Rostovsky, signed an edict.
These rural post offices were established because the imperial government found it too expensive to deliver mail to the vast countryside. Zemstvo post offices carried mail within their particular volosti (districts), and also to and from the nearest imperial post.
Zemstvo posts were organized as follows. The main zemstvo council buildings took on the functions of a central postal node (a main post office), through which the entire exchange of mail with the volosti was carried out. One, two or three times a week ordinary correspondence or notices announcing the arrival of money letters (from relatives working in cities or other provinces) were transmitted from the zemstvo post office to the volosti. The zemstvo postman would return from his route carrying the mail collected in the volosti.
Depending on its size, each zemstvo would be divided into several sections and each section, as far as possible, would have one circular postal route in it. The time required to make a postal round varied from one to two days. Thus, not only was a communication system set up within the zemstvo (connecting to the volosti), but also rural mails would be delivered out from the zemstvo to the imperial postal establishments.
Unfortunately, setting up the zemstvo postal system was not an easy process. The government, which granted permission for such rural post offices to be created, also burdened them with bothersome regulations. One of the worst of these was the requirement that individuals wishing to receive letters from state post offices, via the zemstvo post, had to obtain "annual printed cards" costing 1.43 rubles. For a peasant, who received only a few letters a year, such a sum was exorbitant.
The government was always afraid that the zemstvo posts would begin to compete with the imperial post, thereby lessening postal revenues. For this reason, zemstvo posts were forbidden either to transmit money through the mail or to use the roads reserved for the imperial post. To bypass the former restriction, a special Form No. 107 would be sent to notify people that they had received correspondence (usually money, valuables or packages). The recipients would then be forced to travel to whatever post office was holding the correspondence to pick up the packet.
It was almost impossible to comply with the requirement that the zemstvo post not use imperial postal roads. Sometimes the order would be ignored. In many locales, however, it was necessary to take a roundabout road that significantly lengthened the route, created more expense for the post and, of course, slowed communication.
Zemstvo posts could deliver mails only within the territory of the zemstvo. They were forbidden to hand over correspondence to other zemstvos, even if such a delivery did happen to be more convenient. All of the above-mentioned, heavy-handed restrictions were in place by the early 1870s.
In due course some of the regulations were lifted or eased, but the zemstvo posts never attained complete independence. An example is the restriction on using the imperial postroads. The only concession the zemstvo posts were ever able to obtain was the right to cross a postroad where a zemstvo route intersected it.
Despite these limitations and the modest funding that zemstvos allocated to postal development, by the end of the 19th century the zemstvo postal system had become widespread. Both the rural post offices and their stamps continued to be used until their functions were gradually taken over by the imperial government through the expansion of the imperial post. The last zemstvo post was discontinued in 1917.
Zemstvo postage stamps
Initially, every zemstvo prepared its own stamps using original designs, some of which were rather primitive. Some locales, however, ordered stamps from the official supplier of state documents, the St. Petersburg State Printing Works. This arrangement turned out to be more convenient and economical; therefore, over time, more zemstvos ordered their stamps from this establishment.
In the period between 1884 and 1916 this firm prepared zemstvo stamps of five distinct key-types. Three of these types appeared on Ukrainian territories. The first type was initially prepared for Ostrov (not far from St. Petersburg) in 1884. Three years later a similar stamp was made for Lebedyn in the Kharkiv Gubernia (Figure 2). The characteristics of this key-type are a small coat of arms in the central portion of the stamp; two prominent, rectangular design elements on the sides, the name of the town at the top and the numeral values in circles in the bottom corner.
Another key-type was the Bakhmut type, named after the town in the gubernia of Katerynoslav. This same design was also used in Sumy (Kharkiv Gubernia) between 1893 and 1910. Here the coat of arms is much larger and appears inside a circular design that spins off four small, circular descriptions of the numeral value.
The third key-type used in Ukraine was also the most widely distributed in the Russian Empire. Used in over 30 locales, it is designated the Ardatov key-type (after a city in the present-day Russian autonomous republic of Mordovia). In Ukraine these stamp types appeared in Hadiach, Konstantynohrad, Lubni, Poltava, Zinkiv, and Zolotonosha, all in the Poltava Gubernia. Here, two crescent-like elements hover above and below the central coat of arms. The numeral value appears in each of the four corners in a circular lozenge.
Although the basic design of stamps assigned to key-types did not vary, certain elements had to be altered for each zemstvo. These changes included the locale's name and the coat of arms, and sometimes the color, value or paper type. The most common recurring design element on stamps not prepared by the State Printing Works was the zemstvo coat of arms (Figure 3).
Zemstvo stamps paid the postage only within the limits of their rural district. Letters addressed to other zemstvos or abroad also had to carry regular Russian stamps with the appropriate amount of additional postage.
In order to prevent any confusion, zemstvo stamps were required (at least initially) to be distinctly different from those used by the state postal system. In 1876 the zemstvo stamps of Melitopil were confiscated for too closely resembling imperial government-issued postage stamps. It is for the purpose of easy recognition, then, that many zemstvo stamps were prepared in unusual sizes and shapes: circular, oval, square and diamond-shaped (Figure 4). Larger sizes were also helpful in sealing letter stationery, as envelopes were scarce in remote rural locales. Over time, some zemstvos did produce stamps that were well-engraved and approached state stamp issues in complexity of design.
In addition to producing stamps for the prepayment of postal delivery, many zemstvos also produced stamped envelopes, postage-due stamps and newspaper wrappers.
There were approximately 790 stamps issued from the 40 zemstvo districts in the eight provinces of the Russian Empire with Ukrainian populations. The first Ukrainian zemstvo stamps appeared in 1866 at Verkhniodniprovsk, Katerynoslav Gubernia, and in Dniprovsk, Taurida Gubernia - both now in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Which locale preceded the other has not been determined.
Ingert Kuzych may be contacted at P.O. Box 3, Springfield, VA 22150 or at his e-mail address: [email protected].
Aleksandria Zemstvo stamp No. 2
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 4, 2001, No. 44, Vol. LXIX
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