Zemstvo

History

In 1864, the Tsar Alexandre II reform administration of the Russian Empire. The provinces (Large Russia, Small Russia, Eastern Russia, etc) are then cut out in governments, themselves formed of districts. The latter obtain called leading assemblies zemstvos. Their capacities go from the questions of supply, public assistance, primary education to the maintenance of the roadway system and the public health.

The whole of the population took part in the elections of the zemstvos and the opponents with this system were more political organizations social groups: radicals, revolutionists of left (Bolcheviks, Socialist-revolutionists, Anarchistes), local intelligentsia and nihilist which wanted more freedoms and of autonomy.

The noble ones accounted for 5% of the population of the zemstvos but their votes had more weight than the remainder of the population according to the provinces, 74% of the grounds being still had by these noble . With the liberalization of the grounds, which follows the abolition of serfdom with the Oukaze of March 3rd, 1861, the majority of the 50 million former serfs, being able to buy only one small ground portion which ensures only one one subsistence less to them than before, prefer to work for their former lord, which explains the strong presence of aristocrats among the landowners sitting in the zemstvos. To make the acquisition of grounds easier, Alexandre II had instituted a system of credit advancing 4/5 of the value of the ground the, refundable ones in 49 annual installments to them. Nevertheless, the peasants and the remainder of the population had more freedom in the zemstvos than in the remainder of the Russian territory.

The zemstvos are abolished on October 17th, 1917 by the Révolution of October.

Philately

Origins

With the creation of the zemstvos, the official postal relations are assured only in the big cities, the inhabitants of the campaigns and the small towns having to sometimes move hundred kilometers to recover to them Courrier. The zemstvos then feel the need to extend the postal service in their district in spite of the monopoly from which profits the imperial post office. Thus are born the stations from the zemstvos. The first is that of Vetluga (government of Kostroma in Grande Russia) which does not use a stamps posts at its beginnings. The first stamp station is emitted with Shlisselburg (government of Saint-Pétersbourg) in 1865. In the years which follow, thirty districts use stamps for their local post office while others ensure this service free.

Officialization

The imperial government becomes aware of the importance of these local postal services. September 3rd, 1870, the prince Labanov Rostovski and the director of the Velhio stations sign a Décret officializing the local post offices and rurales :

Considering the means restricted available to the administration of the imperial post office, considering their insufficiency to ensure the regular handing-over all the inhabitants of the Empire of their correspondence, mainly in the localities, which by their situation are almost completely private of postal communications, or are at a long distance from the organized offices, in order to facilitate to the inhabitants these regions the possibility of exchanging their correspondence in a more convenient way and less expensive, supporting me on the law of the Senate of August 24th, 1870, I particularly authorize the establishment of a local post office in the localities where need will be. (...) The local post office is authorized (...) to transmit the ordinary correspondence as well as the newspapers, advertisements, sendings with money, assured letters and other forwardings in all the parts furthest away from the district. (...) The local post office is authorized to have its stamps only in condition express which them drawing will be completely different from that of the imperial post office.

The districts take three types of positions then:

to remain under the mode of the imperial post office;
to ensure a postal service without stamps (in general free);
to emit postage stamps to compensate for the expenditure resulting from this service.

It is this last solution which adopt the majority of the zemstvos. On the 371 zemstvos distributed in 36 governments, only 162 emit and use local postage stamps of which governments of Perm and Kherson which develops this concept. Approximately 70 zemstvos emit stamps between 1870 and 1875. The great period of the emissions of purely postal use is between 1871 and 1895. It as should be noticed as the local post offices relate to only the European left the Russian Empire : the provinces of Asia (Siberia, Turkestan) and the the Caucasus are not concerned.

Decline of the emissions

One period of decline due to the weakness of the postal exchanges and the extension of the imperial post office begins starting from 1895. The emissions continue until in 1915 but some are it only with a one purely speculative aim bound for the philatelists. In 1892, it has there no more that 150 local post offices of which 89 still use stamps.

The zemstvos are abolished on October 17th, 1917 with the Révolution from October, their philatelic emissions and their postal services ceasing in the same way.

Stamps

The local stamps are used in complement of the stamps of the imperial post office. Indeed, the latter conveys the mail to the principal cities where the local post office takes over for the distribution and the collection in the zemstvo. These stamps are manufactured in printing works of the chief towns of the zemstvos either by Lithographie, or by Typographie. Only one engraved with Jegorievsk in 1872 is . For the majority, they take again the armorial bearings zemstvo or chief town, even a representation of the activities of the area.

Some rare districts emit also emitted whole postal. It is to be noticed that in fact the zemstvos emit the first stamps with animalist topic.

Summary table of the emissions:

Districts having emitted stamps

Here the list of the 162 districts which emitted stamps, the figure indicates the number of stamps émis :

Literature and catalogs

philatelic catalogs are emitted as of 1888 on these local post offices in particular with the the United Kingdom by Stanley Gibbons in 1889, Germany and of course in Russia, proving an unquestionable interest for this collection at the beginning of the 20th century. After the stop of the emissions, a group of philatelists of Leningrad tries to carry out in 1918 a catalog of these stamps but cannot conclude the operation.

It is finally under the direction of Chauchine, then police chief of State to the philately of the Soviet young person State, which the only existing catalog is carried out on the stamps of the zemstvos. There exists in Russian and English. Until worms 1990, it was available in the form of facsimile of the original edition near the philatelic Circle the France-USSR. The dimensions are given there in Gold franc of 1925.

It should be noted that there exist some Internet sites on the subject in particular in Germany and especially with the the United States, only place where merchants propose stamps of the zemstvos.

In 2005, a new catalog is appeared in Russia (only in Russian) showing an renewed interest of the Russians for their own postal history.

Sources

Popular Philately - Russie/URSS: Stamps of Zemstvos by Alain Legrand (N°445)
Bulletin of the philatelic circle France-Russia
Catalog Yvert and Tellier, Stamps of Western Europe , Volume 4, left, 2003 ISBN 2-86814-132-3

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Reference

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