July 10, 2016

Happy Russian Mail Day


Happy Russian Mail Day

Happy Russian Mail Day!

For 20 years now Russians have been celebrating their mail service on the second Sunday in July (July 10 this year*), instead of on World Post Day (October 9), like the rest of the world.

Sure, Russia always likes to chart its own path, but in reality Day of Russian Mail, a tribute to at least eight centuries of mail delivery, is considerably more impressive than World Post Day, which this year marks merely the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Universal Postal Union.

Of course, eight centuries ago Russian mail delivery looked very different from today’s system. It was the Golden Horde’s idea to establish yam stations (a word of Turkish origin with no relation to the sweet potato) that functioned much like stations in England's stagecoach system. Before, a messenger carrying the personal message of any given ruler had to stop and wait for their horse to rest; now, locals had to provide horses and directions to the next station, which allowed for much clearer routes and faster service.

Postcard in honor of the St. Petersburg post office's 300-year anniversary

Under Peter the Great the mail started to look more familiar: the first organized mail service route was established to Archangelsk, mail could be sent to soldiers at war, and a separate government agency, the Yamskoy Prikaz, was established to oversee the yamschik drivers. St. Petersburg got its first central post office 300 years ago (1714), a few years after the country’s first central post office opened in Moscow. By the 1780’s, mail service had been merged with the yam system, and dedicated mail carriers appeared on city streets.

Russia's first postage stamp: 10 kopeks for a lot (unit of measure)
Commemorative stamps featuring Romanov rulers and related places

In 1844, 170 years ago, Russian mail switched to payment by weight instead of distance, which led to the introduction of stamps. One of Russians’ favorite stories to tell about the early postal service concerns the first stamp: the way it was told to me, the first design included an image of the reigning emperor, which caused a scandal. Canceling the stamp involved either stamping it or crossing it out – how could postal clerks be allowed to treat the emperor’s likeness with such disrespect! And this was why stamps didn’t catch on in Russia… The story is apocryphal, given that the first stamp (above, top), issued in 1857, did not feature an imperial portrait; however, the commemorative stamps issued for the 300th anniversary of Romanov rule (above, bottom) may have caused a bit of such outrage and given rise to this amusing anecdote.

Emblem of Russian mail delivery's modern incarnation, the Russian Post

Today, the Russian Post processes over 2 billion mail pieces per year, plus over 50 million parcels and 100 million money orders. These days, mail arrives by plane and by truck – gone is the era of yam stations and relay horses, but the modern service still continues a centuries-old tradition of delivering messages as best it can.

 

Image credit: inmoment.ru, peterstamps.ru, Wikimedia Commons

 

* The Russian Life calendar mistakenly labeled July 9th as this year’s Day of Russian Mail.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955