With a long war change was in the air and a provisional government must decide what to keep. Keeping the wrong things lead to further revolution. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The research on this stamp started out very hopefully. Three and a half rubles was a lot of money at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was an oversized stamp that was well printed. The stamp first came out in 1884. The mint version of that one is $1200. That is very exciting but I better check for a cheaper variation. Sure enough, there is a 1902 version with a slight difference worth $55. Still pretty good but the color is wrong as the early versions of the stamp seem to all be black and grey. Oh no, I better look ahead to see if there was an even later version. I was still confident that it was czarist with the imperial eagle on it. Well not exactly, In 1917, there was a provisional Russian government after the last Czar abdicated, but before the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917. This government had time to issue another new version of the stamp in green and maroon. War and revolution had taken their toll on the economy, and 3.5 rubles wasn’t what it used to be. The 1917 version of the 1884 stamp is only worth $1.10.
World War I went very badly for the already shaky government of Czar Nicholas II. The poor performance and very high casualty rate were blamed personally on the Czar. Since Czarina Alexandra was German and was a patron of a strange mystic named Rasputin, it made the Czar seem aloof, weak and uncaring of the suffering the war was causing. In March 1917 the Czar abdicated and was sent to internal exile. A provisional government was set up under socialist Alexander Kerensky.
Much to the surprise of many of the supporters of the revolution, Kerensky wanted to continue the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary. He thought there was still a duty to Russia’s allies and feared the economic consequence of the cutoff of their support to Russia. Kerensky launched a new offensive against Germany that went very badly. He had fired many of the Czar era officers and nobody was really in charge. The officers mocked Kerensky as a persuader and chief rather than a commander and chief. More than 2 million Russian soldiers deserted.
Kerensky believed he had no enemies on the left of him politically and concentrated on crushing Czarist opposition. After all Kerensky and the Bolshevik leader Lenin were old family friends. The Bolsheviks were not in agreement with Kerensky and sensed his weakness.
1917 saw a second revolution in October. The only military unit in the capital of Saint Petersburg that was willing to fight for the provisional government was a company of a woman’s unit and their resistance was wiped out in a day. Kerensky’s family faired better than the Czars as he was able to escape first to France and later to America. The newly declared Union of Soviet Socialist Republic finally let this stamp with it’s imperial eagle be retired, having been issued in various forms for 33 years.
Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.