A while back I did a 1920s stamp from a place called Tannu Tuva in Asian Siberia, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/24/tannu-tuva-1934-the-russian-commissars-extraordinary-have-arrived-and-brought-stamps/ . The idea for the stamps was marketed to the Soviets by a Hungarian stamp dealer. Well the 1990s saw a new round of autonomy seeking, and there were still stamp dealers out to make a quick buck on it. 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.
Comparing this stamp to the Tannu Tuva stamp leaves me preferring the old. Though poorly printed, the stamps showed exotic writing in several languages and alphabets and views of the natives of Tannu Tuva that might expect you to run into Genghis Kahn himself on the next stamp. Whoever is doing Buriatia just shows you topical stamps that could be from anywhere.
This fake stamp is not listed in any catalog but I found the six stamp souvenir sheet of the horses for sale online for $1.99. Even in Buriatia, you cannot use any of the stamps for postage.
In 1923, the Soviets formed the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the same area of Asian Siberia. Most of the people then were Mongol Buddhists. The ethnic makeup allowed for Soviet era studies into the the traits of the three races in the area. Soviets, Mongol Buryats, and those of mixed parentage were studied on guidelines as to how they performed as state workers. The official results were that there was no particular advantage to any of the three ethnicities.
Over time there were ever more Soviets in the area and in 1958 the Soviets reflected that by dropping the Mongol from the title of the region. By 1990 the area was 70 percent Soviet. The Soviet Republic was refashioned into the Buryatia Republic in 1992 that remained within the then organizing Russian Federation. The leader of the republic was for the first 25 years a locally born Soviet. In 2017 President Putin appointed a new leader that was of mixed Buriatia/Russian heritage. Both mens’ career prior to politics were with the railroad, perhaps indicative of how important the Trans Siberian Railroad is to the area. The area has at best a stagnant population.
Well my drink is empty and if I may, I encourage the purveyor of modern fake stamps to do a better job. 99% of the people will have no idea about where your made up place is. What an opportunity to show off the truly exotic. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.