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Soviet Union 1962, The future is certainly bright with comrades from 83 countries and a big new bomb

It is nice when political promises get specific on a stamp, that way they can be measured by future stamp collectors. There is a joke about communism that the future is always certain, it is the past that is always changing. This stamp touts future steel production, I wonder how that turned out. 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.

This issue of stamps is titled “Great Decisions of the 22nd Communist Party Congress” held in 1961. I guess Soviet stamp collectors had to wait forever for the stamp issue on the more mediocre decisions. Anyway there is nothing wrong with a little hope and sunshine. I also love that they included measurable numbers to go with goals. It is more than we get from most politicians. It also must be said that the Soviets did a great job making steel production look majestic.

Todays stamp is issue A1362, a 4 Kopek stamp issued by the Soviet Union on December 28th, 1962. It was a 9 stamp issue all in the same denomination that set out goals in various industries. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

The stamp touts great decisions by the previous years party congress regarding economics. Appropriate to remind the people that the party was working for them. In reality the congress was more about politics. 83 communist parties from around the world sent delegates including the last time the red Chinese showed up. They didn’t like the disrespect toward Stalin including renamings and even moving his remains. Khrushchev was still trying to make the communist system work and proposed term limits on high officials to avoid stagnation. This was rejected. That does not mean the Soviets did not put on a show. There was a brand new hydroelectric station in not Stalingrad but now Volgograd. To demonstrate power there was also the explosion of the biggest nuclear bomb in the history of the world in the artic circle. The 50 megaton hydrogen bomb was called the Tsar Bomba by the west.

The stamp gives steel production in 1960 as 65 million metric tons  and says that number will hit 250 million metric tons by 1980. The actual 1980 number was 148 million metric tones. That still made the Soviet Union the largest world producer with over 20 percent of world production. Since 1980, most developed nation steel output as dropped as production moved to India, South Korea, and especially China. Russia in 2018 produced 71 million metric tons, 6th highest in the world. If you include former Soviet republics, that number goes to about 100. So down since 1980 but the same could be said for the USA, the EU, and even Japan, the former rising star of steel. China now makes over half the worlds steel, 928 million metric tons in 2018. This is up from 14 million metric tons or 3 percent of world production at the time of this stamp.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Nikita Khrushchev. No the steel goal wasn’t met but at least he was trying to do great things and get the system working. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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India 1967,”A new temple of a resurgent India” Nehru

The waters of monsoons can be used for agriculture instead of dangerous periodic flooding with dams. The dam then also provide cheap clean electricity. The British Raj spotted the need for the dam and then the design, but it was left to an independent India to provide the resources to get the job done. Prime Minister Nehru was justifiably proud that India got it done themselves after the British had not followed through. A while back we did a stamp about nearby Afghanistan who relied on USA aid to get theirs done see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/03/afghanistan-1963-as-a-start-to-development-lets-begin-to-feed-ourselves-if-only-someone-could-build-us-an-irrigation-system/  . India however was actually resurgent. 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.

Todays stamp does not do  justice to India’s then new temple. The printing and the poor paper see to that. There was also a 2013 stamp for the dam’s 50th anniversary that was better printed but still failed to capture the full effect. Part of the problem may be showing it horizontally when the dramatic thing about it is the height, over 700 feet tall and one of the tallest dams in the world.

Todays stamp is issue A205, a 5 Rupee stamp issued by India in 1967. It was part of a 16 stamp issue over several years. I covered the Gnat airplane stamp from this issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/20/a-gnat-sting-slays-a-sabre-over-bangladesh/    . According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used. Five Rupee was a large denomination then. Now 5 Rupee is less than a dime. At the time though it was 8 to the Dollar. Since a Dollar now is about 12 cents then the denomination is close to an American stamp today denominated at $5. Pretty high in a then poor country.

The Punjab area of northwest India is subject to monsoons that provide the bulk of the rainfall. Sir Louis Dane an early 20th century British administrator of Punjab, conceived a dam near the then village of Bhakra where the Sutrej River passes between two hills. The resulting reservoir would gather the storm water and then gradually release it for agricultural irrigation. Plans were drawn up but the project languished for lack of funds. In the last days of the Raj, a now Indian administrator Sir Ram Richpal took up the cause and got the necessary approvals and the interest of the soon to be Prime Minister Nehru. The project was completed in 1963 and paid for entirely by India. Quite a contrast from other projects like Afghanistan or the Aswan dam in Egypt that consisted of a threadbare local pointing to a place for a dam and then pathetically holding out their hand.

The reservoir put under water 371 villages and there are 10 electricity generating turbines, five on each side of the dam. In keeping with India’s non aligned status, the five on the right were acquired from Japan while the 5 on the left were acquired from the Soviet Union. The Soviets won that competition as their side produces more electricity.

Nehru got very poignant about how the sacrifice in dangerous toil of the workers that built the dam is worthy of our worship. Whether you call it a Temple, a Gurdwara, or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence. Well that of course is worthy of a toast and as my drink is empty…… Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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South Georgia, At least the Norwegians immigrants brought reindeer to this British Island

The Argentine claim on South Georgia was beaten back by force. The Norwegians came and were allowed as they were willing to naturalize. The British outlasted them having banned their way of life. Then it was the turn of the reindeer to be exterminated, for the ecology you understand. 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.

What struck  me about this stamp was how odd it is to show reindeer on a stamp that does not involve Christmas. Reindeer weren’t native to the cold South Atlantic islands but Norwegian examples were introduced by whalers from Norway and thrived.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a half penny stamp issued by South Georgia in 1963, at the time it was considered a Dependency of the nearby Crown Colony of the Falkland Islands. This first issue of South Georgia stamps consisted of 16 stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents.

The island of South Georgia had been spotted by several explorers, merchant sailors and pirates but Captain Cook was the first to land, survey and claim the uninhabited islands for Great Britain. In the 19th century there had been several attempts at seal harvesting but those operations were not conducted sustainably and were banned when the seal population was made tiny. In the early 20th century, there was an attempt at a whaling industry. New country Norway attempted to unsuccessfully to buy the islands from Great Britain. Britain allowed in their whaling camps and many naturalized as British citizens. At the height of it, the island was 90% Norwegian and only 5 percent British. The warm season saw 3000 residents dropping to about 300 in winter. In 1965, whaling was ended and the Norwegians departed.

Beginning in the 1920s and 30s, Argentina claimed the island. In 1982, a preexisting authorized Argentine camp began flying the Argentine flag and Argentine special forces landed. 27 Royal Marines fought them and killed several, shot down a helicopter and damaged an Argentine Navy Corvette by shooting it with a bazooka. The Argentines managed to take the island for a few weeks until the arrival of the British fleet. They still formally claim the island.There are still scientific stations and cruise ship visits as with Antarctica, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/10/british-antarctic-territory-1963-with-no-more-shackleton-we-better-make-bases-permanent/   , but no permanent residents on South Georgia.

Reindeers, 3 males and 7 females were introduced by Norway as a source of meat for their whaler residents. By the early 21st century there were over 7000 reindeer in two herds on the island. There numbers had increased after the departure of the Norwegians as they were no longer hunted. Ecologists came to believe that the reindeer were a threat to the glacier on the island. After 20 were moved to the Falkland Islands to preserve the now unique South Georgia breed, 7000 reindeer were exterminated in 2011-14. There are no longer any reindeer on South Georgia, a final 8 that escaped were hunted down and killed in 2015. Reindeers appeared on South Georgia stamps most recently 2004, but no stamp to mark the extermination. The unique bird life of South Georgia is still shown on their stamps. Better hope none of them accidentally land on the precious glacier.

Well by drink is empty and I am left wondering about the so called ecologists who decided the reindeer must be exterminated. Off with Dasher, off with Dancer…. I mean geez. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Columbia 1951, remembering Guillermo Valencia, a poet who never had a chance to disappoint you as President

Gran Columbia became Columbia as region after region broke away. Not the kind of thing that happens to a place that is successful. There were two visions of how to right that ship, a conservative vision put forth by landowners and the Catholic Church, and a liberal one that embraced overturning the old order. 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.

A fairly dashing man personalizing his portrait with a signature. Pretty good for a twice failed Presidential candidate. His conservative party and the frequent military juntas were perhaps not at the time putting their best face forward. The conservative leader, President Gomez had been successfully vilified as a monster and waiting his turn as Foreign Minister with higher ambitions was Valencia’s son. A great time to remember a dashing father who had never had a chance to display his own incompetence as President.

Todays stamp is issue A251, a 25 Centavo stamp issued by the Republic of Columbia on October 20th, 1951. It was a single stamp honoring poet and politician Guillermo Valencia who had died 8 years previous. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Guillermo Valencia was born to a wealthy family. He was a politician and diplomat rising as high as Governor of the Province of Cauca. Unusually for a conservative political figure, he was also a poet. Further unusually, his work was part of the modernist school of poetry that involved much fantasy and escapism. He put out a magazine in Columbia that provided an outlet to other poets and artists. As he got older and perhaps to burnish his political credentials among his fellow conservatives, he took on more work translating European masters into Spanish. He ran twice for President 1917 and 1930, but both times he was passed over for the more liberal candidate.

The conservatives were viewed differently in Columbia in Valencia’s time. Today the relative success of Columbia compared to the relative failure of former provinces with lefty governments like Venezuela and Ecuador burnish the reputation of Columbia’s modern conservative Presidents. In Valencia’s time it was different. The loss of territory was blamed on the conservatives as they were seen as a reemergence  of Colonial time with powerful landowners and Catholic clergy acting to keep up Spanish colonial style rule without their competence. Periods of conservative rule lead to violent opposition from the left. The then President Gomez, vilified has a monster, saw his personal home, a restaurant he had built, the Presidential Palace, and his political newspaper offices burned by opponents. At the end of his elected term, he was forced into exile in Spain. What a bunch of losers.

President Laureano Gomez, the Monster. Don’t sell him fire insurance.

Gomez from exile managed to work a deal with the liberal party that politicians from the two parties would take turns as President and the two parties merged into a National Front. This worked from 1956-1974 until the left began to form splinter parties and eventually armed struggle. In the early 1960s, Valencia’s similarly named son had a turn as President.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what road would have more quickly turned things around. Definitely not one of the roads tried. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Wurttemberg 1945, An ex Vichy General goes from jail to commanding Americans in their zone of Germany

French General Jean de Lattre served in the Vichy France Army. When the Americans landed in French Morocco  Vichy forces resisted only briefly and the Germans decided to disarm the Vichy Army. The General was captured and held prisoner. To get from that to commanding American army units and managing the occupation of Stuttgart was a strange journey. 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.

Here we have a French style stamp, denominated in Marks, but with the old style coat of arms of the Dutchy of Wurttemberg. After the War, Wurttemberg was to be in the American section of occupied Germany. In March 1945 however Hitler had ordered an end to resistance in the west in the hope that less of Germany would fall to the Russians, and the next thing you know, the French Army is in Stuttgart. After their quick defeat early in the war, it must have been satisfying for the French.

Todays stamp is issue OS6, a 20 Pfennig stamp issued by the French Occupation of Germany in 1945. It was a five stamp issue showing the coats of arms of areas of Germany under French occupation. They are in the style of French issues showing the coats of arms of French regions. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Jean de Lattre was a junior General in the French Army when war broke out with Germany. He was given command of a division that held together during the short campaign. This was relative outperformance and de Lattre was offered a position in the now German ally Vichy French Army. His work mainly involved setting up troop training centers. When the Vichy resistance to American landings in Morocco was only token, the Germans decided to disband the Vichy army. De Lattre was arrested but after being released managed to escape to London. From there he went to Algiers and convinced Free French General De Gaulle to trust him with a command. The Free French Forces were mainly North African colonials and required much training.

A Free French force under de Lattre landed in southern France after D Day and met little resistance as it marched north along the Rhone River Valley. When it got to Strasberg resistance stiffened up. The Germans counterattacked  with some strength from Colmar. With the French units mostly colonial and the nearby American units mainly then separate black manned units the Germans were again closing in on Strassberg. To keep hold of it, several American units were shifted into the French region and very unusually put under the command of French General de Lattre. By February 1945 the Germans had been beaten back. With the end of German resistance soon after, the French could then march into Wurttemberg occupying Stuttgart in April 1945. The Allies had agreed to how Germany was to be divided and by July 1945 Americans replaced French in Wurttemberg.

General de Lattre in 1946

General de Lattre was later sent to Vietnam to lead the fight to maintain French presence there. He scored a few victories but lost his son in one of the battles and soon like at Strassberg, he was requesting American help to hold on. This time American help was supplies but no troops. De Lattre was soon recalled to France as he was dying of cancer. At his funeral, the French President named him a Marshal of France.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast short occupations. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

 

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British Antarctic Territory 1963, With no more Shackleton, we better make bases permanent

The British claimed and occupied the South Atlantic Falkland Islands in 1833. From there it was natural that Britain would lead the exploration of Antarctica and still today man the permanent year round stations that make scientific study possible if still not entirely safe. 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.

This is the first stamp issue of the Territory and they chose to show the icebreaker ship. A fitting way to show how dependent the stations were then on these ships that supplied them and rescued them when things got rough. What a welcome sight their arrival must have been.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a half penny stamp issued by the British Antarctic Territory on February 1st, 1963. It was a fifteen stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents used.

In 1908 the British King issued his claim  on territory in the not human occupied continent of Antarctica. It was a time of many Antarctic Expeditions that sought to map the continent and race for the South Pole. One was the Imperial trans Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17 lead by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Their icebreaker, HMS Endurance was itself broken up by the strong ice and the crew was marooned on an ice floe. They hoped that the ice flow would take them to an island where provisions were stored. When it didn’t, they loaded the lifeboats and made a perilous journey in rough seas to Elephant Island where food was stored but there still wasn’t a manned base. Remember wind was high, water was rough and the temperature never went above freezing. Shackleton then decided to take a few of his best sailors in one of the lifeboats and make the 700 mile journey to South Georgia Island that was manned and therefore a rescue could be organized. He miraculously made it and convinced the Chilean Navy to lend a tugboat to go back to Elephant Island and save the rest of his crew. They did!

Launching the three man lifeboat for the 700 mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia for rescue in 1916.

In 1922 with a new ship, HMS Quest, Shackleton was back in South Georgia about to start a new expedition with many of the same crew. He died there of a heart attack and his wife wired that he should be buried their in the desolate place near the rough seas he loved. In 2010, descendants of Frank Wild had his remains reinterred on South Georgia Island on the right side of Shackleton, as he had been his right hand man.

The territory is now two year round bases and a summer manned science stations and heritage center. The Hailey base concentrates on the Earth’s atmosphere and was the first to discover the ozone hole. The building is built on stilts with skis so it can be moved to stay ahead of snowfall and cracking ice. The Rothera station is the administrative center and concentrates on marine biology. It now has an airstrip with regular flights from the Falklands on a Dash 7 aircraft. The heritage center, Port Lockroy open during summers welcomes tourists and has the worlds most southerly post office. It gets 10,000 visitors a year who stay shipboard.

The ship on the stamp is the MV Kista Dan. It was built as an icebreaker in Denmark in 1952 and was used in Antarctica from 1953-58. The sip later passed through different hands and was broken up in Turkey in 1998. The current British icebreaker HMS Protector, entered service in 2011.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sir Ernest Shackleton. It is said that other explorers were better at science but when things got rough, it was better to be with Shackleton. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Hawaii 1886. King David Kalakaua lives high on sugar and opium

In the 19th century, Hawaii was a Kingdom independent from the USA but with many American planters and contract workers until the high living Royals became too much of an expensive liability. 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.

It is interesting to see a nineteenth century King presented not in the ageless profile European style, but rather looking straight at you in the manner of an American President. This fitted the American printing of the stamps, but perhaps takes away some of the mystery that belongs with royalty. Well Hawaii was a small place, and the native Hawaiians were but a small minority. The other Polynesians were not interested in King David’s ideas of a Pacific island federation under him uniting the race. Therefore King David is left with his American friends and their style.

Todays stamp is issue A17, a two cent stamp issued by the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1886. The portraits of Royal stamps were reprinted over many years as it was the desire of the Postmaster to maintain stocks of the whole set. After the Royals were bloodlessly deposed, there were overstamps of the issue for the provisional government. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used.

In an interesting twist, Hawaiian Kings were elected instead of passing father to son. Only native Hawaiians, 20 percent of the population could vote. Once elected, they serve for life. King David lost badly in his first election for King but then served as Royal Chamberlin. Upon his election rival”s later death, a chief’s council named David Kalakaua King bypassing the election. There were then riots in Honolulu and David had to put off his Coronation. There was always the issue or relations with the USA and the potential for annexation. Americans outnumbered Hawaiians on the islands and were the bulk of the economy. A deal was worked out with Hawaii that allowed Hawaii sugar to be imported to the USA without tariff. Relying on cheap imported contract labor, one can see what a sacrifice this was to higher cost American sugar producers, but the USA was very interested in a naval base at Pearl Harbor.

The deal with the USA increased exports 7 fold and brought  in lots of revenue. King David and several of his male American advisors set off on a world tour that lasted years. To native Hawaiians, it was marketed as making friendship treaties to prevent American annexation. To the planters, it was marketed as a search for more contract laborers to import to Hawaii. Others thought he was just enjoying the high living or even that he was trying to sell the islands to the highest bidder. Combined with his belated expensive two week Coronation 10 years into his rule, and another 2 week festival for his 50th birthday, there was much evidence of excessive high living.

The last straw came in 1889 when the King was caught taking a $75,000 bribe from a Chinese Tong to license the importation of opium into the islands. While the King was off on another tour leaving just a Regent in the Palace, the American planters decided to act. The Hawaiian Army was no more after having mutinied and the Regent was forced to sign a Bayonet constitution, limiting their power or ending their gravy train depending on your point of view. King David died in the USA before returning and the Regent became Queen Liliuokalani, the last Queen. For the most part she was confined to Palace until the inevitable USA annexation in 1899.

Well my drink is empty and I may have another before the luau. King David had brought that custom back after it had been banned at the suggestion of Christian missionaries. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Philippines 1943, The Second Republic’s official business is to cross out

Well they didn’t cross out Jose Rizal, but Japanese characters on his face are not promising to his future. The Philippine government of the second republic crossed out the USA but couldn’t help showing who was now buttering their bread. 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.

Here we have a prewar stamp from 1941 when the Philippines was under Commonwealth status, a planned 10 year. 1936-46, path to independence. Showing on the stamp is Jose Rizal, a Philippine author and anti Spanish colonial figure, who the Spanish shot. The K P stands for Kagamitong Pampamahaloon, official business in Tagalog, the Philippine native language Japan was emphasizing. Asia for Asians being a propaganda goal of their conquests. One aspect of the 2nd Republic is not shown on this stamp. There was a lot of inflation and the Japanese printed Peso notes in very high denominations, so called Mickey Mouse money. Yet here is a stamp in it’s low original denomination. Official business after all.

Todays stamp is issue NO1, a 2 Centavo stamp issued by the Second Republic of The Philippines in 1943. The 2nd republic version of this stamp was a 4 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused. The 2nd Republic must have printed a lot of these for such interesting overprints to have no effect on the stamps value.

The Philippines fell to Japan in 1942. The administration of President Quezon fled to the USA where Quezon later died. Though there was an active resistance to Japan, there was also a group of prominent politicians willing to work with Japan. These figures include members of the Aquino and Laurel political dynasties. In 1943, a second Philippine Republic was declared. The First Republic was in power briefly between the periods of Spanish and American colonial status around 1900. The new government had many challenges. Most importantly was a shortage of rice in the cities. The first goal of rice production was to feed the Japanese occupiers and further collaboration was not complete in rural areas. The Japanese tried to help by importing a new strain of rice from Taiwan they had luck with and grew faster. The weather however was not favoring the Japanese with too much rain and a large typhoon hitting Manila in 1943. The 2nd Republic emphasized the Tagalog language, introducing a stripped down 1000 word version that could be quickly learned in a country with low literacy. Spanish and English not being Asian.

After the Americans landed in late 1944, the Second Republic declared war on the USA, but soon the government was evacuated to Tokyo and it was their turn in exile. American General MacArthur had Laurel and Aquino arrested in Japan and intended the Philippines to try them for treason. Instead they were amnestied. Laurel ran for President again in 1949 and lost, he believed by corruption. An Aquino was later shot attempting to stir up opposition to later President Marcos. His daughter in law and grandson were later Presidents. Laurel is now considered a legitimate President, Japan aside, Republic status sounded pretty good after so long as a colony.

Jose Rizal was a Filipino of Chinese ancestry, the Spanish had forced the taking of Spanish names. He was not Catholic and wrote several books mocking the Spanish priests that tried to impose their religion on Filipinos who were less Spanish. He was trained in ophthalmology in Germany and practiced in Hong Kong, taking an Irish common law wife. He refused to marry in the Church and had many affairs. As the troubles in the Philippines started, he went into internal exile. He later accepted a job in Cuba but was forced back to the Philippines to face treason charges. He felt himself innocent as he had not took up arms against the Spanish, but was convicted and shot at age 35.

Well my drink in empty and I will pour another to toast the postal overstamp. It is such fun figuring what they meant all these years later. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Burundi 1964, The Pope canonizes victims of a precolonial King and gets a stamp with another one

A precolonial King in Buganda killed some Baptized Africans in 1884. In the 1960s, the Church wanted to be seen as inclusive and not racist so assured that the long ago crime will be remembered. In response the Pope is shown on equal footing with another precolonial King of a total cesspool of a country. Perhaps not so well thought out. 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 arrogance of King for not much longer Mwambutsa IV of Burundi must have known no bounds. There was not actually a meeting of the two, but a real picture of someone meeting the Pope usually shows some defferance. It is interesting to think that the Burundi King  thought the story of an old crime by another King was one he wanted to emphasize. It may come down to the old folkway that a King has special powers granted him by God. Mwambutsa did not, he was overthrown two years later.

Todays stamp is issue A11, a 14 Franc stamp issued by the Kingdom of Burundi on November12th, 1964. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Canonization of 22 victims who died for their faith in Buganda in 1884. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Buganda, modern day Uganda, stayed under local rule longer than most. That does not mean that there were not attempts by white missionaries to convert the locals to Christianity. A Catholic group of such “White Fathers” got to work in Buganda in 1878. This did not please the King, none of the 60s sources list which King, who ordered the killing of any local black who was baptized. The death toll according to white father records was 22. The deaths are reported to have sped up rather than slowed down the progress of Christianity in Buganda. It did not seem to hurt the King of Buganda, as he still had some ceremonial powers in Uganda at the time of this stamp. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/05/uganda-1942-a-british-bridge-in-self-governed-buganda/  ,Canonization of course requires later miracles attributed to the future saints. 2 Catholic nuns, the “White Sisters” reported in 1941 that intervention from the Buganda victims had given them a miracle in ending their heart problems. The canonization happened in 1964 and the Church hoped it would signal their inclusiveness. It also seemed to a have a big dose of good old fashioned white man’s burden.

King Mwambutsa was a child King with a regency before the arrival of Belgium in the area after World War I. He was left in place by the Belgians and upon independence of Burundi in 1962 he really had his power back. He was a Tutsi in an area with many Hutus though and in the absence of Belgium, he had trouble ruling those who had no allegiance to him. In 1966 there was an attempted coup and the good King departed for Switzerland leaving his son behind as a Regent. A second coup later in 1966 ended that  and a Republic was declared. Burundi has been and still is one of the poorest places on Earth. The King lived out his days in Switzerland. In 2011, his remains were exhumed with the idea of giving him a proper state funeral in Burundi. His family fought this in Swiss court, he had specifically stated that his remains were never to return to Burundi. After a long court case, his remains we reinterred in Switzerland. See https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/08/the-prince-who-was-assasinated-after-fighting-for-independence/ .

Well my drink is empty and I am left pondering the Catholic practice of declaring Saints. A stamp collector is always in favor of remembering worthy humans, but at what point does it start to resemble the supposed granting of special powers as with those silly old African Kings? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bulgaria 1950, now that he is dead, we can forgive Kolarov his passivity

One can forget what an Internationale movement the early Communists were. There were conventions, factions and debates. Then in the 20s there was Stalin and he regarded all that with suspicion as he was the world leader of the movement, and therefore deserved personal loyalty. Kolorov was able to age out but shows what was happening. 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 wave of communist exiles that returned home had been abroad for decades. They were also quite old. and by 1950 such leaders had passed. This allowed Stalin to put in his own people. No reason however not to give Kolarov a nice sendoff. On this issue of two stamps, the lower denomination writes the country name in the local language while this stamp has Bulgaria written in Latin letters. Already in 1950 a nod to the international collector that would soon be so important to Eastern European communist era issues.

Todays stamp is issue A377, a 20 Lev stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria on March 6th, 1950. The two stamp issue had quickly been put together after caretaker Prime Minister Vasil Kolarov had died in January. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 70 cents, whether mint or canceled to order as here.

Vasil Kolarov was born in Bulgaria in 1877 when the area was still part of the Ottoman Empire. He was the son of a shoemaker. In 1897 he joined the Tesniak wing of the local Communist movement. He was then given the opportunity to study law in France and make connection with the various communist movements. At the time it was thought that a communist takeover of the Balkans would involve a federation of Slavic countries that would itself sub serve itself to a communist Russia.

After being defeated in World War I a new King appointed leftist Aleksandar Stamboliski as Prime Minister. He was from the rival leftist Agrarian Party. Bulgaria was much shrunken and was faced with a huge war reparations bill. As Stamboliski worked through it, he angered Bulgarians on the right for kowtowing to the new reality. In 1923, the Right lead a coup that saw the King appoint a new right wing Prime Minister. Stamboliski tried to fight the coup but had no help from the rival Tesniak communists like Kolarov. He was captured, tortured, blinded, had the arm he signed peace treaties with cut off and had his head removed as a trophy. This greatly angered Stalin, who was on good terms with Stamboliski. His anger was mainly directed at those communists of the Internationale that were passive through the struggle as Stamboliski was of the other party. Another issue for Stalin was that he now opposed a wider Balkan Slavic Soviet federation. as he thought it would be too powerful for the Soviets to easily control. Realizing the danger of angering Stalin, the Communists like Kolarov started a separate uprising later in 1923. This was quickly defeated and sent Bulgarian communist leaders into exile where they perhaps wanted to be. The Communist International took care of them.

In 1944, Bulgaria switched sides and welcomed in the Red Army as the Germans retreated. With them came the exiled Bulgarian Communists like Kolorov. He accepted the abdication of Bulgaria’s last King and became a figure head President of the new People’s Republic. These were the old passive guys from 1923 and Stalin was not pleased. They still harbored ideas of a Balkan federation and were too close to Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia. New Prime Minister  Dimitrov was some believed poisoned in Moscow and there was a show trial and execution of the deputy Prime Minister. Kolarov stepped in as caretaker Prime Minister but perhaps lucky for him he died of natural causes a few months later allowing Stalin to put in his people. No longer a threat, Kolarov was given a hero’s funeral and his hometown was even renamed for him. This enthusiasm was short lived, by 1965 the town had reverted to it’s previous name.

Well my drink is empty and I will stay out of Bulgarian politics. I am sure someone would find me too passive. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.