Uzbekistan stamp – The-Philatelist

The silk road trade made Tashkent rich. It also made it a target of Turkish Khans seeking tribute. In desperation, the traders allowed themselves to be conquered by Russian Boyar adventurers hoping for good governance. Instead the silk trade was allowed to dry up and the city was flooded with exiles the Soviets didn’t trust and wanted out of the way. Maybe if they united with the rural Uzbeks and gave the Turks another try. 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 question was how and how much to subdivide the Turk people of Central Asia. Tashkent went to the extreme and tried to be a city state to protect it’s wealth. The early Soviet years saw the entire area organized as semi autonomous Turkestan, the other extreme of possibilities. The Soviet break up saw a middle road, with independent Uzbekistan reverting to a new Khanate of Kokand. That is what is reflected in the new coat of arms that is more like Kokand than more recent Soviet days.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 15 Ruble stamp issued by independant Uzbekistan on June 10th, 1993. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents cancelled to order. It is strange to see a non postal cancellation on what appears to be a bulk issue.

The Silk Road was the key to developing Tashkent. It wasn’t just Chinese silk, but also paper and gunpowder that were traded. The Turk population had to be able to interact with Chinese, Indians, Russians, and even Germans and British. The wealth and interaction changed the city and it attempted to govern itself as a city state, still under a local Turk Khan. The neighboring and formerly ruling Khanate of Kokand whose borders closely resemble modern Uzbekistan was able to reconquer Tashkent. To due so they occupied it with 30,000 defenders for the walled city.

Into this came Russian Boyar General Mikhail Chenyayev. Boyars were a multinational class of aristocrats who contract with the Czar to do certain tasks. In Chenyayev’s case he was to bring the Russian flag to central Asia. He only had with him 1000 men. Knowing how well defended it was, the Czar had instructed him to leave Tashkent alone. Instead his small force scaled the wall in the middle of the night and killed the Kokand leader and paralized the defenses. Promising the city would be tax free and not militarily occupied, Tashkent was conquered.

As the Czar gave way to the Soviets Tashkent changed in a way that disappointed the local Turks. Cold war barriers got in the way of the old trade. In the meantime Moscow picked Tashkent for industrialization and as a place to go for eastern European exiles to whom they did not really trust. The city grew to be the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, but the Turks were now a minority in their own city. The end of the Soviet Union saw a new Kokand form as Uzbekistan and there was a quick migration out of the exiles and Soviets. The city has not shrunk as the population was replaced by rural Uzbeks. The migration out can be spotted on modern AT&T commercials. The spokeslady, Milana Vaayntrub, was born in Tashkent in 1987, the daughter of Jewish exiles. The change saw the family emigrate to the USA when Milana was a toddler. The question is, the Soviets didn’t trust her family, nor did the Uzbeks, can AT&T?

Milana Vayntrub as Lily the AT&T lady. When she is not selling you a phone, she is advocating for Syrian refugee settlement in Europe. Interesting Tashkent doesn’t occur as a likely destination.

In recent years, China has been interested in reinvigorating silk road trade with a Chinese financed Silk Belt and Road initiative. This will not be of any good to Uzbek Tashkent. The Chinese have decided instead to route the new belt of roads and rail through Kazakhstan.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned by stamp collecting.

Replacing the DC3/C47/Li2 cargo planes proved nearly impossible. They were cheap and numerous and there were many pilots and mechanics who could operate them. Some are still in use but perhaps the best attempt at a military replacement was the Soviet Antonov 8. 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.

Uzbekistan is a former Soviet republic in central Asia. The last Soviet premier Islam Karimov was the countries first President until his death in 2016. Given this, despite being an officially Muslim country, heck the Presidents first name is Islam, even if there were rumors that he was really Jewish. Uzbekistan might have more than its share of Soviet nostalgia. Well why not, especially when it comes to a neat old airplane like the Antonov 8. The plane does have a surprise Uzbek connection, having been built at the Antonov factory in Tashkent between 1958-1961.

The stamp today is issue A22, a 10 Sum stamp issued by the Republic of Uzbekistan on October 10th, 1995. It was part of a 7 stamp issue that displayed Soviet cargo planes, in this case the Antonov 8. There was also a higher denomination souvenir sheet that displayed the Ilyushin 114 aircraft. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2 whether mint or cancelled to order like this one.

The C47 was made in larger numbers than any other cargo plane in history. They were produced in the Soviet Union as the Li-2. Even on the Axis side, the Japanese had a prewar early version in production. The only close competitor was the German Junkers 52 that was smaller and slower despite it’s third engine. After the war, by the 50s thoughts occurred as to how to replace it. A military cargo plane purposely built as such would contain a central load door so small vehicles could be driven aboard and be able to take off from shorter fields. The C47, and the Ju 52 could not do this as they were converted airliners.

The first attempts at this in west were compromised designs. The French Nord Nordatlas and the American C123 Provider had the cargo door, but both had to resort to auxiliary small jet engines to get them off the ground from a short field. This added complexity and shortened the range of the airplanes.

The Soviets tried a different approach. They had a new in 1956 turboprop engine that could get the twin engine Antonov 8 Camp off in a shorter roll and with a longer range. A turboprop engine still has a propeller but the prop powers a turbine rather than a radial engine. The advantage in mainly in terms of efficiency instead of speed but was an added cost. 150 An 8s were made and all were initially in Soviet military service. Larger 4 engine turboprops like the American C130 Hercules and the Soviet Antonov 12 Cub proved more useful still and became the worldwide standard even today.

In the 1970s, the Antonov 8s were transferred to Aeroflot to be used as freighters. By the 90s they were retired in Russia with Antonov withdrawing certificates of airworthiness and service support for the aircraft. That does not mean the old airplanes were done. Many came under the control of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout who used them to ferry illicit arms around Africa. Bout was jailed in the USA in 2011 after being caught in Thailand trying to sell arms to American agents posing as members of the Columbian FARC organization. The trail goes cold from there as to what happened to his planes but if wouldn’t be shocking if a few Antonov 8s were still in use in Africa. Bout must have some pull. He is still in jail but his appeals are being handled by former American Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Antonov 8 designer A Y Belolipetsky. I bet he would have never imagined how long a life some of his designs had. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.