Status: Presidential Federation
Population: 142,320,790 (2021 est)
Area:  6,601,668 sq. miles 
Currency:  100 Kopecks = 1 Ruble (71 Rubles = U.S. $1)

The eastern Slavs organized their first state in the Kiev area in the tenth century. Their small settlements along the waterways had strong trade links with Byzantium, and Christianity was introduced from Constantinople. In the early thirteenth century, the Russian principalities fell under the domination of the Mongols. The ensuing two centuries of oppressive Mongol rule had lasting economic and political effects. By 1462, the principality of Muscovy freed itself from Tatar domination and began to expand into Asia. When Peter the Great became Czar in 1682, Russia was the largest country in the world, stretching across northern Asia to the Bering Sea. Peter made Russia a major European power by defeating the Swedes and Poles, gaining access to the Baltic and the Black Seas. 

Russia Scott 1 

Peter the Great inherited a postal service organized in Mongol times. Post riders carried mail to relay stations along the main roads. But in most of the vast country, mail transport was the responsibility of the citizenry. To the 96 percent of the people living in scattered rural settlements and entirely outside of a cash economy, the postal service was an onerous irrelevancy. Popular resentment resulted in slow, unreliable service, with mail often being lost. Under Peter, many reforms were instituted. Post offices were established in St. Petersburg, Moscow and several Baltic cities. Germans were hired to operate the posts and in 1713, the mails were opened to private citizens. 

Russia was one of the first countries to adopt the British concept of prepayment of postage. But it did not result immediately in postage stamps. In 1845, Russia issued 5-kopeck stamped envelopes for the city posts of St. Petersburg and Moscow, On December 1, 1848, prepaid envelopes were authorized for use throughout the empire. It was not, however, until December 10, 1856, that the first stamp appeared. Russia issued about 100 stamps prior to World War I. 

In 1861, Alexander II created administrative jurisdictions called Zemstvos to improve public services. Since the postal service in the interior of Russia was extremely limited, many Zemstvos created their own local postal service to supplement the Imperial system. From 1867 to 1917, over 600 Zemstvos issued these locals. 

The civil war following the 1917 revolution created chaos throughout the country. During the revolution, stamps were issued by a variety of separatist states, military units, and counter-revolutionary governments. Scott lists about two dozen, as well as five newly independent states that remained after the Treaty of Versailles.

Russia Scott 139 front and reverse

Russia Scott 184 and 243

Russia resumed issuing stamps in 1921 as the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (inscribed РСФСР). In 1924, Stalin consolidated the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under his authoritative rule. Russia issued stamps for the entire USSR (inscribed СССР). The USSR was a prolific stamp producer, issuing nearly 100 varieties annually for 68 years. In 1992, the USSR broke up, creating 17 independent republics. After that, Russian stamps carried the country name in both Russian and Cyrillic characters (РОССИЯ and RUSSIA). The early 1990s were also characterized by numerous overprinted Soviet stamps and topical labels, purporting to be from subordinate Russian jurisdictions. Virtually all are bogus.

Russia Scott 6063