Russian / Soviet Space Cinderellas

I have found nothing on the subject and decided to start this topic, probably someone finds it interesting. I have some examples in my collection though it is far from being complete.

According to my observations there were 3 major periods of space cinderellas appearance in USSR/Russia - early 1960s (club cover period), 1990s (local fantasy issues) and 2000s (private designs). Between these periods there were some official issues more known as "souvenir sheetlets" mostly dedicated to philatelic exhibitions and anniversaries. The later was not used on any kind of envelopes and served as collectable memorabilia.

So starting from the 1960s - the most famous are Vinnitsa and Kiev cinderellas used on the relevant club covers. Vinnitsa cinderellas were issued in sheetlets bearing slogans and were cut to be put on the covers. Though some uncut sheets can be found as well as covers without cinderellas.

5th anniversary of the 1st satellite






2nd anniversary of the space dogs issued in two colors






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Fascinating, fimych. Thank you.
Keep it coming!

Another portion of Vinnitsa cinderellas came towards 1st anniversary of German Titov flight in Vostok 2. They were printed in larger sheetlets (8) in red color. While cut they were applied to the commemorative cover but unlike the cover in previous post it is very common to find ones without the cinderellas.

Not long ago I was suggested by a respected collector about another "proof" version that was printed in gold. Being quite uncommon for me as I do not care about proofs, variations, etc. I still added this to my collection.











to be continued...

Another Vinnitsa club creation known to me was dedicated to the 1st anniversary of the first group flight - Vostok 3 & 4

Now comes the Kiev party. Unfortunately I don't have them in my collection, so I put some scans from the internet. Kiev club produced 3 types of cinderellas using the famous sketch of V.Zavyalov - white, red in 1962 (1st anniversary of Yuri Gagarin flight) and a purple in 1966 (5th anniversary)

NOTE - these are not in my collection, the images just for reference.

another item in my wish-list - pure philatelic creations with red cinderellas commemorating Gagarin and Titov flights in 1961. Actually these were the leaflets dropped by helicopters over Moscow during the welcome events.
This is Titov example. Once again I do not have them - just for your reference

With the disappearance of the "club" movement in mid 1960s the cinderellas vanished as well. The next major blast occurred in early 1990s in chaotic economical environment while the stamp issues were not sufficient to cover every-day changing tariffs. On this ground many "local" space-related overprints have appeared. Not only these once were pure fantasy and never had any legal basis for being used, but also were produced by a couple of known dealers and promoted to collectors as "hard-to-find" rarities. Still those can be obtained from various auctions. I have some examples in my inventory.
The overprints were made on the last USSR or first Russian standard stamps. Please do not confuse with ex-soviet republics that used overprinted standards for postal needs.














to be continued...

Kazakhstan Almaty stamp club issued covers cinderellas to commemorate various events - here is an example of Shuttle-MIR first docking (STS-71). Please do not confuse with the local tariff overprinted stamps widely used by former Soviet republics in 1990s

Baikonur cinderellas became quite common nowadays issued by a couple of enthusiastic dealers and cancelled by BaikonurSvyazInform (BSI). Here are some examples:








to be continued...

These are excellent. Thank you for posting. I can't get enough of the Russian/Soviet space stamps (official or cinderella).