COVER N. 332 - RUSSIA

Postmark: Illegible 04.10.2023

Posted on the 4th October; received on the 17th October 2023

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Space, the last frontier, the place where Americans and Russians and a few other Nationals cohabit in absolute confinement and interdependency and prove that they can actually work together for a common goal, irrespective of what's going down below, in the place they were sent up from.... 

People are strange, said Morrison. Indeed they are, part comes from them, of course, but the environment wherein they thrive has a lot to do with it...

That said, on to what brought me here: Julia always sends me great covers and postcards, but this time she really outdid herself, by sending a most interesting package, comprising cover and maxim card. Thank you so much Julia.

I will not even separate the cover from the Maxim card inside on the blog post, as I usually do with her nice sendings, since this, as I said, is a full package, the cover and the  card being so intimately related.

"The Challenge" is the name of the first commercial film to have been partially filmed in space. The international Space Station was the set chosen and in order to accomplish this goal actress  Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, who also dubbed as cameraman/photography director/make up artist and production designer, were trained and dispatched in its direction aboard a Soyus Vehicle (MS-19) atop a Soyus 2.1 a rocket. There they stayed for 12 days, during which Shipenko captured approximately 30 hours of images, which, when edited, correspond to about 35 minutes of the screened film.

Curiously the logistics of it all implied that the forecast 6 month shift of the ISS regular crew had to be extended to one year, with return to earth of an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut happening already after the unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces. This unfortunate event  would also leave its mark on the final days of the mission,  although, as I said above, irrespective of what is unfortunately going on down here, up there things are continuing to work as planned as attested by the fact that, as I type, there are seven people working in the ISS: three Russians; two Americans; one Japanese; one Dane.... I guess there is no veto right in this productive assembly...

Let us take a look at the cover, first:

The image on the envelope is clearly evocative of a connection between film and space, with a strip of analogue film undulating on the base of the illustration, while a Soyus cargo ship, probably MS19, with  cosmonaut Colonel Anton Shkaplerov aboard in the company of Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko, orbits the Earth on its way to dock at the ISS.

This connection is highlighted by the 30 Ruble stamp in the central position, issued on 20APR2023, replicating an advertising poster for the film  "Вызов" (The Challenge), with an image of the main character, Evgenia Belyaeva (Yulia Peresild) floating by the window of the ISS.

To complete postage, Julia used two additional stamps:

- the one on the left, with a face value of 40 Ruble, issued on 07MAY2020, highlights the Rzhevsky Memorial or Ржевский мемориал, as written on the white lettering over a red star on the top right corner. 

This memorial was erected in 2020 to honour the soviet soldiers that perished in the battles of Rzhev, fought against the Wehrmacht, between  January 1942 and March 1943.

- The stamp on the right, with a face value of 5 Ruble, was issued on 12APR2000 and is part of a three stamp set dedicated to International Cooperation in Space.

The stamps in this set are dedicated to the 25 anniversary of the first joint Apollo-Soyuz mission (2 Ruble); the International Space Station (3 Ruble) and project Sea Launch (5 Ruble), this being the stamp that can be seen on the cover .

One cannot fail to note on this particular stamp the presence of the Ukranian flag side by side with those of  the Russian Federation, the United States, and Norway. When will this be possible again....?

Sea Launch was a private sector (I believe) project, developed by companies of the four above mentioned countries, aimed at providing satellite launch services from a mobile floating platform, converted from a former oil drilling rig.

Given its shareholder composition, the company fell victim of Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The  Maxim card is illustrated with an image taken from "the Challenge", showing mission control centre at Baikonour cosmodrome, I would guess. As per maxim card rules, the stamp (the same one used on the cover) is closely related to the card, and so is the cancellation postmark, in the case at hand a First Day of Issue (20APR2023) cancellation, issued at Baikonour, the leased Russian enclave in Kazakhstan, where the famous rocket launching facility is located.

All in all a very interesting  combination  and an excellent addition to my collection. Thanks a lot Julia!