Category Archive: Collectibles

My collection. Produced in the Soviet Union badges

Produced in the Soviet Union badges
Collectors from Russia and neighboring countries are increasingly interested in rare badges issued in the Soviet Union. At that time, they were mass-produced – for propaganda purposes, for anniversaries and significant events – and cost a penny. Over the years, the cost of individual copies has increased many times. I have a small collection of such badges issued in the Soviet Union on various topics.
Soviet people enthusiastically collected badges, both children and adults. There were several reasons for this popularity: a huge range of products, penny price, and a variety of subjects. Particularly popular were the circulations devoted to cities, Lenin and communist party, sporting events, space and astronauts, anniversary dates, wars, famous people, monuments of architecture and more.
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Beautiful design of chess series match labels of 1966, the USSR. Soviet chess inspired matchbox labels

Soviet chess inspired matchbox labels
The popularity of chess in the Soviet Union was enormous, to which contributed the permanent world championships of the Soviet school. Chess populated in the media, it was a prestigious sport, with its intellectuality standing over and slightly over the rest sports. Champions and close to them in terms of level were known and revered. Accordingly, all chess subjects in philately, numismatics, and Phillumeny, too, enjoyed great interest. Fortunately, interest in collecting, which fell down after the collapse of the USSR, begins to revive again.
First of all, the Phillumeny clubs appeared in late 1950’s – early 1960’s, in the largest cities of the USSR. However, they were unofficial and worked as collectors’ clubs of philatelists, and supervised by the All-Union Society of Philatelists. The flourishing of Phillumeny in the USSR falls on the 1960s and 1980s, when the Balabanovskaya match factory printed labels for most match factories. In particular, they produced special sets for phillumenists (100 regular labels in a set and sets of souvenir gift labels). In addition, the Baltic factories printed similar sets.
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A set of match labels issued in 1984 in the USSR. 1961 – Yuri Gagarin – first man in space, and construction and development of BAM (Baikal-Amur Railway). The heroic way of the Komsomol matchbox labels

The heroic way of the Komsomol matchbox labels

In the above photo – “The heroic way of the Komsomol” set of match labels issued in 1984 in the USSR. It is the work by the artist M.D. Griberg, for Balabanovo Experimental Factory, Kaluga Region. The match labels show episodes of the working life of the Communist Youth League, its slogans and achievements. And now, some information on the history of Soviet Komsomol after the WWII.
November 18, 1958 the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” looked unusual. The issue opened with an appeal: “Give communist labor brigade!”, “Leninsky Komsomol Communist teams met seven years!” From the pages of the newspaper to the reader looked perky faces of the workers, who proposed on the eve of the XXI Congress of the CPSU to start a new competition – the movement for communist labor. Thus a new, higher stage of socialist competition arose. And the first (in October – November 1958) who most clearly and fully formulated the tasks of the new competition, were young communists and Komsomol members. In particular, workers of the depot Moscow-sorting Kazan Railway, innovators of the Leningrad Metal Plant, and several advanced collectives, among whom were miners of Ukraine, Baku oil, and Belarusian builders. At their suggestion, a competition for the title of collectives of communist labor began. They put forward the motto: “Learn, live and work in a communist way.”
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1959 matchstick box label. Children’s toy. From the series The USSR Industry Achievements matchbox labels

The USSR Industry Achievements matchbox labels
The match-sticker label, after the revolution and complete nationalization of match factories dramatically changed its content and purpose. On the labels began to print ideological appeals and slogans, and information about various events, advertising products and services. In the USSR, Phillumeny, in contrast to the numismatics dealing with precious metals, was strongly supported. At the same time, being the most mass media in the USSR (label production reached hundreds of millions), match labels underwent strict censorship. Accordingly, until the middle of the 1950s, every match label was approved with the resolution “Corresponds to the print allowed by Gorlit.”
Meanwhile, in the days of Stalin, it was forbidden to portray the portraits of the “leader of the peoples” on the labels. However, the slogans praising him were greeted. Later, when censorship reduced, a huge number of highly professional mini masterpieces appeared. Never thrown away, they became the collectibles. In fact, they featured all spheres of the life of Soviet society: from everyday objects to flight into space. Soviet people, as well as our contemporaries, carefully considered, exchanged and collected black and white, multicolored, souvenir, greeting and advertising matchboxes made in the Soviet Union.
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Worker embroidering Soviet Red banner. Soviet sculptor-ceramist Natalya Danko (1892-1942)

Soviet sculptor-ceramist Natalya Danko (1892-1942) entered the history of Soviet propaganda porcelain as one of the most remarkable sculptors. For twenty-five years of creative work she has created more than three hundred figures and compositions. In particular, thematic sculptures, satirical, portrait and decorative, not counting options made in bronze, terracotta, wax and earthenware. Also, Natalia was one of the first Soviet sculptors to use porcelain in architecture. Noteworthy are 14 bas-reliefs on the theme “Dances of the Peoples of the USSR” for the metro station “Sverdlov Square”. In addition, under her leadership, a team of sculptors and artists of Leningrad porcelain factory performed porcelain bas-reliefs for the Khimki river station in Moscow (1937-1938).
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Tea set. Soviet artist Anna Yatskevich. Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. Leningrad, the USSR. Gold medal at Brussels World’s Fair. 1958. Symbolic geometric pattern of famous Soviet porcelain

Symbolic geometric pattern of famous Soviet porcelain

Few people know that the famous geometric pattern of the Leningrad porcelain is a symbol of remembrance of the heroic feat of the blockade of Leningrad. The most famous pattern of the Leningrad porcelain – Cobalt net. It appeared shortly after the end of the blockade in 1944. It was not just a geometric pattern. The artist Anna Yatskevich, author of the famous blue logo of Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (LPF), painted with mesh porcelain tea set of sculptor Serafima Yakovleva, in memory of the taped crosswise windows of homes and cross spotlights illuminating the sky during the siege of Leningrad.
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Pigeon species USSR matchbox labels, 1963, green paper

Pigeon species USSR matchbox labels
Pigeon, as the symbol of world peace has always been an inspiration for Soviet artists, song writers and film directors. Besides, pigeon keeping was extremely popular in the Soviet Union. There were clubs for pigeon lovers, and dovecotes were in every yard. Circling flocks of beautiful birds – white, black and blue-gray doves flew over our heads. Pigeons could always be seen on the roof of the dovecotes, looking from above at the whistling and waving children. Pigeon keeping was a favorite hobby of many Soviet men. And especially for pigeon fanciers, or just bird lovers and ornithologists issued matchbox labels and postage stamps with the images of pigeon breeds.
Unfortunately, dovecotes began to disappear as a class by the end of the 90s. With the collapse of the USSR changed interests and, gradually pigeon keeping seized to exist. Although pigeon lovers clubs still exist and volunteers support old city tradition, but one can hardly gather a flock of birds with just one cheerful whistle, as it was before.
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