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Exhibit: "Muscovy's Mayflies" - Imperial Russia's Temporary Post Offices from 1858 to 1917,
by David M. Skipton

Purpose of the exhibit: To demonstrate the maturation and spread of Imperial Russia's postal system over the last 45 years of its existence from the sole viewpoint of temporary post office services (the "last piece of the puzzle"), the development of various types of "tempos" following economic, social or military lines, and provide a survey of such offices following a clockwise rotation around the Empire, starting from the Baltic area and proceeding through Moscow, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine and "Little Russia" (present-day Belarus).

Significance of the subject. When one studies a national postal system that lacks temporary post offices, one has encountered a system that isn't fully developed, in the sense that the "intensity" of postal services provided to the public is at least partially deficient. Not only does a true, modern postal system offer all sorts of choices as to the kinds or categories of mail it will handle, it also provides choices as to where those items of correspondence can be mailed or picked up, and how many of those wheres there are. City posts and home delivery are one example of "intensity," postal services at small railroad stations, platforms and sidings are another. Temporary post offices are usually one of the last conveniences to be offered. For instance, it took Russia from the 1660s to 1832 before she got around to establishing her very first temporary post offices - almost two centuries - and that was only in St. Petersburg, and they were seasonal offices, not special-event; the rest of the empire would have to wait even longer.

If there are no "TPOs" - temporary post offices - it is evidence of a system that has yet to understand that when a literate population congregates for an event or series of events, mail - and thus revenue for the State - will be generated. A temporary post office represents a good investment for the government because people will send more mail at a post office on the spot, no matter how modest that office may be, than they will if they have to trudge many blocks or several miles to get to a permanent post office. Thus, temporary offices are indicators of a fully mature national postal system. And like the canary in the coal mine, when temporary offices begin to disappear, it is evidence that the postal system is in trouble, financially or from a perennial shortage of staff.

"Muscovy's Mayflies" is the most extensive exhibit of "tempos" shown thus far, and has served as the basis for the "Vremennoe" series in the Rossica Journal. A monograph is in the works.

Types of temporary post offices.

• "Probationary" - These were temporary only because they were established "on probation." If they didn't turn a profit in three years, they were closed down; if they could pay for themselves, then they were upgraded to permanent status.
• "Special" - One-time events lasting for several days up to a single season. These offices were set up at exhibitions, conferences and congresses. (The only known exception that proves this rule is the Odessa Exhibition, which was held for two consecutive summers.)
• "Seasonal" - recurring, open for a short time (ranging from a few days or weeks up to a full season). This usually meant summertime, when navigation on Russia's rivers and northern seas became possible, people could retreat to their dachas and tend their gardens, or vacation at resorts and spas. There were, however, some wintertime seasonal offices, opened because frozen rivers made travel to and from them more efficient. These offices tended to shift back and forth from one small village to another, spending approximately six months in one place and moving lock-stock-and-barrel to another place for the rest of the year. No postmarks or correspondence have ever been recorded from such places.
• Civilian establishments at military camps and ranges - These post offices were essentially summertime seasonals, but they supported military events such as bivouacs, artillery practice, musters and the like. Because they opened when one or more military units moved to the camps and ranges, in theory the temporary post offices could operate in any season, but in practice it was just during the summer months.
• Military field posts during peacetime at opposed-forces exercises - These were actual logistical-support military outfits commanded and staffed by active-duty servicemen whose purpose was to collect, sort, dispatch and deliver mail to the units they supported. Thus, when their senior military organization mustered or participated in an opposed-forces exercise, so too did they.

Difficulty of the subject.

1. Material . As the exhibit's title implies, all of these offices existed for only short periods of time before closing. The seasonals usually repeated, sometimes for many years in a row, but a significant percentage of the rest of them lasted either for only a few years and then disappeared or were soon upgraded to permanent status. The special one-time events in particular are extremely difficult to acquire. To amass just the one frame of these items took over two decades. Examples of temporary civilian post offices at military camps and artillery ranges run from scarce to exceedingly rare, as do "TPOs" on fluvial and White and Barents Sea steamers.

   While "Muscovy's Mayflies" lays no claim to being a comprehensive exhibit of temporary post office marks (in fact, there is no such thing), this exhibit represents by far the greatest extent of those postmarks that have been recorded in the literature. New finds can pop up at any time, of course, but as of 2009 they are very few and far between.

   Outstanding items: Frame 1, p. 3: 1891 French Exhibition; p. 14: 1911 Omsk Exhibition. Frame 2, p. 2: 1908 2nd International Congress of Navigation, St. Petersburg Conservatory; p. 5: 1858 Nizhni-Novgorod Fair on cover canceling Russia #2; Frame 3, p. 2: 1906 parcel post form from the Fair; p. 13: 1924 airmail cover sent from the Fair; p. 16: 1909 2nd White Sea steamer; Frame 4, pp. 13-16: The St. Petersburg park and dacha areas; Frame 5, pp. 1-2: St. Petersburg park and dacha areas; p. 6: Khodynskoye Pole, in Moscow; p. 16: Tinakskiya gryazi mud-bath spa; Frame 6, p. 5: Kuyal'niki Lagoon; p. 10: Birshtany mineral-waters spa; p. 11: Busk resort; p. 14: 1897 Camp Grodna on cover with state/zemstvo stamp combination; Frame 7, p. 1: 1907 money order from Camp Murav'ev; p. 3: 1913 Camp Orany registered cover; p. 7: 1913 Troitskoye, a Central Asian military camp; p. 9: 1908 Camp Vil'na; p. 15: "Inter-camp mail."

2. Information. Until 1981, there were no English-language studies of temporary post offices, only scattered descriptions of individual markings, and even sources in Russian were few and far between. Since then there have been some major strides in researching and recording these elusive postmarks, but official sources are limited. Many of the postal lists, guides and statistical surveys issued in the 1870s to 1910s either omit these "TPOs" altogether or only list some but not others that were known to have existed at that time. For other tempos, no official record of any sort has been unearthed.

Bibliography

Sources used in the compilation of this exhibit:
(Sources shown in red are the major articles on the subject.)

1. - , Activities of the Field Post & Telegraph During the 1898 Grand Maneuvers of the Guards and Petersburg Military District in the Presence of the Emperor, transl. by David M. Skipton from the Pochtovo-telegrafnyy zhurnal, St. Petersburg, Nov. 1898, pp. 1468-1476, in The Journal of the Rossica Society of Russian Philately (Rossica) Nos. 104/105, 1983, pp. 56-61.
2. Adler, Kurt, The First Russian Special Cancellation, in Rossica No. 63, 1962, pp. 30 opposite & 35.
3. - , Notes from Collectors, in Rossica No. 83, 1972, p. 56.
4. [Ashford, P.T.], Correspondence, in BJRP No. 33, October 1963, p. 30.
5. Baillie, Ian L.G. & Eric G. Peel, St. Petersburg: The Imperial Post - its postmarks and other postal markings 1765-1914, The British Society of Russian Philately, Chancery House Press, 2001.
6. Combs, Gary A. and Noel C. Warr, The Postmarks of Moscow, 1765-1917. Part One, 1999.
7. Cronin, Andrew, Notes From Collectors, in Rossica No. 74, 1968, pp. 72-73.
8. Dobin, M.A. & L.G. Ratner, From the History of the Saint-Petersburg Post, 1703-1914, "Standard-Collection," St. Petersburg, 2004.
9. Faberge, O.A., Notes from Collectors, in Rossica No. 62, 1962, p. 59.
10. Forafontov, O., Poisk prodolzhayetsya (The Search Continues), in Filateliya SSSR No. 12, 1969, pp. 9-11.
11. Imhof, Heinrich, Die Poststempelformen in St. Petersburg von 1766-1914, Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Russland/UdSSR im BDPh e.V., 1976.
12. Irmann-Jacobsen, H., Notes from Collectors, in Rossica No. 79, 1970, pp. 57-58 & 62.
13. Ivakhno, Aleksandr, O markirovannykh pochtovykh kartochkakh Yuzhno-Russkoy oblastnoy vystavki v Yekaterinoslave 1910 goda, (The Stamped Postcards of the Southern Russian Oblast' Exhibit in Yekaterinoslav, 1910), Ukrainskiy filatelistichniy visnik, Spetsial'nyy ottisk No. 2 R, Kiiv, 2003.
14. Jakimovs, N. & V. Marcilger, Postal History of Imperial Russia in Pre-Independent Latvia, Framic (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1995.
15. Khryashchev, Deyatel'nost' pocht i telegrafov na Nizhegorodskoy yarmarke" (Activities of the Post and Telegraph at the Nizhniy Novgorod Fair), in Pochtovo-telegrafnyy zhurnal, Feb. 1893, pp. 202-227.
16. Kiryushkin, A.V. & P.E. Robinson, Russian Postmarks, 1989.
17. Kofman, V. and Rostislav Kalin, The Odessa Post (Fragments of History), Odessa, 1998.
18. Kossoy, Meer, Temporary Post Offices in the Russian Army, transl. by David M. Skipton, Rossica No. 144, Spring 2005, pp. 44-60.
19. Marcovitch, Emile, Russia: Commemorative Vignettes, [n.d.].
20. Moyes, J.G., correspondence from 2002-2008.
21. Petrevics, Andrejs, Notes from Collectors, in Rossica No. 85, 1973, p. 61.
22. Robbins, S., Notes from Collectors, in Rossica No. 79, 1970, pp. 55 & 59.
23. Seager, O.T. & John Lloyd, Outstanding Items: Nizhni Fair Cancellation of 1922, in BJRP No. 32, March 1963, p. 18.
24. Skipton, David M., Vremennoe. Imperial Russia's Temporary Post Offices, in Rossica Nos. 100/101, 1981, pp. 7-35.
25. - , Vremennoe Revisited, in Rossica Nos. 104/105, 1983, pp. 16-55.
26. - , Vremennoe Update, in Rossica Nos. 106/107, 1985, pp. 47-54.
27. - , Carry on Vremennoing, in Rossica No. 108/109, 1986, pp. 108-142.
28. Sklarevski, R., Interesting Covers, in Rossica No. 64, p. 37.
29. Tann, Leonard, Vremennoe According to Leonard Tann, in Rossica No. 119, October 1992, p. 62.
30. Tyukov, Vladimir & Nikolai Mandrovsky, Vremennye pochtovyye uchrezhdeniyaa Rossiyskoy imperii i ikh shtempelya (Temporary Postal Establishments of the Russian Empire and Their Handstamps), in Sbornik Kollektsioner Nos. 40-41, Moscow, 2005, pp. 98-127.
31. Vinokur, V. and A. Ivakhno, Yuzhno-russkaya vystavka 1910 goda (The Southern Russian Exhibition of 1910), in Filateliya SSSR #10, 1986, pp. 36-38.
32. Vovin, Spetsshtempelya Rossii (Russia's Special Cancels), in Filateliya SSSR No. 1, 1975, p. 29.
33. Zagorodniy, V., Yeshche raz o pochtovom shtempele Odesskoy vystavki (Once Again on the Odessa Exhibition Postmark), in Filateliya #11, 197?, p. 33.
34. Weinert, Howard L. (comp.), Post Offices in Asiatic Russia, Baltimore, Maryland, 29 May 2008.



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