Stalinism and Stamp Collecting

A Story by Sharrumkin

Why did Stalin hate stamp collectors?

One of the oddest aspects of Stalin’s rule was his attitude towards stamp collectors. He considered them politically unreliable. Granted he considered most people to be unreliable but why stamp collectors? Well, seen through Stalin’s eyes his attitude was reasonable. Stamp collectors were interested in receiving stamps from foreign counties. This made them suspect spies, and between suspect spy and real spy there was no difference. Therefore collecting stamps was a quick ticket to the gulag. So a man who ruled a gigantic land empire, commanded hundreds of millions and possessed nuclear weapons distrusted people who collected little bits of paper. Why? Partly it was in his nature to distrust but also because of the very nature of Stalinism and any other dictatorship.

Stalinism was an aberration of Leninism which in turn was an aberration of Marxism. It demanded blind obedience to an all-powerful leader, a political system now almost extinct, with the one exception of North Korea. In Stalin’s system stamp collectors would have to confine themselves to postal issues issued by the Soviet government under Stalin’s rule. Pre-revolutionary stamps would smack of bourgeois or pro-monarchist sympathies. Foreign stamps indicated foreign contacts. Therefore a stamp collector was a foreign agent. In contrast to the Soviets the Nazis never launched a campaign against stamp collecting contain to arrest stamp dealers for sending valuable philatelic properties out of the country and warning against the purchase of Danish charity stamps being used for anti-Germanic purposes. In 1942 a German stamp was issued showing a collector working on his collection. This stamp would appear on a 1954 American booklet The Stamp Finder.

Josef Bronowski in his series The Ascent of Man points out that underlining any system of absolutism, be it secular or theological, is what he calls the principle of certainty. Certainty implies that the universe is structured in a certain manner understood only by members of a particular creed. Whether it be based upon the fuhrerprinzip, the triumph of Communism or the second coming of Christ, the universe will resolve itself in the manner envisioned by the ruling elite. Rather than shaping their ideas to fit the universe Absolutists insist upon shaping the universe to fit their ideas. In all absolutist societies exists an enemy, an enemy that denies the certainty of the regime’s belief. Whether capitalist, Protestant, Catholic. Islamic or Jewish, the threat exists and cannot be tolerated. Hence Kulaks in the Soviet Union, Jews in Germany and Schoolgirls in Pakistan become targets.

The greatest flaw in absolutism is the limit it applies to human knowledge. It draws a line and demands acceptance that nothing except error lies that beyond The great weakness of such a concept is that it demands universal knowledge something lacking in human society. The development of universal laws must rest upon a correct understanding of the universe, an understanding that no one possesses. How could they? Scientists speak of multiple universes of which ours is only one. Even within our own galaxy they claim a possible seventeen billion possible earthlike planets. How then can the historical and social experience of specific groups on one planet be seen as having universal validity?

For over fifty years I have collected postage stamps During that time I have heard my hobby referred to as being trivial, silly and a waste of time and money. However it was not until I read a biography of Stalin that I ever heard of anyone who considered it a danger to the state. As a child I was aware that outside of the cocoon of my home there was an unknown vastness dark and looming. I wanted to bring light to the darkness. Darkness I equated with ignorance, something bad that had to be removed. Arthur Koestler’s Darkness At Noon with its study of Stalinist terror equated fear and terror with the blackness of night. However not all people see it that way. Darkness is not always a bad thing. It is restful, conducive to sleeping, physically and mentally. Fear of the dark causes many to huddle together for protection However I did not want to sleep. I wanted to know. Therefore I developed a love of reading for in books I found a means by which i could push away a little bit of the darkness surrounding me. Darkness is not always a bad thing. It is restful, conducive to sleeping, physically and mentally. Fear of the dark causes many to huddle together for protection However I did not want to sleep. I wanted to know. Therefore I developed a love of reading for in books I found a means by which I could push away a little bit of the darkness surrounding me.

When I was about sixteen a cereal company offered as a promotion small packets of foreign stamps. I remember that one was a New Zealand 4d floral issue. New Zealand I knew to bet in the South Pacific and that it belonged to the Commonwealth. I also knew that I would probably never go there. Still, I would own a tiny piece of it, proof that somewhere it existed. So began my love affair with stamps. But why stamps? After all, what are they? Printed bits of paper designed to cover the cost of postage. Well, I suppose that I could sum up my interest in one word: knowledge. The knowledge offered came in three forms. First, philatelic. This involves the stamp itself, its date of issue, design, value, colour, etc. The second is the knowledge offered by the issuing authority, i.e. head of state, value, language, reason for issue.

Two types of postage stamps are issued, definitives and commemeratives. Definitives are issued as standard postage usually for several years. Their designs will often consist of heads of state and various themes, i.e. historical or geographic landmarks. Commeratives are issued to mark specific occasions, i.e. the hundreth anniversary of independence. From both the collector can learn much about the country of issue, language, geography, history, etc. The third form is knowledge that the collector may acquire from the stamp not intended by the issuer. For example the third largest country among my stamps is Hungary. Why Hungary? East European countries through the nineteen-sixties to nineties published large volumes of stamps aimed at stamp collectors, a means by which they could acquire western currency. Hungary however was not alone in this. All Soviet countries including the Soviet Union followed the same pattern. The most important form of knowledge to be gained by collecting is that of historical perspective.

The first postage stamp was issued in 1840. My own collection runs from the late eighteen-fourties to the present time. As I flip through the pages of a nation’s stamps I get a sense of how a nation developed over the past hundred and seventy years. The history of France Britain or China passes in front of me. Presidents and Kings, good and bad, come and go. Empires rise and fall, New nations are born. In France Louis Napoleon gives way to the Third Republic. Then comes Petain, Liberation and a new republic. So the collector learns that nothing in politics is eternal. Yet absolutist states rest upon an assumption of monopolizing eternal values not shared by others. The one absolute state that has come closest to achieving a sense of permanency is the Vatican. With its one hundred acres it represents the papacy, a tradition that has endured since the time of Saint Peter but its claims are spiritual control not political control, at least not beyond the bounds of the Vatican. As for other absolutist state, the twentieth century is littered with their corpses, all reflected in the pages of my stamp albums. An absolute state rests upon ignorance. Denial of information is necessary if the belief of its members is not to be shaken. Every postage stamp represents a tiny bit of knowledge. They do not seek to subvert systems but in accumulating and studying stamps they do become more knowledgeable. In this they contribute to the preservation of the right to knowledge. In so doing they threaten absolutism.