Moscow, Russia

I think that this is one of the most famous and most favourited Russian postcards....and with a reason!

It simply looks more like coming from a fairy tale book than something real...thumbs up to N.H.Rahmanova who is signed as the photographer of this.
The card shows the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, (also known as Cathedral of Intercession of Theotokos on the Moat) which is the city's main cathedral. It is a Russian Orthodox cathedral erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century.It was the tallest building of Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.
The building's design, shaped as a flame of a bonfire rising into the sky, has no analogues in Russian architecture: "It is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to fifteenth century... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century but has never been reproduced directly.
The cathedral has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929 and, as of 2009, remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The cathedral has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990

Russia is one of my top countries when it comes to stamps....they simply have fantastic issues!
The big yellow one in the middle one is from a set of 4 issued in 2004 representing an amber room and this one shows an engraved head....why this stamp is special to me is coz the head is really engraved and if you put your fingers over it you can actually feel the shape...something like when you read the Braille's alphabet...the stamp on the very left is also from 2004 from a set of 4, issued under the name "We glorify the Homeland" - this stamp in particular shows Marshal Zhukov. The stamp on the right is from a set of 5 issued in 2005, representing History of Russian State - Emperor Alexander II. The bottom stamp is a well known definitive from 2008, issued in a set of 15, representing a fox.

Moscow Metro Stations, Russia

Some of you know it rather well, some dont...for those who didnt know by now...I have a soft spot for several kinds of cards...and the Metro Stations in Moscow are very high on the list...but im talking here about the older cards, as the ones you can see here, with the yellow/golden touch....ive seen some new ones and they just dont have the charm of these older ones....
I have some posts about some of the metro stations....here is part 1 and here is part 2...guess this one could be considered as part 3....and eventually one day part 4 and part 5 will follow...and maybe 6 and 7 and 8 etc...depending on how this collection of mine grows...

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well, for starters today, here is the map plan of the Moscow metro...there are 11 lines shown, plus one is said to be under construction...the lines are: Sokolnicheskaya, Zamoskvoretskaya, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Filovskaya, Koltsevaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya, Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, Serpukhovsko-Timiriazevskaya, Kalininskaya, Liublinskaya and Kakhovskaya. If im right, the one here referred to as Under Construction is supposed to be Butovskaya....in total there are 180 stations.

and of course, i wont forget the stamps...here is a stamp from a set of 4 definitives issued in 2003 representing Sculpture art.

First station for today is Aviamotornaya. It is a station on the Kalininskaya line and was opened on 30 December 1979.The station is built in a three-vault configuration 53 metres (173 feet) underground. The central hallway contains a sculpture made out of anodised gold pyramids and tetrahedra.The theme of Aviamotornaya is aviation and flying. The columns holding up the ceiling are glazed in a light marble tone. The floor is made up of granite plates coloured in different shades of grey. The wall at the end of the central hallway is faced in a metal sculpture. There are decorations mentioning and detailing the main constellations.

some great stamps....well, they were put both above and below the address, so hence the two parts....starting from the ones above...the first one is from a set of 15 definitives issued in 2008, portraying animals. This one shows a hare. The one next to it was issued in 2001 and it is from the EUROPA series, from the Water-theme. The stamp below is from 2007 from a set of 3 showing Russian first native trucks. This one is ZIS-5V, 1942.

Next is the Kropotkinskaya station which is on the Sokolnicheskaya (or the red) line.

It was opened  in 1935 as part of the original Metro line.The station was originally planned to serve the enormous Palace of the Soviets, which was to rise nearby on the former site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Kropotkinskaya was therefore designed to be the largest and grandest station on the first line. However, the Palace project was cancelled by Nikita Khrushchev in 1953, leaving the Metro station as the only part of the complex that was actually built.

Since it was to serve as the gateway to the Palace of Soviets, great care was taken to make Kropotkinskaya suitably elegant and impressive. The station has flared columns faced with white marble which are said to have been inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak. Contrary to popular opinion, the marble used in the station did not come from the demolished Cathedral. The spacious platform is covered with squares of gray and red granite and the walls, originally tiled, are now faced with white Koyelga marble. The station is illuminated by concealed lamps set into the tops of the columns.

and here is an interesting "stamp"....which has remained a mistery to me until today...I really dont understand the meaning of this and why was it used, and the most confusing part for me is that the card was mailed from Russia..so why is there Return to Budapest? Anyone knows?

The last one shows the vestibule of the Park Pobedy station. (or the Victory Park)

It is a station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line of the Metro. At 84 metres underground, it is the deepest station in Moscow. It also contains the longest escalators in Europe, each one is 126 metres long and has 740 steps. The ride to the surface takes approximately three minutes.
Park Pobedy is actually a cross-platform complex with two separate, parallel platforms, though only the inner pair of tracks is presently used.

Trains arriving from Kievskaya stop at the northern platform to drop off passengers before going into reversal sidings and coming back to the southern platform to pick up passengers for the trip back. This is the only Metro station where all passengers board and exit trains in different locations. A further complication: only the southern (inbound) platform has an entrance vestibule, so passengers arriving at the outbound platform must change platforms before exiting. (confusing indeed)

The two platforms work of architects Nataliya Shurygina and Nikolay Shumakov are of identical design but have opposite colour schemes, which creates a striking effect. The pylons of the outbound platform are faced with red marble on the transverse faces and pale grey marble on the longitudinal faces. The inbound platform is exactly the reverse. The station is adorned with two large enameled panels by Zurab Tsereteli depicting the Patriotic War of 1812 (at the end of the inbound platform) and the Great Patriotic War (on the outbound platform).

Some more great stamps. The one in the middle is from 2007 from a set of  4 showing Native horse breeds. This one shows the Vladimir breed. The one on the left is from 2008 from a set of 3 representing the World Natural Heritage - Central Sikhote, Alijn. And the last stamp is from 2002 from a set of 5 definitives, showing architecture, with this one showing Kuskovo Palace.

I LOVE the metro stations. I have a few others in stock, but if you have some for trade, let me know...you might have something im missing :)

Moscow, Russia

A lovely card...thanks to dear Anasty!

This Moscow view is just stunning and more than beautiful..and yeah, the colours DO have something to do with it indeed.
This is The Cathedral of Christ the Redemeer...hmm, i would have used Saviour instead, coz i think thats more appropriate and common for the word 'Спасителя'....but if thats what i WOULD say, doesnt mean im right, right? If you check the net, you would get 'Redemeer' for the ones in Brazil, while for the one in Moscow 'Saviour' is used....ok, why am i complicating this in the first place? Its still the same cathedral afterall...but what can i do...language...syntax...grammar....morphology...my professional damages..

The enormous gleaming golden dome and gigantic structure of the newly built Cathedral of Christ the Savior is visible from all over central Moscow and is the largest church in Russia. The original Cathedral was built by the architect Konstantin Ton between 1839 and 1881 to commemorate Russia's victory over the French in the Napoleonic Wars. The church was later demolished in 1933 on Stalin's orders, but was built anew in the 1990s.
Clad in marble and granite, with huge bronze doors covered in relief depictions of the saints, the cathedral is an awesome statement of the re-found power and prestige of the Orthodox Church and one of Moscow's most impressive ecclesiastical buildings.

and here are the stamps from the card...something you dont often see from me....though this may change...but ill get down to it...

I have received several Russian cards with several various stamps on them....and i really like them.
Now....I know i never post stamps...ok, almost never...but there has been an itch inside me to actually change that...I do feel that they add a lot to the card...of course, if i get several cards in an envelope, i wont post the same stamps of the envelope on each card, or if they show another country...but for the majority of cards it would be nice to add the stamps as well me thinks...I think ill post a poll about it and see what YOU think, and please, be honest about it...after all, apart from doing this for my own satisfaction (this whole blog), I also love doing it for you out there, so YOUR opinion is more than valuable to me, and any sort of feedback as well...good comments, bad comments...whatever...either way, that old pool is acting crazy, coz votes keep appearing and disappearing...and i think that its been there long enough and i know your opinion and cards WITH text win big time (yay, thanks for that)...so...ill see how it developes, and probably will start slowly putting stamps as well...if your votes go to that option mostly, then ill continue with it...

Moscow, Russia

When i did the update about the republics from ex- Yugoslavia, i told you that i had another one on my mind, and here it comes to day...its about the former USSR republics.

Now, i dont have cards from exactly all of them (and if i had, actually that would have been a several-pages-update which would have somehow lost its sense plus it would  have been way too time consuming) and unlike the former Yugoslavia, here i cant really put my personal experiences or views and all, coz ive never lived in any of these republics, so i think i ll basically stick to the postcards-facts...and maybe something else at random...but either way, i hope youll like it :)

I think ive always been amazed by the vastness of Russia...and i sometimes find it hard to comprehend that it actually stretches out over two continents and that it borders both Finland and China...it feels really amazing.
I would like to travel by the Trans-Siberian railway one day...
And this card may be not of a railway, but i surely love it! I have a soft spot for the postcards of the Moscow metro stations...i dont know why, but there is something absolutely lovely in them. Ive already posted 3 cards like this, so this is my 4th Moscow metro station...and hopefully one is on its way too ;)

Taganskaya is a station on the Koltsevaya line of the Moscow Metro. Opened on 1 January 1950 it was part of the first segment of the fourth stage of the system. The station is named after the Taganka square which is a major junction of the Sadovoje Koltso.
The station is a standard pylon-trivault layout that was built with the post-war flamboyance in mind, the overall design is based on the Traditional Russian motives  in decorations.
The central feature of the station are 48 Maiolica panels located on each face of the pylon. These contain apart from floral elements, profile bas-reliefs of various World War II Red Army and Navy servicemen each dedicated to a group such as pilots, tankists, sailors etc.

Now apart from having a great card, the card itself even has stamps related to it, i.e metro stamps...i find this really neat, and beautiful...having a postcard with matching stamp (s)  

thanks a lot to Tatiana P. for sending me this one :)

Moscow Metro Station, Russia

I got these 3 cards in a lottery...they show the interrior of the subway in Moscow....I cant say anything else except that the interior is way too beautiful...

The Subway in Moscow is the world's second most-heavily used rapid transit system. Opened in 1935, it is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations which contain outstanding examples of socialist realist art.

This is the vestibule of the metro station "Mayakovskaya", 1938
This station is on the Zamoskovretskaya Line and is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system.It is one of the finest examples of pre-World War II Stalinist Architecture making it one of the most famous Metro stations in the world.

 

 This is the vestibule of the metro station "Novoslobodskaya", 1952. It is a station on the Koltesvaya line. Opened on 30 January, 1952 as part of the second stage of the line, it is one of the most famous stations on the system for its unique stained glass decoration.

I think that out of the three, I love this station the most :)

 

The last of the cards shows the vestibule of the station "Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya" (in the circular line), 1952.
The Komsomolskaya station is the is the most famous of all those on the Koltesvaya line and of the whole system, and an icon of Moscow itself, partly due to it being located on Moscow's busiest transport hub Komsomolskaya square which serves three railway terminals. As such the station's connotation is of a gateway to Moscow and to the rest of Russia, and its theme is of the patriotic history and inspiring future of the nation. It was opened on 30 January, 1952, as part of the second stage of the Ring line.

In my PC i have an entire folder of pictures from the Moscow subway....all of them magnificent...its soooo great to have some postcards as well, and actually get to know the name of the stations on the pictures and read something more about them.

Moscow, Russia

A really older card. On the back it says it was printed in 1982! But it is in an extremely good condition!

This actually comes in a pack of 10 cards...or more actually...havent counted them in a long time.
On this one in particular, you can see the Moscow river (503 km), which flows through the Moscow and Smolensk Oblasts in Russia and is a tributary of the Oka River. The city of Moscow is named after the river.

Moscow, Russia