Zemstvo (local) Post

Zemstvo (local) Post was a special service introduced for mailing purposes in areas with no state post offices.

The first Zemstvo Post was established in Vetluga uyezd (district) of Kostroma Governorate in spring 1865.

Each Zemstvo postal authority acted only within its administrative territory. Zemstvo post offices were allowed to have their own stamps for postal payment provided that such stamps should not resemble either in image or colour the official postage stamps; nor might such stamps contain the emblem of the state postal service. The first Zemstvo postage stamp was issued in Verhnedneprovsk Governorate in 1866.

Most correspondence was sent across Zemstvo territories of eastern provinces – Perm, Samara, Vyatka, Kazan, Ufa, as well as in Kharkov, Poltava, Kursk, Tambov and Yekaterinoslav Governorates. It was issued 3027 postage stamps since 1866. The circulation of some issues reached tens and hundreds of thousands copies. That provided an active forwarding mail.

Zemstvo Post played an important and progressive role in Russia’s history as it enabled liaison between cultural centres and most distant corners of the country.