noyta CCCP

noyta CCCP is found on stamps from the former Soviet Union.

The writing on Russian and Soviet stamps is in the Cyrillic alphabet, and should properly be written as ‘????? CCCP’ – noyta is just the closest approximation that we can manage in the Roman alphabet used in the USA and Western Europe today. To properly write (or transliterate) the words ????? CCCP in the Roman alphabet, we should really write Pochta CCCP, or even Pochta USSR.

Translated, ????? CCCP means ‘Mail USSR’. (????? means mail and CCCP, as you will remember from your history lessons and many movies with communist bad guys, means USSR).

Russian stamps have a fairly long history – they were first introduced into Imperial, or Tsarist Russia in 1858 as an imperforate stamp, printed in tow colours (brown and blue) and bearing the Russian coat of arms and, over the years many more stamps were issued by the Tsarist Russian government.

Following the fall of the Tsarist government, and then the Provisional Government in 1917, Russia fell into Civil War, and stamps were issued by many of the short lived republics and countries that briefly rose and fell during that period, including stamps from Batum, the Far Eastern Republic and the Transcaucasian SFSR. You could even get Siberian stamps.

The first stamps of the Soviet era could be said to be the first stamps issued by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in 1918. Oddly enough, because of the chaos in the country at the time, although many were printed, few were actually used. Because of this, a used stamp from this era is actually worth more than a mint, unused stamp.

Once the Soviet government had established its control over the entire country of Russia and consolidated its position, though, stamp production began in earnest. The first stamps of the Soviet Union were issued in 1923 and, as noted on rossia.com, they were oddly enough commemorative stamps, and not ‘regular’ stamps – the first Soviet stamps were issued to celebrate an Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow. This approach to producing stamps was quite common in the Soviet Union, and many stamps were produced to commemorate events – past or current – or for propaganda purposes. Notable among these are stamps used to celebrate the achievements of the Soviet space program, such as the illustration in this article, which commemorates Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space.

Soviet stamps are highly valued among philatelists, and you can buy them easily today by simply browsing the eBay page dedicated to Russian and Soviet stamps.