Interesting places in Russia to collect mail from

Many philatelists and postal history collectors like to receive mail from unique and interesting places: remote islands, south pole stations, mountain-peak mailboxes, underwater mailboxes, unrecognized countries, etc.

Russia is a whole World of its own! Highest peaks, oldest cities, remote islands, coldest places, disputed territories, exclaves, scientific stations, and much more! And many of these places have a post office : )

So, here’s some interesting places to collect from Russia! >>

Baikonur Cosmodrome

The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. It is the largest operational space launch facility in the World, and it’s the launching point for the first artificial Earth satellite, and the first human orbital spaceflight in history.

Why collect: (a) For it’s historical significance; (b) located outside of Russia, but mail service is operated by Russian Post; (c) as Russia builds it’s new space port in Russian Far East, the use of Baikonur by Russia will eventually stop; (d) every year on Cosmonautics Day Russian post issues new space related stamps, and the First Day of Issue postmarks are always available in the post offices of Baikonur.

Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land is a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

Why collect: Northernmost post office!

Kaliningrad region

Kaliningrad Oblast is exclave region of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania, and is not connected by border to the rest of Russia at all.

Why collect: Exclave region of Russia surrounded by other European countries.

All Russian Regions

Want a challenge — try to collect mail from each region of Russia, which it has currently 89 of!

Why collect: Why not! We collect “all countries”, “US states”, “French Polynesia islands”, etc. This can be another collection!

How to collect: I’ve created the checkbox list to help you keep track of such –  Russian Regions printable list

Interesting towns and places

• • Uelen – is the easternmost settlement in Russia and the whole of Asia.
  • Dikson – is the northernmost settlement in Russia, and one of the northernmost settlements in the world. Also, Pevek is the northernmost city in Russia.
  • Baltiysk – is the westernmost settlement in Russia.
  • Kurush – is the highest continuously inhabited settlement of the Greater Caucasus and of Europe as well as the southernmost settlement in Russia.
  • Derbent and Kerch –Russia’s oldest cities.
  • Oymyakon is the coldest permanently-inhabited place on Earth. In 1933, it recorded its lowest temperature of -67.7°C
  • Nikolskoe – quite a remote place.
  • Barentsburg and Pyramiden – Russian settlements in Svalbard, Norway.
  • Treskol has the highest postbox in Russia at 3847 meters. It also has related pictorial postmark.
  • Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, and the Habomai islands – disputed by Japan.
  • Towns with interesting names, like Berlin and Paris!

Russian Antarctic Research Stations

Russia has seven stations there – Vostok, Mirny, Bellingshausen, Novolazarevskaya, Progress, Russkaya and Molodezhnaya. And each of them is remarkable in some way.

There are no postal service at the Russian Antarctic stations, however heads of each station have postal handstamps, and with enough effort it is possible to get a mail piece postmarked with it.

Interesting places that probably don’t have postal service

• • Russian Post’s Berlin PO
  • Ratmanov island (also known as Big Diomede island)

Do you have mail from any of these locations?
Would you add anything else to this list?