Sunday Stamps | X-Y-Z

X Is for X

Y Is for Yellow

Z Is for Zebrafish

This is the last entry for this A-Z round in Sunday Stamps. It has been full of fun.

Women on Postcards | S Is for Seagull

The Seagull
 Portrait of Valentina Tereshkova, 1964.
By Soviet Amir Nuriakhmetovich Mazitov (1928-1992)

Валентина Терешкова ('Valentina Tereshkova', born 1937) is a Russian engineer, politician, and former Soviet cosmonaut. 

Having flown a solo mission on Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, Tereshkova became the first woman in space; she remains the only woman to have flown into space solo, and, at 26 years of age, the youngest. Her call sign on this flight was Чайка, (Chaika, 'Seagull'). After her launch, she radioed down:

It is I, Seagull! Everything is fine. I see the horizon; it's a sky blue with a dark strip. How beautiful the Earth is ... everything is going well.

Eduard (Russia) sent the postcard with two matching stamps: a Russian stamp issued in 2013 that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the first woman in space (It includes a seagull!). And a Soviet one issued 30 years before with the same motive: 20th anniversary of Tereshkova's Vostok 6 flight.

This postcard was sent on 25th December 2025, and arrived just this week. It took less time to reach the Moon!

[Women on Postcards - 2026]

Thursday Postcard Hunt | Kirghiz Girl

The Daughter of Soviet Kirghizia, by S. Chuykov. Postcard sent by Eduard (Russia), with a vintage matching stamp.

-----------------------------------------------

Thursday Postcard Hunt
March theme: WOMAN

• Week 1 - Working
• Week 2 - Relaxing
• Week 3 - Reading, Handwork
• Week 4 - Famous Women

Everyone is welcome to share their postcards!

Sunday Stamps | Russian

For today's Sunday Stamps, dedicated to Foreign Languages, I have chosen the stamps that appear on the back of a postcard recently sent by Eduard (Russia).

Ivan Fyodorov or Fiodorov (1510 or c. 1525 – 1583), was one of the fathers of Eastern Slavonic printing. He was forced out of Moscow because of his attempts to employ the “blasphemous” new printing techniques, and found refuge in Poland–Lithuania, where he was instrumental in the publication of the Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic.

Dmitry Likhachev (1906 – 1999) was a Russian medievalist, linguist, and a former inmate of Gulag. During his lifetime, he was considered the world's foremost scholar of the Old Russian language and its literature.

Sergey Mikhalkov (1913 – 2009) was a Soviet and Russian author of children's books and satirical fables. He wrote the lyrics for the Soviet and Russian national anthems.

In case you are curious, the front of the postcard show the cover of Nikolai Leskov's story The Wig Maker, designed by Mstislav Dobuzhinsky.

Lighthouses from a Big Trip

Mukho Lighthouse in Donghae (South Korea). Not a country I receive a lot of mail from! The stamp, or label, also caught my attention:

Tokarevsky (Токаревского) Lighthouse, in Vladivostok. Despite its modest size, this is one of Russia's best known lighthouses. It is named for Capt. M.J. Tokarev, whose ship surveyed the area in 1862-63. 

On the back of the postcard (How nice it is!), a matching stamp from 1984, showing the same lighthouse:

Postcards sent by Ania (South Korea & Russia).