USSR Airmail 1930 Poste Restante & Trans-Siberian Khabarovsk - Irkutsk Route / Early Mail Very Scarce

SOVIET AIRMAIL & POSTE RESTANTE 1930 – VERY EARLY MAIL FROM THE TRANS-SIBERIAN LINE

Leningrad 1930 (28 October) - Domestic Airmail envelope to a POSTE RESTANTE in KHABAROVSK (“до востребования”), sent via the TRANS-SIBERIAN LENINGRAD - IRKUTSK – ULAN UDA - KHABAROVSK airline segment. 50 kopek franking paying the correct rate (tariff of 1st May 1930 for ordinary airmail to Asian part of the Soviet Union), but the extra postal fee of 5 kopek for Poste Restante was levelled upon arrival with the handstamp DOPLATIT (tariff of 26 June 1926). Handstamps transit via Moscow on reverse 31 October & 1st November 1930, machine arrival Khabarovsk 12 November 1930. Very Fine.

Great commercial usage, the convergence of a very scarce and early Soviet Airline route and a scarce Poste Restante postal rate. Specialist item (no mail recorded from that line segment before 1931 in Ackerman)

Michel 371 (5)

Standard 234 (5)

Note: the first segment from the Trans-Siberian airline was opened in 1929, linking Sverdlovsk to Irkutsk; it then expanded further East via Ulan-Ude (Verkhneudinsk) and Chita until the major Siberian hub of Khabarovsk, with a few halts in between. Total travel to Leningrad to Khabarovsk is about 6200 km.

Please do not refresh or navigate away from the page!