USSR Airmail 1958 Dikson Far North Artic Route - St.1239/Mi1285 Rare

SOVIET AIRMAIL FAR NORTH ARTIC ROUTE: KRASNOYARSK - DIKSON ISLAND 

Moscow, 1958 (16 April) - Domestic registered airmail envelope sent to the artic island of Dikson (Yenisei river mouth), via the FAR NORTH KRASNOYARSK - DIKSON route. Two rubles franking with a late usage of the 1948 2r "Komsomol", paying the correct inland registered rate (tariff of 16 September 1948). Arrival on the back Dikson 27 April 1958 (∅ 25mm). Superb quality.

A beautiful item, the convergence of a rare airmail route, an exotic destination and a scarce stamp on genuine commercial usage.

Dikson is located on a headland at the mouth of the Yenisei Gulf, on the Artic Ocean coast. Small settlement that got its first recognition during the Great Expedition of the North (1734-1743), the village was given its official name only in 1894. population was 3470 in 1959. Dikson is one of the northern most populated area at the Kara Sea, it became linked via air to Krasnoyarsk in 1932.

The cover first took the Moscow-Krasnoyarsk segment of the transsiberian air route, then the Krasnoyarsk-Tunguska-Turukhansk-Igarka-Dudinka-Dikson Far North route, run by the company Avia-Arktika.

See Mr Ackerman excellent reference book "Via The Red Skies" (pages 283-284): "Postal documents to/from Russia’s Northern Territory until after WW II are extremely scarce due to the sparse regional population, low literacy of most inhabitants, difficulties in communication in the frozen North, and the fact that until modern times people rarely saved letters/covers."

Michel 1285   UNPRICED on cover

Standard 1239

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