Shahs - the first Ukrainian stamps

Shahs

The Ukrainian state was formed in its first form after the events of the Bolshevik October Revolution. This happened through the proclamation of an autonomous republic within the Russian state on November 07, 1917. Later, on January 22, 1918, it was established as an independent state after the Soviet occupation of Kharkiv and the beginning of the open Ukrainian-Soviet war.

The Ukrainian People's Republic existed for only 4 years between 1917 and 1921, but it became a solid foundation for today's independent Ukraine. In fact, the government of the republic was in exile from 1920 and transferred its powers to today's Ukraine after the restoration of independence.

Prerequisites for issuing the first stamps

On the basis of statehood and the signing by the Central Council of the Third Universal on the autonomy of the UPR within the Russian state, it became necessary to start circulating Ukrainian money and postal payment instruments. After all, the post office was the main communication body between the territorial units of the republic. Realizing that the existing stocks of postage stamps of the all-Russian standard would be exhausted, it was necessary to develop the UPR's own postage stamps.

Designs of stamps of the autonomous UPR

Beginning in late December 1917. the General Secretariat of Posts and Telegraphs announced a competition for postage stamp designs, which resulted in 40 stamp designs. Among them, 4 winners were selected, but unfortunately, information about the authors of the sketches has not been preserved. The main requirements for the sketch were one design to create a universal cliché, which simplified the production of stamps of different values: 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 50 kopecks, and 1, 3, 5, 10, and 15 karbovanets. However, this idea was not successful.

Money stamps of the independent UPR

After the Central Council proclaimed the IV Universal on the independence of the UPR, the General Secretariat ceased to function as an executive body. It was replaced by the Council of People's Ministers. The conditions of independence necessitated the development and issuance of new stamps.

Given the conditions of the Russian-Bolshevik occupation, the possibilities of holding a competition for a new design were limited. Therefore, the Council of the Department of Plastic Arts of the People's Ministry of Education of the UPR turned directly to artists to produce postage stamp designs. In accordance with the law of the Ukrainian Central Rada on the introduction of a new monetary unit, the hryvnia, which consisted of 100 steps, stamps with the corresponding denominations were adopted. Among the artists' proposals, we selected proposals for postage stamps with denominations of 30, 40, and 50 shahs by Heorhiy Narbut and stamps with denominations of 10 and 20 shahs by Antin Sereda.

Narbut was a famous Ukrainian graphic artist born in the village of Narbutivka in Sumy region. During the Ukrainian People's Republic, he headed the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and participated in the creation of state emblems (banknotes, certificates, postcards, coat of arms, seals). At the same time, he worked on the creation of the Ukrainian alphabet.

А. Sereda is a Ukrainian graphic artist born in the village of Shkarivka in Cherkasy region. He was a student and follower of H. Narbut. Since 1917, he worked in Kyiv at the General Secretariat of Public Education of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Later in 1918, he headed the artistic and industrial department of the Ministry of Public Education. He was one of the initiators of the National Museum.

However, before the approved stamps were put into print, the issue of change money was an acute one. Since the kopecks had disappeared, the UPR authorities decided to use money stamps. They were printed by the Expedition for the Preparation of State Papers at the rented printing house of the Kulzhenko brothers in Kyiv. They differed from stamps in that they were made of cardboard without glue and had the words "Walks on a par with a ringing coin" printed on the back.

money stamps

The first issued shah-stamps

Initially, the UPR post office planned to issue stamps with portraits of Hryhorii Skovoroda, Kostiantyn Ostrozkyi, and Petro Doroshenko. They were also designed by graphic artist H. Narbut, but due to the lack of time for preparation, it was decided to use existing clichés from money stamps. Therefore, both editions were produced in the same way on large sheets of 400 stamps, which were then cut into 4 parts.

The postage stamps were issued at the same printing house. The design on the stamps did not differ from the first money stamps. The main differences were the paper, the adhesive backing, and the absence of serration. There is no official data on the circulation of these series. It is speculated that the total number of stamps issued reaches millions.

Despite the fast and well-established printing of stamps, the postal needs of the independent state could not be met at that time. For these reasons, the postal and telegraphic department also used the stocks of tsarist stamps, which were overprinted with the coat of arms of the Ukrainian state in the form of a trident.

It is also worth mentioning the events of the anti-Hetman uprising with the formation of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In early 1919, a 20-hryvnia postage stamp was issued based on a sketch by the artist Leonid Oboznenko (repressed by the Soviet authorities in 1937 in Kyiv). No competition was held to select the miniature. It was based on a draft design that was kept in the Expedition of State Paper Procurement after an earlier competition in 1917. Only the name changed from the Ukrainian Republic to the Ukrainian State. The use of such stamps is known in Podillia and Volyn.

Vienna issues of hryvnia stamps

Given the progress of the Ukrainian-Soviet war and the occupation of Kyiv, the Central Rada was evacuated. However, the government continued to operate from the Polish city of Tarnów. In August 1920, a decree was issued to withdraw all previously issued postage stamps from circulation. A new series of 14 stamps was introduced to replace them. Due to the army's failures at the front and the loss of a large number of territories, the economic system of the UPR was significantly destroyed. This resulted in unlimited issue of banknotes. Therefore, the stamps were designed to have denominations in hryvnia value from 1 to 200. As for the origin of these stamps, at least 6 of them were designed by the artist Mykola Ivasyuk and issued in Vienna. The full run of 100 million of these stamps was never included in the series due to the defeat of the UPR at the fronts.

stamps of Vienna issue