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Some things just get lost in translation. That’s my best explanation for the following head-scratcher, used widely across Russia in 1968 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Army. (Commenter Zarv from Englishrussia took a guess: “It’s an ancient Russian tradition to kiss respected people, best friends three times in lips in gratitude.” I’ll have to side with Zarv.)
More wacky Russian stamps after the jump!
It’s a tank with its treads being blown off, obviously WWII era. Where I come from, we have birds and trees on our stamps. (Maybe stamps like this are just designed to accompany really exciting letters.)
A mortar being fired from a trench. I think if more American stamps were like this, little boys would collect stamps instead of action figures.
L.L. Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, “the most successful and widely-spoken constructed language in the world.” That being said, the number of native Esperanto speakers in the world numbers at most in the thousands, and is as few as 200.
Yet another poofy-haired Russian intellectual, probably Marx or Lenin or … wait a minute … nope, that’s Mark Twain, featured in a stamp dating from the height of the Cold War, no less. Go figure. 
Comments (15)
Comment
Gives new meaning to the phrase: “From Russia, with Love”.
posted by Vince T. on 5-25-2007 at 12:04 pm
Wow. Mark Twain could write in Russian, too!
posted by tommy on 5-25-2007 at 12:59 pm
Tradition or not, the one with the dudes kissing pretty well creeps me out.
As for the Twain stamp, I’ll bet the Soviets enjoyed especially some of his (mostly later) anti-imperialism and anti-Gilded Age works.
posted by Sid Morrison on 5-25-2007 at 2:42 pm
Loved the label for the Russian stamp with the very close men, brother.jpg.
posted by Heidi on 5-25-2007 at 3:06 pm
“That being said, the number of native Esperanto speakers in the world numbers at most in the thousands, and is as few as 200.”
What’s your point here? As you said, that’s about 2,000 NATIVE speakers of esperanto. The annual esperanto world conference can count on at least that many esperanto-speaking attendees (anywhere from 2 - 6 thousand, depending). There are aproximately 2 million (probably more, nowadays) proficient esperanto-speakers. The 200-figure is most likely based on attendance at international esperanto childrens’ conferences.
Remember, this is a language explicitly createded to serve as a universal _second_ language, a neutral “bridge” language between people from different countries and backgrounds.
And commemerative stamps about Zamenhof and Esperanto are still appearing. For example, here’s one released this year in Isreal.
Stamp:
www.jr.co.il/pictures/stamps/jrst0399.jpg
First Day Cover:
www.jr.co.il/pictures/stamps/jrst0399c.jpg
posted by Bernie on 5-25-2007 at 8:55 pm
Russians are very touchy about the whole WWII thing - calling it the great Motherland war. The tank with the tread blown off is German - and the stamp reads “Death to the German Occupation.” Stamps like this actually have very much in common with the American patriotism - similar to 911 symbolism.
posted by Julia D on 5-26-2007 at 2:16 am
Yes, your comment about Esperanto is rather odd. The fact that there are native speakers is already a success, even if it is nor the goal of the language.
And many other countries have issued stamps about Esperanto. By instance, look here: esp.zrsa.org/bbs/read.php?tid=109
posted by toño on 5-26-2007 at 4:20 pm
whoa, bernie, calm down.
i’d say that in esperanto, but i’m one of the, um, billions who don’t speak it.
posted by sally on 5-26-2007 at 11:25 pm
Ha, even now the Slavonians (including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) occasionally show feelings and love to each other in such a way.
By the way I saw one time how father and son kissed their lips. It’s just a tradition, no more.
What else? In Hungury, for example, friends and relatives kiss on both cheeks when meet.
posted by Antilos on 5-27-2007 at 3:23 am
the 1st pic,
Oh my Gos’s Mama’s Daddy,i just cant bliv it
posted by shellehs on 5-27-2007 at 6:08 am
Ok, I’m French, and the kissing in the first stamp is a bit much. Kissing someone on the cheeks when you meet them is very different from making out with them. I think it’s the arms and the position of their heads that makes it look that way.
posted by greenstrawberries on 5-27-2007 at 10:06 pm
We Russians think the kissing stamp is weird too. What were they thinking???
BTW - I liked Mark Twain in Russian a lot better. He didn’t sound like a hillbilly.
posted by Stan K on 5-30-2007 at 9:14 am
I’d love to know what your definition of a hillbilly is… The man was, for lack of a better term, a Southerner. Being of Virginia blood and living in what’s commonly referred to as “Pennsyltucky”, I can tell you there’s a huge difference.
posted by Z-Man on 7-29-2007 at 7:51 pm
The kissing stamp… apparently it’s a son /close relative returning home from war. Granted, most people in Russia nowadays wouldn’t kiss their relatives on the mouth, but it was commonplace then.
posted by demmix on 7-30-2007 at 10:56 am
fabulous!!!
posted by Perry on 6-4-2008 at 6:57 pm