Sale 317

U.S. Stamps & Postal History and Important Historical Documents


Russia
 
 
Lot Photo Description
Lot 1136
Alexander II (1818-1881), Tsar of Russia (1855-1881), embarked upon a wide scale of modernization and reform program which saw the emancipation of the serfs in 1881, assassinated. Manuscript Document Signed, one page, 8¾ x 14, [St. Petersburg], September 7, 1867. Presents award of Vladimir 4th Class to Jol. Bedendorf for military hospital service. In Cyrillic. Very Fine.
Estimate 300 - 400
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Lot 1137
Alexander III (1845-1894), Tsar of Russia (1881-1894), reactionary ruler, countenanced persecutions of Jews and others, continued Russian advances into Central Asia. Manuscript Document Signed, one page, 8¾ x 14¼ [St. Petersburg], October 14, 1890. Presenting award of St. Stanislaus 2nd Class to Eugene Ravasse. In Cyrillic. Very Fine.
Estimate 300 - 400
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Lot 1138
Nicholas II (1868-1918), Tsar of Russia (1894-1917), directed the construction of Trans-Siberian railroad, fought disastrous war with Japan, joined allies in World War I, abdicated after 1917 Russian Revolution, murdered with his family. Manuscript Document, two pages, 8¾ x 14, Tsarkoe Tselo, October 29, 1904. Presents award of Prince Vladimir 4th Class to various persons for service to the Church. In Cyrillic. Very Fine.
Estimate 750 - 1,000
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Lot 1139
Paul I (1754-1801), Tsar of Russia (1796-1801), son of Catherine II, assassinated. Document Signed, one page, 8 x 12¾ St. Petersburg, January 11, 1800. Award for service to his son. In Cyrillic. Tiny edge fault, otherwise Fine.
Estimate 300 - 400
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Lot 1140
Petrovna, Elizabeth (1709-1769), Empress of Russia (1741-1762), youngest daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I, became Empress after staging palace coup. Manuscript Document Signed, one page, 8 x 12¼ [St. Petersburg], December 26, 1737. Requesting funds from the Treasury. In Cyrillic. Very Fine.
Estimate 300 - 400
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Lot 1141
Beria, Laurenty Pavlovich (1899-1953), Russian Revolutionary, Director of Secret Police in Georgia, appointed by Stalin in 1938 as first Commissar for foreign relations and first head of NKVD which later became KGB, presumptive heir apparent to Stalin but tried and executed. Typed Letter with Autograph Endorsement Signed, one page, 7½ x 10¾ April 18, 1946. In reference to requisitioning office space. In Cyrillic, few edge faults, newspaper affixed at top left corner, in frame (12¼ x 15½). Fine.
Estimate 200 - 300
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Lot 1142
Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevitch (1931-), Russian politician and reformer, last Secretary-General of Soviet Communist Party (1985-1991), last Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet (1988-1991), responsible for ending the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991), Nobel Prize for Peace (1990). Signed Photograph, 10 x 8, bold signature in Russian in blue on photo showing Gorbachev and Reagan embracing after the presentation ceremony where Gorbachev was presented the first Ronald Reagan Freedom Award (1992), Very Fine.
Estimate 200 - 300
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Lot 1143
Krupskaya, Nadezhda K. (1869-1939), Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin who assisted him with his early revolutionary activities, married him and went into exile with him, member of the Central Committee and head of the Education Commissariat. Autograph Letter Signed "N. Krupskaya" on her letterhead, one page, 6 x 8, no place, October 6, 1932, concerning the difficulties of retired teachers, especially as the fifteenth year of the revolution approaches. In Russian. Pinholes and slightly faulty top left corner. Fine.
Estimate 500 - 750
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Lot 1144
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich (1870-1924), Russian founder of the Bolsheviks (1903) which became Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution (1917), first Premier of the Soviet Union (1917-1924). Autograph Letter Signed, one page, 6 x 7¾ Moscow, October 21, 1918. On official letterhead to a Comrade Gorbunov, in full: "I ask you very urgently to write the conclusion of Research and Production Department on the question regarding radio laboratory. Extremely important. Write when there will be a conclusion…" Boldly penned and signed. Lenin has also written, dated and signed, a short note [not translated] on a 1¾" circular paper seal affixed on verso of letter. Minor wear and soiling, small edge tears at left and slight split at end of a vertical fold, not affecting text. Also, contemporary photograph 5½ x 7 of Lenin standing with a group of dignitaries, annotated on reverse "Moscow 7 November 1918". Fine and exceedingly rare.
Estimate 15,000 - 20,000
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Lot 1145
Stalin, Joseph [né Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili] (1879-1953), Soviet Leader and dictator (1929-1953), Letter Signed "Today, I Stalin", one page, 5½ x 7½ December 22, 1938, signed toward the bottom of this playful note in red pencil from his daughter Svetlana or, "Setanka" as he called her: "Order N 8 I order you to take me to the movies now, to see the film ‘Volga-Volga’; SETANKA/ OWNER/ PROPRIETRESS", Stalin approves the "order" signing below in the same red pencil "Today, I Stalin". Very Fine.
Estimate 4,000 - 5,000

A wonderfully intriguing piece in which Stalin reveals a tenderness and lightheartedness one rarely associates with the person responsible for the exorbitant criminalities of the gulags. Born on February 26, 1926, Svetlana was Stalin's youngest child and only daughter: apparently very close, the two began to fall out when Svetlana, aged 16, fell in love with Alexei Kapler, a Jewish film maker. Stalin was so vehemently opposed to the romance that he sentenced Kapler to ten years in a Siberian labor camp, where he died. Svetlana provoked an international storm in 1967 when she defected to the U.S. So high profile was the defection that the Soviet Union demanded an assurance that any future Soviet defectors would be debriefed by Soviet officials before being granted asylum.

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Lot 1146
Trotsky, Leon (1879-1940), Bolshevik revolutionary of Ukranian origin and Marxist theorist, politician, founder of the Red Army and one of the first members of the Politburo, assassinated while in exile in Mexico. Manuscript Document Signed as People's Commissar of the Red Army, two pages (both sides of one sheet), 8½ x 7. Revolutionary Military Council of 14th Army of Ukranian Republic to the Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the Russian Federation— Comrade Trotsky, August 8, 1919, asking that the armored train of Ekaterinoslav which enlisted ten Communists be disbanded. Trotsky has written his authorization to do so in red pencil. The other side contains a conflicting typed report from the Ekaterinoslav Military Commander at the train station, Konotop, issued on the same date stating that there was no such train and requesting his men be transferred to the 45th Bessarabian Infantry Division. To this, Trotsky has made an endorsement in blue pencil: "D/O.T" [F(or)/R(eport) T(rotsky)]. In Cyrillic. Some creasing and reinforced edge damage at right. Fine and scarce Russian civil war document.
Estimate 500 - 750
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Lot 1147
Suvarov, Aleksandr (1729-1800), Russian Field Marshal renonwned for his unorthodox tactics in the Russo-Polish War (1768-1772), led Russian Army against Turks (1787-1792), put down Polish revolt (1794) and was victorious against French at Cassano d'Adda and Novi (1799), Commander-in-Chief (1800). Document Signed "A. Suvarov", one page with integral blank leaf across which contemporary notes partly written, 4¾ x 6¼ February 27, 1787, awarding Cross of St. John to Graf Nesselrodt of the Horse Cavalry. In Russian. Light aging, in ornate frame, 13 x 19¾ with color reproduction of portrait. Fine.
Estimate 750 - 1,000
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Lot 1148
Zhukov, Georgi (1896-1974), Marshall of the Soviet Union, organized defenses at Leningrad; stopped Hitler at the gates of Moscow; commanded Russian forces during the siege of Berlin; Soviet Defense Minister (1955-1957). Typed Document Signed, by Zhukov and Countersigned by Vasili Sokolovski (Marshall, Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany), one page, 7½ x 10¾ Berlin, February 11, 1946. Request from French General Kolts of the Co-ordination Council to assign a French officer to a communication position. Slightly reduced, otherwise Fine.
Estimate 200 - 300
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