KRASNOYARSK, August 21. /TASS/. Nine rare stamps of the early 1930s, dedicated to the rescue of the Chelyuskin steamship expedition, are presented for the first time at an exhibition during the Under the Flag of the Russian Geographical Society festival in Krasnoyarsk, a TASS correspondent reported.
"The exhibition is dedicated to the Northern Sea Route, and our philatelists here present stamps, postcards, and envelopes on this topic. <...> The rarest exhibits are stamps of the early 1930s, dedicated to the Chelyuskin expedition's rescue. The stamps also depict heroes of that rescue, first Heroes of the USSR. The stamps are exhibited for the first time, they come from a private collector in Krasnoyarsk," Chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Region's Philatelists Society Alexander Denisevich told TASS.
The exhibition features about a hundred stamps, postcards on the Arctic, the Northern Sea Route, as well as mosaic panels.
Krasnoyarsk hosts the first festival Under the Flag of the Russian Geographical Society from August 18 through to August 23.
The Chelyuskin steamship was supposed to repeat within one navigation in 1933 the route of Arkhangelsk's icebreaking steamer - the Alexander Sibiryakov - along the Northern Sea Route and got trapped in the ice. After several months of drifting, the ice crashed the vessel that sank in the Chukchi Sea on February 13, 1934. Exactly for two months, on the ice existed the Schmidt tent camp, right until April 13, 1934 when the polar aviation rescued all the 104 people.