"Marka" Joint-Stock Company produced postal products dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the start of the Bellingshausen and Lazarev expedition. New postage objects include stamps, envelopes, souvenir packs, unmarked art cards, and special cancellation stamps for Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Penza.
For example, the "Vostok" and "Mirny" sloops are depicted on the new postage stamps; the fields of the postal block are bordered by the landscape of Antarctica. Models of sailing sloops, complemented by the expedition’s route map, also illustrate unmarked postcards. A souvenir pack includes a postal block and a vignette, as well as a first day envelope with cancellation for Moscow.
The discovery of Antarctica belongs to Russian sailors who participated in the first Russian Antarctic expedition of 1819–1821 under the command of Faddey Bellingshausen (1778–1852) and Mikhail Lazarev (1788–1851). They set off from Kronstadt on the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirniy" on July 16, 1819. The discovery of the coast of Antarctica occurred on January 28, 1820. The voyage lasted 751 days, the length of the journey was almost 100 thousand km. The results of the round-the-world expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev were among the most significant in the history of world geographical research.
More information about the preparation of the Antarctic expedition of Mikhail Lazarev and Faddey Bellingshausen is here.
We recall that the Russian Geographical Society in conjunction with the Federal Communications Agency publish “geographic” postage stamps - postcards, envelopes and stamps. More than 4 million copies of postage stamps have been issued since the beginning of the year. Among them are the stamp in honor of the 170th anniversary of the Russian Geographical Society and the 175th anniversary of the birth of the Russian traveler and geographer Nikolai Przhevalsky, postcards dedicated to the project “Geographers - to the Great Victory” and other postage signs.
Post and souvenir products of the Marka Joint-Stock Company can be purchased at the Post Office of Russia branches, as well as at the "Collector" salon (Moscow, Prospect Mira 118).