Commemorative postage stamps with architecture of Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

These two stamps depicting architectural features of Samarkand were issued in 1969 to mark the city’s 2,500th anniversary. Soviet citizens would have used them for the everyday purpose of sending letters (under 20g) and postcards. However, they were also commemorative and had a great deal of symbolic value. As people sent each other letters, they were also sharing the ‘story’ of Central Asia, the Soviet regime and life in the pre-Soviet era. The postal service was not simply a communications infrastructure, it also served as a means of imparting an ideological message. 

These commemorative stamps reflect the dual symbolism of Samarkand in the Soviet imagination. Although at first glance they may look very similar, the images are a dialogue of contrasts. The two stamps reference both the city’s ancient Islamic past and its Soviet present and future. It is fascinating how the two stamps present two strikingly different Samarkands – before and after the Revolution.

The effect is achieved through the use of lines and colour. The graphic style of the left-hand stamp is one of cold, dark tones portraying dusk or night-time and signifying the darkness of the past. The red tones represent battle and conquest, while the starkly drawn lines convey a sense of distance and an absence of life.

In contrast, the bright tones of the right-hand stamp depict a clear, cloudless day, symbolising the present and future. The trees and plants are rendered in warm greens and pale browns and the high-rise apartment block on the right symbolises a city that is fresh and flourishing.

The stamp with the image of Soviet Samarkand thus portrays the ‘bright present’, while the image of the ancient city shows the ‘dark past’. These stamps provide a clear example of how Soviet propaganda tended towards the obvious and predictable. However, there is one more interesting detail: the price of the second stamp was one and a half times that of the first one, so it was more valuable. Stamps costing 6 kopeks were used for air-mail services, while 4-kopek stamps were for ordinary letters. The price of the cheaper stamp, depicting old Samarkand, made it more accessible, especially within the republic of Uzbekistan, and so it may actually have been used more frequently. It is interesting to ponder whether the prices of the stamps were set as they were with the intention of circumventing the prevailing ideology or whether it was just a coincidence.

Akmal Ulmasov, Head of the Department of Unique Objects, Institute of Fine Arts, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan