GPS June 2020

It is unknown how many sheets were sent to Russia, and when and
how the stamps arrived at the PAW headquarters in Smolensk or in
Sloboda. There is no documentary evidence that they arrived there at
all. However, there are many cancelled “Vlasov stamps” and all of them
have cancellations of Sloboda. There are two types. One reads “ST.O.K.
Sloboda” (correct abbreviation for STandOrtKommandantur) in sansserif
letters, the other “Standortkommandantur Sloboda” in a Gothic
font (Images 14 & 15). Both cancellations have dates of September
1943 in the center. The first cancellation resembles a German standard
Feldpost cancellation, the latter a “Briefstempel“ or “Dienststempel”
(official stamp) as used by all authorities in Germany. If this resemblance
was intended it was not thoroughly considered because both
German cancellation types were not used to cancel stamps, while
both Sloboda cancellations were used exclusively to cancel the “Vlasov
stamps”. Strangely enough, all known cancelled “Vlasov stamps” are off
paper. Copies tied to a souvenir sheet, an envelope or to any other piece
of paper by a Sloboda cancellation do not exist, and Sloboda cancellation
strikes without adhesive stamps (e.g. on a military passport, an
administrative document, or on a fieldpost envelope) do not exist either.
Therefore, Kesselstatt/Heide’s statement of the cancellations being
just ordinary cancellations of the Sloboda garrison command (official
stamps, Dienststempel) and having nothing to do with the “Vlasov”
stamps cannot be true. Every ordinary German Dienststempel must
show the imperial eagle and never had a dateline. The Sloboda cancellation
devices must have been especially produced for the “Vlasov stamp”
campaign, i.e. stamps and cancellations must belong together. Every
stamp cancelled by a Sloboda cancellation would carry the message that
Russia’s future would emerge from Sloboda. The postmark dates would
symbolize a functioning postal traffic. The Cyrillic inscription of the
stamps and the German wording of the cancellations would indicate
that Germany is the guarantor of this Russian future. Just the reason
for producing two different cancellations for the same purpose is not
comprehensible. It was superfluous.
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June 2020 211