GPS June 2020

Smyslovsky’s statements may be true but are unconfirmed and
cannot be verified. The distribution as described above is plausible but
does not explain why so many different cancellation dates were used.
My own theory is that all (!) the cancellations were applied in advance
just after the stamps arrived from Berlin at around 8 or 9 September.
The cancelling devices had changeable figures for the dateline. For the
first run the remaining days of September were used. Stamp sets with
a mixture of different days would indicate that the stamps were used or
distributed over a longer period and did not mark a single event. The
specific date applied on a stamp was therefore unimportant and did not
refer to the day of distribution. After cancelling the sheets the stamps
were separated and sets compiled arbitrarily, i.e. without regard of the
cancellation dates, or consciously by compiling sets with different dates.
If a cancellation date would refer to the day of distribution, as stated by
the previously mentioned authors, the stamps of all the cancelled sets
that were handed out must show a common date. Sets with a common
date, however, were never seen. A second run with pre-cancelled
October dates did never come true due to the military retreat of the
German Armies in the area. This theory would explain the different
dates that were not necessarily linked with a certain propaganda activity
at the day of distribution but simply signify a longer-lasting operation.
Images 19a & 19b. Full sheets are
exceedingly rare. The largest multiples
of the 1 and 2 rouble stamps I have
seen are part sheets of 30 copies.
June 2020 215