GPS June 2020

An Odd Propaganda Stamp Issue:
The So-Called „Vlasov Stamps“
Wolfgang Baldus
In 1946, the German publishing house Albert Kürzl of Munich,
publisher of the stamp journal Sammler-Woche (Collectors’ Week), printed
a short note in its “Neuheitenliste Nr. 1” (list of new issues No. 1) about
some hitherto unknown stamps. The note referred to five stamps, which
are, until today, erroneously called the “Vlasov stamps” (German spelling:
Wlassow). They illustrate rural scenes of Russia and are inscribed in
Cyrillic “ПОЧТА” (Post) with the denominations in kopecs and roubles
(Image 1).
Image 1. The so-called “Vlasov stamps” turned up in Germany in early 1946.
For years philatelic authors debated about the true nature of these
stamps but their origin remained unknown. The most plausible explanation
seemed to be a Russian liberation issue possibly connected with
the activities of the Russian Red Army General Andrey Andreyevich
Vlasov, who played a certain role in German propaganda operations in
World War II.
When the German Reich attacked the Soviet Union in summer
1941,Vlasov was already a highly decorated General in the Red Army.
In the spring of 1942, his troops attempted to lift the German siege of
Leningrad. The attempt failed, Vlasov escaped, hid in German occupied
territory for ten days before he was betrayed by a farmer and
taken prisoner by Nazi general Georg Lindemann on 12 July 1942.
Imprisoned in Germany as prisoner-of-war No. 16901, Vlasov changed
sides and claimed that during his ten days in hiding it got clearer
than ever in his mind that Stalin and Bolshevism were the greatest
enemies of the Russian people. The German propagandists realized
that Vlasov might be very helpful in future anti-Bolshevik propaganda
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German Postal Specialist