Sunday 24 February 2013

Mongolian cosmonauts in space

This week marks the first year blogoversary of "I heart post"! Who knew that stamps could keep me entertained and propel a blog for a whole year?! In my second post on the blog, where I was really testing out the concept, I wrote about some stamps I bought in Mongolia as souvenirs during a trip back in 2004.

Well, this week we have come full circle, and I am returning to the country where I started, with space stamps from Mongolia.

The above stamps feature the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first person to travel into space. Mongolia was the first former communist country I had ever visited, and I loved it. I chose quite a few space themed stamps as souvenirs, because I felt they had a real "soviet feel" about them.


In 1981 a Mongolian aerospace engineer/cosmonaut, J. Gürragchaa (Ж. Гүррагчаа),  went into space on March 22 1981, with the Soviet Interkosmos space program. He is a national hero, and the following stamp celebrates his journey into space (he is the dude on the right):


Gürragchaa spent 7 days, 20 hours and 42 minutes in space and docked with Salyut 6, a Soviet orbital space station. I also have another set of stamps with the symbol for the Interkosmos program on them, which also seem to celebrate Gürragchaa's mission. The stamps feature images of Mongolian and Russian co-operation, with the flags of both nations featuring on the stamps.




I love my Mongolian space stamps - I think they make a pretty gorgeous little collection.  I also love the look of the cyrillic alphabet, and I love the word 'cosmonaut'... so really there is a lot to love in these stamps.

I hope you have enjoyed this entry into Viridian's Sunday Stamps, and check out the link below for some more space stamps.

♥ at 2:34 pm
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14 comments:

  1. VioletSky24 February 2013 at 21:19

    I love this post :)
    (and I had to laugh, because I also really like the word cosmonaut over astronaut!)

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  2. Joy24 February 2013 at 22:23

    I always like that Mongolia uses those long shapes for stamps. Great selection of stamps. I imagine Mongolia was a great place to look up at the night sky.

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  3. Bob Scotney24 February 2013 at 22:29

    I can see why you are so proud to own these stamps. Cosmonaut has always seemed more appropriate to me.

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  4. viridian25 February 2013 at 00:37

    What a wonderful collection. I do like their style. I esp. like the second to last one - are those crystals? emitting light beams?
    Thanks for sharing these lovely stamps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Helen25 February 2013 at 07:37

      Thanks Viridian. Yes - they do indeed look like crystals emitting light beams! Pretty fabulous, right?!!

      Delete
  5. viridian25 February 2013 at 00:39

    PS. Happy Blogiversary!

    ReplyDelete
  6. João25 February 2013 at 00:46

    Stamps on cosmonauts have a unique design as well as those posters of Soviet propaganda. Very cool! They recreate an atmosphere of science fiction in the 50's and 60's. It's hard to find stamps of Mongolia without postamark. Congratulations on the blog anniversary!

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    Replies
    1. Helen25 February 2013 at 07:35

      I agree Joao! They definitely have a feel of science fiction in the 50s and 60s, which is part of their appeal. :)

      Delete
  7. Sheila @ A Postcard a Day25 February 2013 at 02:17

    You're right, they do have a Russian feel about them. I'd forgotten about the word cosmonaut, I like it too.

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  8. Ana25 February 2013 at 08:40

    Happy blogoversary! I hope you make many more posts and blogoversaries here :)

    These stamps are just fantastic! Eps. that souvenir sheet! So amazing!! I have the first three along with some other Mongolian space stamps, and they were on my list of what-to-post for today...but went with something else instead :)
    Btw, funny thing about cosmonaut...I rarely seem to see it around, yet it does sound nicer than astronaut :)

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  9. ♥♥ Willa ♥♥25 February 2013 at 15:28

    This are rare stamps for me as I've never seen it before.

    My Sunday Stamps:Moon,Space,Exploration

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  10. Joffa Monkey25 February 2013 at 19:53

    Hey Comrade,
    Yes it's pretty cool.
    Joffa M

    ReplyDelete
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