Another War Russia Provoked That Didn’t Go Well

Nicholas II on a 1913 stamp

 

A Russian stamp from around 1905

Under Czar Nicholas II Russia had a tendency to get into wars that really didn’t go well. The two notable ones are the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) and World War I (1914-1918). Both contributed significantly to the fall of the Romanovs in 1917.

In the later 19th century Russia was working on getting a tighter grip on the far eastern part of the empire in Siberia. It wasn’t just to have a handy place to send troublemakers.

Since 1897 Russia had leased the Chinese port of Port Arthur, on a peninsula east of Beijing in northeastern China. It is also very close to the Korean Peninsula. Since the 1894-95 war between China and Japan, Japan was very nervous about Russian attempts to expand into Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula. As a result, Japan declared war on Russia in November, 1904.
 

 

The Meiji Emperor in 1896

Japan had been on a long-term program to become a modern industrialized nation and a military power. Access to Japan by the West had only opened in 1853 and some interest in the West began. With the accession of the Meiji Emperor in 1868 the shogun era ended and Japan launched upon their modernization. By the 1890’s they were a significant power in Asia, much more powerful than the aging, crumbling Chinese Empire.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1922 US stamp

Russia’s access to a warm water port has always been an obsession. Their northern coast is open only a few months of the year and is otherwise locked in by ice. Of course, with climate change that may change significantly.

Russia sent its Baltic fleet in November, 1904 to engage the Japanese. Sending troops via the Trans-Siberian Railroad was not possible because it wasn't finished. Oops. This was no small effort, as the British government refused the Russian fleet passage through the Suez Canal. This meant that the fleet had to sail nearly halfway around the world, all the way around Africa to Manchuria.

The war did not go well. Port Arthur was captured, more than half of the Russian fleet was destroyed, and 400,000 Russian casualties resulted.

The war nearly bankrupted the Russian government. This was another example of the incompetence of Nicholas II who assumed, naturally, that God was on the side of Russia. Personally he hated the Japanese, probably stemming from an attempt on his life by a Japanese citizen before he was Czar. His views of the Japanese were patently racist by today’s standards.

1909 Russian bond

The war didn’t seem to be going anywhere, and the US President at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, stepped in. He invited leaders of the two countries to the naval base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to negotiate an end to the war. He then left.for his home on Long Island to let them work it out. The result was Korea was recognized as an independent kingdom although it was soon annexed by Japan. This was the first time an Asian nation defeated a European power in war.

After the war Russia borrowed millions of rubles to pay for the debt that nearly bankrupted the country. In 1909 they issued a bond of 525,000,000 rubles, a staggering amount at the time. In today's dollars this would be $8.1 billion dollars. I have one of the bonds from this issue. The dividends were paid up to the end of 1918 but the coupons for the last two payments are still with the certificate. This is because the Bolshevik government cancelled all of the debt from the Czarist era.

Starting with the Crimean War in 1854-56 Russia has had a history of entering wars that went badly. Ukraine is just one example. Tragically, many people are dying because of this folly.

European Borders are Never Permanent: Poland and Lithuania

With Poland and the Balkans perilously close to the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine I thought it would be interesting to look at the changes in the borders in this region. It has changed significantly. Eastern Europe, partly because of the periodic shifts in borders of states the region has a very complex ethnic makeup that makes drawing borders perilously difficult. 

  

1921 Polish stamp

Poland and Lithuania are good examples of countries whose borders have changed significantly.  The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a very large kingdom that extended well into today’s Ukraine and Russia. It was at its height in the early 17th century. As the kingdom weakened it was partitioned between 1772 and 1795 to the point that it did not exist as an independent nation. It remained this way until the Peace Conference of 1919 which reestablished Poland and Lithuania as independent nations.

 

 

 

 

Republic of Central Lithuania (green) Poland (beige) Lithuania (gray) East Prussia (orange) Wikipedia

However, there was disputed territory between the two countries. In the northern section of the reconstituted Poland that bordered Lithuania a client state was formed that lasted barely two years (1920-1922) — the Republic of Central Lithuania. Although it was recognized by the League of Nations it was not recognized by Lithuania. Because the republic included the historic capital of Vilnius, Lithuania claimed it as their own territory. The short-lived republic was absorbed into Poland in 1922

Republic of Central Lithuania stamp, 1921

1923 Lithuanian stamp

But wait. There’s more. After World War II Poland’s borders were shifted several hundred miles to the west. The eastern part went to Ukraine and Belarus in the USSR. Lithuania gained what had been the Republic of Central Lithuania but by that point it was a part of the Soviet Union and no longer independent. Poland was given East Prussia when Germany was carved up. What was the free city of Danzig become Gdańsk.

Confused yet? You should be. But imagine how confused the people who lived in that region felt!

European Borders are Never Permanent--The Papal States

3 Centissimi

 Some thoughts today on how postage stamps can tell the story of how modern nation states were built.

The stamps in this blog are a set from the Roman or Papal States, issued in 1867. I’ve always enjoyed them for their simplicity and their age. Each one shows a different design with the same theme, the papal crown and the keys of St. Peter. This set is part of my parents’ collection.

 

2 Centissimi

5 Centissimi

20 Centissimi

10 Centissimi

80 Centissimi

40 Centissimi

 

From the early Middle Ages the Papacy ruled the central region of Italy around Rome. This became solidified in the later Middle Ages (see the map--the Papal States are in purple). During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the Papacy not only governed the church but ruled this section of the Italian peninsula. The Pope had an army, and on a number of occasions engaged in war against another of the Italian city states. Italy was almost in a constant state of war with one city state fighting with another or territory or resources. This subsided once the Renaissance came to an end.

 

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Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)

The medieval division of Italy began to end during the Napoleonic era. Napoleon ended the Venetian Empire and consolidated some of the fractured territories. By the 1840's the Young Italy movement arose with the goal of unifying the whole peninsula in a modern state. The leader of this effort was the military leader Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) who fought tirelessly to achieve this goal. The unified Kingdom of Italy was established in 1861. The Papal States were the holdout. Although significantly reduced in territory the papacy held on to its remaining territory until 1870. The Vatican formally renounced its claim to the Papal States in 1920 and the modern Vatican City, embedded in the heart of Rome around St. Peter's Basilica, was created.

As we look at the map of the world right now it easy to think that the borders of present nations have always been the same and won't change. In many cases that is probably true although not certain. With the current war in Ukraine we may see a change in borders. All wars end when an end is negotiated. Will Ukraine formally cede the Crimea to Russia? Will it recognize the two eastern breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which if recognized would quickly be absorbed into Russia?

We don't know. In Europe, at least, the rule about borders is that they are never permanent. The last great redrawing of borders was in the late 1980's-early 90's when the Soviet Union broke up and all the former republics became independent. The breakup of Yugoslavia followed with the creation of new states.

The stamps above came from a time when the Papal States could see the handwriting on the wall. Their end was near. They ceased to exist only three years later, and Italy and the papacy were changed forever. At least for now.

 

Lenin

 I decided that Lenin required a separate post. Like everyone else in Russian history, he’s complicated. He was born in 1870 to an upper middle class family and had, from the sound of it, an average upbringing. The turning point in his life was in 1887, when his older brother Alexander was executed for his participation in a plot to assassinate Czar Alexander III on the sixth anniversary of the assassination of his father, Alexander II. Vladmir Ilyich Ulyanov (his real name) turned to Socialist ideas in his desire to reform society to free the working class and peasantry from oppression. This would mean, in his view, the overthrow of the monarchy and of the nobility, and the unbridled capitalist system that legitimized them.

Lenin studied political thought, especially Marx, and developed his own philosophy based on that of Marx. In order for the revolution to succeed it needed an elite to lead it. The masses, he thought, would not overthrow oppression without strong leadership. After earning a law degree he married and moved to western Europe, living in several different countries, and continued to develop his political philosophy.

As a person, Lenin was very intense, and saw the world in black and white. There were no nuances. He was always right, and anyone who disagreed with him was wrong. This stark contrast continued once he came into power and fated many thousands to die in prison camps. If you spoke up because you disagreed with the party line you risked becoming disappeared.

Lenin had contacts in Russia and continued to monitor the political situation closely. For years he did not think that the revolution would come in his lifetime but he hoped it would.  When the country continued to unravel at a faster pace as World War I continued, it became more of a possibility that the revolution would come. When it finally came in late February, 1917 he made plans to return to Russia. He approached the German government from his home in Zurich, Switzerland and asked that he be allowed to travel by train through Germany. The German government granted his request knowing full well that he intended to foment revolution, and that a revolution would probably result in Russia’s withdrawal from the war. As it turns out, that is exactly what happened. Lenin arrived in April and was greeted as a conquering hero.

https://socialism.com

Left: 1920 Soviet poster: “Comrade Lenin Sweeps the Globe Clean” by artists Mikhail Cheremnykh and Victor Deni.

Lenin continued to work, giving speeches and helping to organize. When the time came to overthrow the provisional government he was ready with organization.

Once in power, Lenin continued to verbalize the ideals of the revolution on behalf of the people, but it soon became clear that he was intent on purging Russian society is of people who disagreed with the ideals of the revolution. He sent thousands to prison camps on very little evidence.

There are differing opinions on what brought about his death in 1924. It is factual that he had a series of strokes in 1923-1924 that left him increasingly disabled, the last one making it impossible for him to speak. The last photographs of him depict a shattered, crushed individual, blankly staring into the camera from his wheelchair. Some theorize that syphilis caused the strokes and his decline, and others assert that stress and his intense personality brought it about. He was clearly an energetic person with enormous energy, and a very forceful public speaker. I write that with trepidation. I have no admiration for him as a leader or a person.

The cult of Lenin started in 1918. On August 30, 1918 a disillusioned Bolshevik shot Lenin. He survived but carried a bullet for a few years. His survival started a cult surrounding his immortality. He didn't like it and tried to suppress it but to no avail.

The 6 kopek memorial stamp. 

He died on January 21, 1924 after a series of strokes that left him increasingly immobilized. On the day of his funeral a series of four imperforate stamps were issued, which were later issued in perforate form. Generally, an imperforate issue is easier to produce since it doesn't have to go through the extra stage of having the perforations applied. It could be produced in shorter time. The engraving design was probably already ready since those in the know knew that his death was immanent.

After his death in 1924 the party (probably not many Russians outside the party, however) mourned his death. A few memorial stamps were issued, another of which you see below from 1926. They’re typical memorial stamps from pretty much anywhere. Sometime in the 1930’s Lenin was deified, and an official cult developed around him. His body, which had been embalmed and put on public display was installed in a stone mausoleum just out side the Kremlin walls, where it still remains after nearly a century. Until the fall of the Soviet Union photographs were not allowed, but they are now. Estimates are that much of what you see now is wax rather than Lenin.

Lenin became a deity. He constantly appeared on postage stamps, posters, and in every form of public media available. A series of lavish commemorative postage stamps was issued every year on his birthday. Typical depictions showed him speaking from a podium, or in a state of deep thought. As time went on it became common to depict important scenes in his life, and various stages of his youth. I have often thought that these depictions strongly resembled Sunday school depictions of Jesus. Jesus healing people. Jesus teaching people. Jesus at prayer. Perhaps these images were based on Russian Orthodox iconography. I wouldn’t be surprised.

1970 was a big year for Lenin worship because it was the centenary of his birth. He was everywhere, perhaps even more so than normal.

For the most part the later images of Lenin are hagiographical and predictable.  After a point they were all the same.

When Anita and I and my younger son visited my daughter while she was in Ukraine in the Peace Corps about fifteen years ago we went to see the Lenin statue. It was high up on a pedestal. The larger than life figure was pointing dramatically to the sky as if leading the charge into the future. I asked her why they hadn’t removed the statue. She said that it was too expensive, and that now people just ignored it.

I really wanted a Soviet era depiction of Lenin--a Lenin "Mini Me"--and found one in an outdoor flea market in Kiev. It’s the kind of small bust that would have appeared in people’s homes, on desks at work, etc.

Lenin has been relegated to Karl Marx’s “dustbin of history.” Thankfully. He was a monster.

My Lenin "Mini Me"

1970 commemorative Lenin ruble.

The Fall of the Romanovs and Ramifications, Part II

 The provisional governments that took power after Nicholas II's abdication on March 2, 1917 weren't able to hold on to the government. The forces at work were simply to difficult to withstand. With the country still in turmoil, the Bolshevik movement became a steamroller. On October 28 they stormed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and seize control of power from the Provisional Government. Soviets were set up in municipalities across the crumbling empire. A soviet was a party committee.

The imagery of early Soviet stamps is bold. Take a look at this issue from 1918 with a hand holding a sword breaking a chain. This is obviously an idealistic image, and the stamps from this time are definitely idealistic. As time went on, though, things were not going the way that many had expected. Dissenters from the Bolshevik philosophy were rounded up and often executed without trial. The revolution that had claimed to be in the best interest of the people now became just another repressive regime.

Economically, things were generally good for awhile. In March, 1918 Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany to pull out of the war. As a part of the treaty Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine, Georgia, and Finland; gave up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary; and ceded smaller territories to Turkey.

Finland had been a part of the Russian empire since 1809. It had already declared independence from Russia on December 6, 1917. While a part of the Russian empire Russian stamps were used there such as the one on the left, below.

Russian style stamp for Finland, 1911

 

 

 

One of the first Finnish stamps, 1918

From 1918-1920 a group of Russian armies in the northern part of Russia attempted to overthrow the Bolshevik revolution. This was during the period of 1917-1923, collectively known as the Russian Civil War. Known as the White Army or the Army of the North, this movement was never able to succeed because of lack of recruits and general disorganization. It was eventually defeated in 1920 by the Red Army. They were able to set up their own postal system with stamps, however.

Two stamps from the White Army, 1918-1920

Relatively speaking the stamps for the White Army were crude, but they served the purpose.

Stamp from the North West Army, 1919-20

 Another White Army, the North West Army, was active in the Baltic region. They too fell apart from disorganization but had their own postal system. Their stamps were of about the same quality as the Army of the North (White Army). It may seem that postage stamps would not be a priority but it is important to remember that a postal system was essential to the morale of an army. They had no other way of communication.

Economic conditions began to deteriorate in Russia in 1920. By 1921 a famine took hold in parts of Russia and Ukraine. During this time the government resorted to overstamping old czarist era stamps to save money. In the last post I offered a picture of a 1889 50 kopek issue. The same stamp and many others were marked with the sickle and hammer and a new value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned above, the early stamps of Bolshevik Russia are very bold in nature. Some bear the inescapable signs of hyperinflation, as does the stamp below.

 

 

 

 

250 ruble stamp, 1921

 

250 ruble stamp with 7500 ruble overstamp, 1922

 

250 ruble stamp with 100,000 ruble overstamp, late 1922

 Given the harsh economic conditions the Bolshevik government still celebrated the fifth anniversary of the 1917 revolution.

Conditions in Ukraine were especially bad. In 1923 Ukraine, shortly before it was absorbed into the newly formed Soviet Union, issued four semi-postal stamps to raise money for victims of the famine. A semi-postal stamp is one that adds a surcharge to raise money for a particular cause. They have been popular in Europe since the nineteenth century. Only a very few have been issued in the United States. The stark image of this stamp with the farmer wresting a sickle from the hands of death is a graphic reminder of the suffering experienced during this time.

In Part 3, we'll look at Lenin.

The Fall of the Romanovs Part 1

 Russian history is always complicated. In the Middle Ages it was a small kingdom of Vikings centered in Kyiv. Gradually it spread to include the area ruled by Moscow. By the mid 16th century the center of power had shifted to Moscow. Under the Grand Prince Ivan IV (known as "Ivan the Terrible") the power of Muscovy continued to grow. Ivan was proclaimed the first Tsar and ruled until 1575.

After that time Russia expanded its territory to create a large empire. By the time of Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725) and Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796) Russia had expanded considerably. The Romanovs had ruled Russia since 1613 under Michael I. Russia remained a feudal empire, essentially, not freeing the serfs until 1861 under Alexander II. Despite this, the vast majority of Russia's population lived in grinding poverty while the nobility and royalty lived in splendor.

Then we come to Nicholas II. He has become a poster child for royal incompetence, and deserves every bit of it. Nicholas and his family lived in isolated splendor with palaces, beautiful clothing, and fancy food. Prior to Nicholas' reign, unrest had begun in Russia by 1825 with the Decembrist revolt. As the 19th century progressed there seemed to be little change other than the freeing of the serfs.That was significant  but it did not effectively improve the economic hopes of former serfs. Poverty still reigned supreme.

Mahatma Gandhi famously said that "poverty is the worst form of violence" and 19th century Russia is a classic example of that. Socialist groups became active as time went on. This came to a head on March 13, 1881 when a Socialist group called the "People's Will" assassinated Tsar Alexander II by throwing a bomb into his carriage in St. Petersburg. Among those implicated in the assassination was Aleksandr Ulyanov, who was executed for his participation. His brother, who came to be known as Vladimir Lenin, rose to prominence later.

Czarist Russia presented itself as an enlightened empire. The nobility had relatives and contacts all over Europe and they lived on large estates farmed by large numbers of laborers. It was very much an agricultural society.

The stamp above, from 1889, typified the postal imagery of the time. This sort of general image, proudly displaying the Russian double-headed eagle, presented an imagery of stability and of empire. As the 19th century progressed nothing could have been further from the truth.

Peter the Great, 1913 commemorative issue

Nicholas II came to the throne after his father, Alexander III died in 1894 at the age of 49. Nicholas came to the throne at the age of 26, completely unprepared to rule such a vast empire. He soon married his first cousin Alexandra, another grandchild of Queen Victoria of England.

Nicholas resisted all efforts on the part of his government to modernize Russia. He grudgingly allowed for the formation of an elected Duma ("house") after the 1905 Winter Palace massacre. His usual tactic was to try to repress political dissidence with military force.

In 1913 the Romanovs celebrated three centuries on the throne, with lavish balls, church services and other commemorative activities. Russia also issued a set of stamps depicting notable Romanov rulers including Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and of course, Nicholas II.

Catherine the Great, 1913 commemorative

 issue

 

 

Nicholas II 1913 commemorative issue

 
I'm sure that the vast majority of Russians were not impressed with the lavish celebrations of a family that kept them in poverty. The family also hid a catastrophic secret. Their son, Alexis, was a hemophiliac. Hemophilia is passed down through mothers to their sons, and Victoria's family was rife with it. At that time hemophilia was a death sentence. They tried all sorts of medical treatments and eventually latched on to a classic social climber, Grigori Rasputin. I don't have a stamp for him. There aren't any. Rasputin mesmerized the family with his repeated healings of Alexis from 1907-1916. During his ten years of influence Rasputin drank and caroused his way through Russian high society. By 1916 the nobility had had enough and he was killed by members of the Romanov family.

Concurrent with Rasputin's grip on the Romanovs, Russia's participation in World War I was disastrous. Failure after failure led Nicholas to decide to command the army himself. He traveled by train to be nearer the troops. This couldn't have been a more incompetent decision, for he left his even more incompetent wife, Alexandra, in charge of the government.

Conditions in Russia deteriorated and inflation set in, illustrated by the 1913 stamp depicting Nicholas overstamped with ten kopeks over seven. Inflation like this is never a good sign and is often the beginning of the end.

With the war taking millions of soldiers' lives and starvation setting in, the Russian people had had enough. On February 28, 1917 the military in St. Petersburg refused to fight, and formed the Petrograd Soviet. On March 15 Nicholas abdicated the throne.

A provisional government was set up as a republic. The rest of 1917 was rocky, with several governments taking over in succession. This imperforate stamp from the first provisional government of 1917 is a reprint of a czarist era stamp. They reused old plates to save on expense and provide some semblance of postal services to the country.

Nicholas and his family were famously killed on July 17, 1918 in Yekaterinburg in Siberia.

In the next installment I'll look at the beginnings of the Soviet Union and the humanitarian catastrophe that followed.

As a postscript to this look at the fall of the Romanovs I wouldn't say that they deserved what happened to them. However, they brought it on themselves. At every turn Nicholas could have adapted and kept his throne. It's possible that with the assassination of Alexander II the country had already gone past any hope of a constitutional monarchy. We'll never know.

Nicholas was not a good ruler. He knew it, too. At his father’s death he lamented that he didn’t want to be Czar and that he had no idea what to do. However, convinced that God had destined him to be Czar he went ahead. He wasn’t a bad person but he was totally unfit for the task of ruling such an empire in a time of rapid change. He was easily swayed, to the point that one courtier quipped that the most important person in Russia was the most recent person Nicholas had spoken with.

With the empire seething with potential revolution Nicholas and his family continued their summers on the Crimea, yacht excursions on the Baltic Sea, and all the time, hiding the hemophilia of their son, Alexis. Nicholas knew that his son would not live to see twenty.

The 1905 Winter Palace demonstration should have been a wake up call. Had Nicholas embraced a constitutional monarchy he would have lived out his days as the ceremonial monarch of Russia. But, it didn’t happen that way. He wanted total control, and his total control led to his own demise. He grudgingly agreed to a Duma, or legislature, but he had the power to dismiss it whenever he wanted to and could veto anything they did. He dismissed it several times.
 

Lenin himself did not expect the overthrow of the Romanvs to happen during his lifetime but he was happy to jump on the wagon when the opportunity presented itself. More next time.

The Ageless Queen Victoria

The Penny Black, 1840

This is a story about image. First, the Penny Black, the first prepaid postage stamp in the world. The stamp was issued in 1840 and used only for a year when the Royal Mail people realized that the black color made it difficult to see the black cancellation. For awhile they switched to red cancellations. Then they switched to printing the stamp in red. 

 As the world's first prepaid adhesive postage stamp the Penny Black was a welcome innovation. Prior to that time the recipient of a letter had to pay for the postage which was calculated on the number of miles from its origin and the number of sheets of paper. With the introduction of postage stamps the volume of mail went up significantly. The Penny Black is still widely available to collectors. It's expensive as a single postage stamp but relatively affordable. Sometimes you can get lucky. I recently bought this copy in an eBay auction for the price of a nice lunch for two.

The Penny Red and Penny Blue stamps, 1841

 The Penny Red along with the Penny Blue (actually a 2 pence stamp) was originally imperforate, meaning it did not have perforations between each stamp so that an individual stamp could easily be torn from a sheet. Each stamp had to be cut from the sheet with scissors.

 In 1854 the Penny Red was issued with perforations so each stamp could be torn off the sheet. The problem with imperforate stamps was that if a person cut too hastily they might actually cut into the stamp next to it. You can actually find specimens with part of another stamp to one edge or another. 

The 1854 Penny Red

The next change was in the upper right and left corners. Stamp designers were always trying to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters and those who attempted to re-use stamps. One trick that enterprising people tried was to take two stamps, one with the cancellation on the top and one with the cancellation on the bottom. They would cut each stamp in half and put them together to make a composite stamp. This would only work as long as the stamp had Maltese crosses in the upper corners.  

The letters in the bottom corners indicated the stamp's position on the printing plate. The 1854 stamp to the left was in rank O and column L, for instance.

In 1861 the upper and left corners were changed to have the same letters as in the bottom corners, except they were reversed. This made it virtually impossible for someone to clip two stamps and make a composite one.

 The green stamp below is one of the two last stamps issued during Victoria’s reign in 1899. She was born in 1819 and reigned from 1837-1901. 63 years. In that time the same portrait was used on British stamps. No wonder the British thought she would live forever. She didn’t age a day if you took these images literally.

 

 The purple stamp below is from Canada about 1899 or so. This one has an honest portrait of her in old age. Interestingly, British coinage issued later in her reign showed her as older. Colonial stamps also depict her with a lot more variety than the stamps in Britain.  Coinage from Victoria's reign also shows a progression in her age, I've never seen any rationale given for the perpetuation of the youthful portrait. It wasn't used consistently in all contexts in which an image of the queen would be used. Perhaps the expense of engraving a new portrait was too much? I would expect that the engraving of a new design wouldn't be any more expensive than the production of a new coin.

 

Royalty, no matter when, have always relied on image. Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) was famously obsessed with her public image to the extent that she had any depiction of her banned that did not show her as a young, vibrant woman. Later portraits of her depict her as younger, but they are stiff and do not look like portraits taken from life (which is something you could probably say about many English portraits from that time). There are a few remarkable survivors, though, showing Elizabeth as a tired, elderly woman. Victoria also changed with age, as we all do, becoming increasingly stout, something not difficult to do if you're only five feet tall.

I doubt that anyone in Britain was fooled by the eternally youthful picture of Queen Victoria on their stamps. Perhaps they saw this depiction of her as being of her spirit, which never aged. After Albert's death she appeared in public infrequently, although she remained actively engaged in the affairs of government.

In the end, of course, the perpetually youthful Victoria of the postage stamp died as we all do. So goes the world.