Russian Empire
The Russian Empire, also known as Imperial Russia or simply Russia, was an empire that existed across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War, until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917.
First stamp of the Russian Empire
The stamps went on sale 10 December 1857, but officially people started to use them to pay internal correspondence in Russia on 1 January 1858, and on 1 March 1858 in the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, and Siberia. Since then, all private letters had been sent only with postal stamps that were cancelled with two crossed lines. This was because supply of the numerous post offices with postmarks took a while and the Postal Department ordered to cancel stamps with pen and ink following the previous practice of cancelling stamped envelopes. A total of 3,00,000 stamps were printed.