On October 18, a stamp dedicated to the 275th Birth Anniversary of Aleksander Bezborodko, diplomat, Chancellor, the Chief Director of the Russian Empire Post and 150th Anniversary of Aleksandra Kollontai, stateswoman, diplomat, was put into postal circulation in the History of Russian Diplomacy series

Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952) was a People's Commissar of Public Welfare (Social Security), one of the world's first female diplomats. She was an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR. She was born on March 19 (31), 1872, in St. Petersburg. Aleksandra Kollontai took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907; at the same time, she made acquaintance with Vladimir Lenin. After the defeat of the Revolution, she was in exile in Europe and the United States, and participated in the work of the Congresses of the Second International.

In 1915, Kollontai joined the Bolsheviks, whose attitude towards the war was closest to hers. After the victory of the February Revolution of 1917, she returned to Russia and was soon appointed one of the leaders of the Petrograd Soviet. Kollontai participated in the VII (April) Conference of the RSDLP(b) in 1917 on behalf of the Bolshevik military organization and was among the delegates who wholeheartedly supported the Lenin's April Theses. After the October Revolution of 1917, she was elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and received the post of People's Commissar of Public Welfare in the first composition of the Council of People's Commissars.

During the Civil War, Alexandra Kollontai took over the leadership of the Commissariat of Agitation and Propaganda of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as the political department of the Crimean Army. At the end of the war she headed the Women's Department of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), which was aimed at the fight for equal rights for women and men, the fight against illiteracy among the female population, informing about new working conditions and family organization. She began working as a diplomat since 1923 and retired from her post only in 1945 due to illness.

Count, His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Bezborodko (1747-1799) was a Russian statesman. He was one of the initiators of the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Emperor Paul I awarded him the then-highest rank of a Chancellor of the Russian Empire. Alexander Bezborodko was born in an ancestral estate in the village of Stolnoye, Glukhov uyezd of the Seva province. In 1765, Bezborodko was appointed the Chief of the Office of the Little Russia Governor-General Count Peter Rumyantsev. In 1767, he was appointed a member of the Little Russia General Court, and in the same year, he compiled the Extract of Little Russian Rights. When Rumyantsev was appointed commander in chief over the Russian troops against the Turks, Bezborodko joined his army and was present with him at all times in battles.

On March 22, 1774, Alexander Bezborodko was created a colonel for his service, and in the next year of 1775, after his arrival to Moscow, he entered the Sovereign's office for the acceptance of petitions to the highest name. As time passed, he became the most powerful of all her secretaries of state. Alexander Bezborodko participated in the conclusion of the maritime declaration of February 28, 1780, and in a number of other treaties on maritime neutrality, as well as in the conclusion of the defensive alliance treaties of Russia with Austria, Prussia (1792) and Great Britain (1794), and in the third partition of Poland (1795). He was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1783.

Awards: the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle (1791); the Order of Saint Vladimir, First class (1782); the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (1784); the Order of Saint Anna, First class (1797); the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, and the Grand Commander Cross (1798).
The postage stamp features a portrait of Alexander Bezborodko against the background of his palace in St. Petersburg (currently the A. Popov Central Museum of Communications).

The postage stamp features a portrait of Alexander Bezborodko.

Artist: V. Seliverstov; Design: A. Moskovets.
Face value: 60 rubles.
Stamp size: 37×37 mm, sheet size: 130×104 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 6 (3×2) stamps.
Quantity: 66 thousand stamps (11 thousand sheets).

The postage stamp features a portrait of Aleksandra Kollontai.

Artist: V. Zoteeva; Design: R. Komsa
Face value: 60 rubles.
Stamp size: 37×37 mm, sheet size: 130×104 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 6 (3×2) stamps.
Quantity: 66 thousand stamps (11 thousand sheets).

Sheets:

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Special cancellation marks:

 

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