About the book: 1981 / It tells about the history of the issue of the first Russian national stamp - about its projects, trial samples, about the introduction of postage stamps into circulation and their distribution throughout Russia. The history of the issue of stamps that claim to be the first Russian stamps, the first stamps of Finland and Poland, and the Tiflis city post office is being reconstructed. The chapters telling about zemstvo stamps and the peculiarities of their circulation will be of interest. Separate chapters are devoted to rare issues of Russian postage stamps and issues of stamps for Russian representative offices abroad, as well as the first Soviet stamps. For a wide range of philatelists. The author O. N. Bukharov did not finish the book during his lifetime. The work of completing it and preparing it for printing was undertaken by I. Ya. Vaks, and D. V. Kuznetsov assisted him in working on the chapters on the zemstvo mail. The manuscript takes into account the comments and suggestions of famous philatelists A. N. Vigilev, B. A. Kaminsky, O. V. Forafontov.