Postal Service in the USSR. How Did Soviet Mail Work?

Soviet Postal Service and mail delivery in the USSR. Postal stamps, envelopes and postcards in the USSR.
My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC
"Ushanka Show" is a collection of stories about life in the USSR.
SOVIET EDUCATION: • SOVIET EDUCATION
SOVIET LEADERS: • SOVIET LEADERS
CHERNOBYL STORIES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET AUTOMOBILES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET MUSIC: • Soviet-Era Music and P...
SOVIET MONEY: • SOVIET MONEY
SOVIET HUMOR: • Video
My FB: / sergei.sputnikoff.1
Twitter: / ushankashow
Instagram: / ushanka_show
You can support this project here: / sputnikoff with monthly donations
Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow

[@UshankaShow]

Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on www.sputnikoff.com/ (Russian or English versions) or Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC Please contact me at [e-mail] if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” You can support this project here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff with monthly donations Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/The_Ushanka_Show/

[@davidlosadasoler]

These long and boring videos are invaluable. Some day will be collected and sold in a series. I can't imagine a better and more comprehensive way of knowing how life in the USSR was.

[@buffdelcampo]

I was a kid in the US in the 1950s and 1960s and young adult in the 1970s. Our letter carriers walked a route with an over-the-shoulder bag almost exactly like the one you showed in the USSR. I didn't see a postal truck until about 1980.

[@randallmunson2098]

I am of the same age but I do remember postal employees having small Jeeps, similar in style to WW ll Jeeps but enclosed. They would then park at end of street and then carry mail bad or push 3 wheel cart and deliver to homes.

[@jamallabarge2665]

Hey, Sergei. Read about a method of mailing notes... почтовый треугольник Supposedly front soldiers who wanted to send mail home would fold their notes into a special shape. The Soviet postal service would mail these free as a courtesy to front soldiers. I encountered this in a book about an American with Russian ancestry who got caught up in the Labor system in the 1950s. He claims that he wrote to his Mom by folding a letter into a triangle. They tossed it out the window. Many months later his Mom's reply showed up at one of the transit camps. There are sites that show how to fold the notes into triangles. The result is really stable.

[@larrybrennan1463]

I miss seeing Pechkin - he would be perfect for this episode!

[@xanfsnark]

Technically you can still get mail delivered in the USA in a way similar to the "on request" method, here it's called "general delivery." Usually only the main post office in a town or city does it. I have friends who go on long distance hikes on the Appalachian trail, and they often mail supplies by general delivery in advance to post offices on their route. It's also a service sometimes used by travellers or homeless people.

[@the20thDoctor]

I swear, I could listen to this guy talk about Soviet paint drying and it wouldn't bore me. Edit: What did ya think about that STALKER movie? Ever play the games?

[@michaelboyd395]

Cheeki Breeki

[@the20thDoctor]

@@michaelboyd395 Get out of here Stalker.

[@chrisl2632]

I was in the Soviet Union (Moscow) From Dec 1974 - Mar 1975. I used to mail my wife post cards and letters using the Soviet postal system. They had stamps without glue on the back, and when I mailed it the clerk always glued the stamp to the letter.

[@gibby666]

Спасибо вам!! Один из моих любимых каналов!

[@ripsirwin1]

We should start using reusable boxes for mail. Would be a lot more sustainable.

[@justdustino1371]

The forestry products industry is sustainable! Paper and cardboard are made from renewable resources and we also know that they rot and turn to mulch in the ground. Our problem is plastic packaging and disposable plastic containers and bottles. That stuff doesn't rot quickly and scientists have theorized that over the centuries buried plastic could break down into toxic compounds. Paper and cardboard are way better for the environment.

[@justdustino1371]

@@archenema6792 We shouldn't recycle paper products, it is not good for paper mills and the forestry products industry. Paper waste and cardboard should be burned to produce electricity.

[@justdustino1371]

@@archenema6792 If I am right, then we are on the eve of a catastrophic third world war. The Apocalypse. For that reason recycling and Green Earth efforts are wasted efforts and fruitless for the time being. The faux academics and psuedo intellectuals who keep pushing water world scenarios and feed the global climate change hysteria are idiots. They could better serve humanity by directing their energies to preparing us for the inevitable doom we face, so that the survivors can better rebuild civilization afterwards. But, Christ Himself said that in these times, the "wise" men would be as fools.

[@justdustino1371]

@@archenema6792 The book of Revelations was written by St. John the Elder, around the time of first decade of the second century AD. I don't subscribe to Pauline doctrine either. He overstepped his boundaries. God only called Paul to spread Christianity throughout the Roman empire, not write its' doctrine. I consider Paul's books to be the mere "opinions of Paul". I don't think they should be in the bible nor central to Christian beliefs. Sorry if I irked you, It wasn't my intention.

[@JTA1961]

​@@justdustino1371 a"Paul"ing...😅

[@HauntedXXXPancake]

Back in the 90's you could by stamp-sets from the eastern block in Germany. I remember that they always had incredible artwork - specially compared to the boring ones we had. I loved the vibrant paintings of spaceships or rows of combine-harvesters plowing through golden landscapes - So much better than our of 1- or 2-colour pictures of Politicians or plants :'D. Got to ask my mom if my albums are still somewhere up on the attic :)

[@travishabursky4362]

15213 is also one the zip codes in Pittsburgh, PA. It primarily contains the neighborhood of North Oakland; which is home to the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon University, several museums, parks, and a vibrant student neighborhood.

[@ClickClack_Bam]

I just received a Vostok Amphibia mechanical automatic Wristwatch from your mail service in Russia. I waited a month for it to arrive. I've gotten some comments on it looking nice. The watch appears to be good quality so far.

[@satusalmivirta9840]

Well, better than today

[@krishnar1182]

One interesting thing about the Soviet and even Russian postal service is that they were required to inspect contents of certain packages and would insist on sealing/closing the packages for many shipments. For example, I used to send books to the USA from Russia in the 90’s and 2000’s and the postal service had to package the books. I thought this was just to ensure it could get the media mail rate but apparently this was true of other package types as well.

[@expreserge1]

Another great video, comrade!

[@phils473]

Another great video! 👍 In all my years of Russian stamp collecting, I never knew how little use the Soviet stamps got. I have a few of the postcards and envelopes. I just didn't know that they were the MAIN things used. I guess I will never have a complete Soviet Union stamp collection on cover! 😥

[@JTA1961]

You can always "stamp" on the ground a few times... if it'll make you feel better 😅

[@actioncom2748]

6:26 - Interesting paint job on that wall and boxes. It's almost like they slathered the wall with paint and didn't cover up the boxes. I saw a similar paint job once where somebody had painted the wall AND the light switches.

[@shaunw9270]

Brilliant video comrade 👍

[@UshankaShow]

Thank you! 👍

[@leenvisser4649]

Very informative video, Sergei! I've received some mail from Russia in recent years and I can say that some citizens will still wrap the soft packages in whatever fabric they can find. I had one arrived with everything stuffed in a cotton pillowcase with my information written on it directly with a pen, and they closed it up with some string and what looked like fishing weights. My delivery person was a bit befuddled.

[@lunarmodule6419]

Komrad! Thank you 😀

[@opl500]

Those mail trucks are going away, it seems each postal region is now responsible for scrounging up their own mail trucks now. Or it seems mail carriers use their personal vehicles much like pizza delivery.

[@DrRyan82994]

Yeah those llvs are older than the fall of the ussr. They keep pushing the replacement trucks back it’s crazy.

[@8vRocco]

Rural carriers most use their own vehicles. In my region, they are slowly switching from LLVs (long life vehicle) to those Dodge Ram Promasters and also Mercedes Benz Metris. We just got our tractors and straight trucks "updated" too.

[@horeageorgian7766]

Well, I have a lot of soviet stamps. Was a filatelist for some years as a kid.

[@spicn00]

The mail box in your Kiev apartment looks exactly like the mailbox in my apartment when I used to live in Moscow a few years ago. I never really checked for mails but if I remember correctly the boxes are not completely flat but they are a bit slanted down, maybe to allow envelopes to drop better when the mail guy delivers them to the mail box.

[@northernchaotic7196]

I recently watched RT report about american black people who moved to USSR in the 1930s, I never knew about this. Thank you for good video.

[@UshankaShow]

www.amazon.com/Black-Man-Russia-Homer-Smith/dp/B000IQ7HGQ

[@ripsirwin1]

That postal index scanner was really clever. Blessed USSR.

[@Blackadder75]

It was cute, but the US already had a better system that could read handwritten addresses in 1965... And in 1982 they had it fully automated from start to finish, sorting with barcodes. As usual the USSR was 10-20 years behind

[@jackofswords7]

That military machine on the envelope was a hovercraft.

[@JTA1961]

Thanks for "POST"ing...haven't seen an abacus since Japan...

[@thomassmith5548]

That's a pretty cool opening. I got question what was the cartoon in the opening of your previous movies or the openings of previous episodes of Ushanka show?

[@dereknelson4509]

=> ....uh yeah, Sergey... LOL... you need to provide us with a back story for the cartoon of the guy throwing the Ushanka hat up into the air as he travels along... ❤....

[@HHH-so9ro]

Hi, Could it be that the Soviet citizen had sent and received mail envelopes from outside the USSR? If this is permissible, are postal envelopes subject to examination and control?😎😎 I am asking this question because we are in the Middle East, the Soviet Union was for us a mysterious and terrifying country😄

[@aminelatreche1288]

The word pochtalyon mailman comes very likely from the french word postillon no longer in use in France today that dates back to the 18th or 19th century the postillon was the man who drove the postal horse carriage.

[@aminelatreche1288]

I recognize a lot of the Russian words you teach us in your videos , the foreign language used by the Russian Nobility in the 18 h and the 19 th century was French , hence all those Russian words ( Loan words as they say in linguistics) that come from French like Purée for mashed potatoes.

[@americaneagle76]

INTERESTING

[@warrenSPQRXxl]

It used to be and maybe still is that international mail to be be picked up at post office would be marked "Poste Restante" (French being at one time the international language). In th U.S. it is called "General Delivery". Here distant out of town newspapers would be delivered (late) by mail and all magazines. At one time I received chess magazines from the Soviet Union with no problem.

[@dereknelson4509]

Heh heh... thank you Sergey... ...item of interest... while in Japan... in many transactions with paperwork for delivery of something... postage stamps (?) are used to cover government tax... something like that... ...BUT... the postal service... like the sign-off logo on a television channel... represents a psychological "rock of stability"... ( i think)...

[@KaboosOnX1]

I’m a mailman in America. Can confirm the cluster mailboxes are still from the 80s. And the job sucks. A lot.

[@Eyeball-Industries]

In most of Ukraine, its still Soviet system in the poshta. Even in Odessa they still have Hammer & Sickle logo in the central post office!

[@boredfartless4221]

Seeing as there was little to buy in the shops, and I guess no mail order catalogues, what did people ship in heavy parcels?

[@UshankaShow]

Food stuffs from the villages. Shoes, clothing, medicine from the cities.

[@SpottedLop]

My friends in Moscow in 1980s had me send them letters до востребования after we figured out they was not receiving all of my letters to their apartment building. Then they received all of my letters and packages no problem. So maybe my letters were getting misplaced or something in the apartment boxes like what often happens in the US even in small buildings. 🤷‍♀️ To my knowledge no one was opening any of the mail the sent to me. I saved all of their letters. I still have them and the envelopes. Often they had real stamps, probably because of the extra cost to send mail overseas. I loved the Soviet stamps! They were so colorful with beautiful artwork. The stamps available in the US back then were boring compared to what you can buy now and you didn't get a choice what they handed you. I had penpals from many different countries, and hands down CCCP produced the best stamps and envelopes.

[@crimony3054]

Americans could also receive newspapers by mail, but what really made the carriers' bags heavy was the junk mail -- mass-mailed letters, advertisements, and catalogues. Large, daily newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post were delivered each morning by delivery people. Today, delivery service companies are some of the best-loved consumer services (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon), while internet service providers are some of the most hated. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIC9fH-qfq6IkKc

[@admiralradish]

7:40 yeah that wasnt covid 19 that was COMMUNISM ....think about it. Love your stuff Ushanka keep putting this out it is good to understand history.

[@nelo1]

Lol, what’s wrong with the glass separator now? Never seen it in western banks or postal offices?

[@shaunw9270]

I'm only a couple of years older than Sergie. The screens have been here in UK post offices as long as I can remember. Btw , John Wayne Cheeseburger has a good sense of humour 😉

[@the20thDoctor]

I, as an American, reserve the freedom, no the right, to sneeze on any random stranger unlucky enough to work at any store. That's America! Asking me to do anything else is communism.

[@shaunw9270]

@@the20thDoctor 😂

[@ItsGroundhogDay]

Pretty much. Covid-19 is our free trial of communism. I don't like it.

[@orim298s]

In this video you showed postal stamps that were not part of the envelope or postcard. So it looks like people could buy stamps by themselves. What is the story of Philately (stamp collecting)? I had a collection of USSR stamps from 1970’s to 1990’s. Most of them where not part of the envelope or on card.

[@horeageorgian7766]

12:03 That is a hoowercraft.

[@regularfather4708]

I only clicked on this video because I'm a mailman

[@kentuckyproproductions1624]

Same

[@vanadiumV]

i love that rooster on the beginning of video ! is it from CCCP too !hhhhh

[@horeageorgian7766]

It is all like it was (and partially is) here (RO). But what I think was different in the SU, the use of the Abacus. They were not used (or at least not in the 70s anymore) in other socialist countries. What you did not talk about is that postal workers also stole. Especially packages from abroad mostly did not arrive.

[@horeageorgian7766]

15:06 That padlock was already opened. With a hammer.

[@resrussia]

My understanding is that mail delivery was everyday including holidays - is this correct? When my wife came to US, she complained about USPS not delivering on on Federal holidays (actually she complains about :))

[@bleron_26]

you should open a fan mail PO box

[@northernchaotic7196]

Aaww, do you need a Penpal? Lol

[@bleron_26]

@@northernchaotic7196 mailing stuff to KZbinrs has become my Corona hobby

[@bleron_26]

@@archenema6792 wtf bruhhhhhhhhhhh

[@skuula]

Communist mail services were really efficient. In Beijing, you could once mail a letter to elsewhere in the city, and it would be there in a few hours.

[@jarikinnunen1718]

Where that blue color coming from? Other soviet color was "pink". Those and soviet smell was first thing what tourists noticed.

[@Jbirdcb-qq4ee]

Great video Mr Cheeseburger!

[@UshankaShow]

Thanks!

[@langzean]

For the postal boxes, it is almost the same deal in china

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

The mail... Postillion Petya. I wonder, what were your favourite cartoon series from soviet times? Did you show any of them to your children, and what did they think of them?

[@UshankaShow]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYXNp5aspbVghdE

[@irynahaugo]

Пане Сергію, а чи згадали Ви у цьому відео, що поштовий індекс "винайшли" саме в Україні? Я переглянула все відео, та, можливо, щось пропустила? - dubva1.livejournal.com/2073697.html

[@thefedup9921]

Those postal workers had an abacus 🧮 on their desks.

[@UshankaShow]

Yes, it doesn't require batteries

[@thefedup9921]

@USHANKA SHOW We are roughly the same age. You are 3 years my elder. I've always admired Russian ingenuity.

[@jonathont5570]

Stamps make it look so happy, but the photos mostly not...

[@alvinmcfarlane7238]

Where they made telephone in ussr

[@justdustino1371]

Ok, I am reminded of that scene in Men In Black when Tommy Lee Jones' character, K, discovers that everyone who works in the post office is an alien. 😆 I swear I think my mail lady is a witch! She escaped the Salem Witch Trials centuries ago by hiding in a swamp, feeding out of the dumpster behind the abortion clinic, until she heard the post office was hiring! I am surprised she doesn't deliver the mail at night while flying on her broomstick.

[@rollmeister]

KGB also helped inspect the mail

[@horeageorgian7766]

15:13 Do I read Postamt? Borrowed 1:1 from German. Just like Butterbrot.

[@belstar1128]

The soviet peoples revolution mail

[@patrichausammann]

😅 It seems to me that you don't even need a key to open these mailboxes, a wire or a hair clip seem to be absolutely sufficient for this.😳

[@michaelhayes4231]

People weren't as criminally inclined like a lot of people seem to be in more consumerist societies, crime was low

[@patrichausammann]

​@@michaelhayes4231 Where I live, the door could be left open and no one would have stolen or come in. But that has changed.

[@michaelhayes4231]

@@patrichausammann in the 1980's when Sergei lived in the Soviet Union, crime was already sky high here. Crime increased a lot after Margaret Thatcher's anti-socialist 'reforms' lead to massive poverty

[@Blackadder75]

@@michaelhayes4231 the West was pretty safe too, except maybe major cities where drug addicts and homeless people flock to. I am also born in the 70s like Comrade Ushanka.. Up to my adult years I could leave my bike unlocked everywhere and everybody had their backdoor and yard unlocked, people just walked in all the time, shouting 'Good Folk!' and that was how people moved around. They wouldn't know what to do when you ringed the front door, that was never used except for weddings and funerals and maybe doctor's visits.

[@christopherkleinbach5237]

Covid 19 friendly 😥.

[@georgegeorge1873]

How much of the mail was opened by the KGB?

[@UshankaShow]

During Stalin era - a lot, pretty much 100%

[@aleksandarkis8172]

I was reading "ROSNTA" and was like WTF!? (On Cytillic "Pochta" = "Rosnta") LOL / ЛОЛ!

[@pickledpigknuckles6945]

First Comment🥇

[@gaius_enceladus]

Soviet mail system - "Your mail is now EVERYONE'S mail!" ;))

[@82dorrin]

They didn't even *need* DeJoy to fuck things up.

[@aleksandarkis8172]

Funny, seems Ukrainian is mor simmilar to Serbian. Same word Пошта

[@joegerich641]

Commercials suck comrade

[@gagamba9198]

That service where you pick up post and parcels at the post office without use of a post office box is known as _poste restante_ . Not only could you use it at your local post office, but it was available in many places which was very convenient for travelers pre email. For example, if I planned to be in Zurich for a while I'd tell a person to post my letters to the central post office there - giving the person the address - and I'd collect them periodically.