USSR Airmail 1940 Magadan Secret Police / Siberia Khabarovsk - Petropavlovsk Route - Rare

SOVIET AIRMAIL TO NKVD SECRET POLICE IN MAGADAN - TRANS-SIBERIAN & PACIFIC COAST LINE

Leningrad 1940 (21 October) - Domestic registered airmail envelope to the Soviet secret police NKVD in MAGADAN, sent via the TRANS-SIBERIAN & PACIFIC COAST KHABAROVSK-PETROPAVLOVSK segment. Correctly franked at the 1 ruble rate (tariff 1st September 1940) with a combination of Soviet Definitives 10k (2), 30k and the special "closed letter" 50k blue postal stationery (1937 issue). Arrival on reverse MAGADAN 17 January 1941. Very Fine.

Very scarce Soviet Airline route with an exceptional destination. A beautiful postal history item.

Magadan was founded in 1930 at the sea of Okhotsk in Nagayev Bay (Kolyma region) and served as a major transit center for prisoners sent to labor camps. Population was 27,000 in 1941. There was no air connection to Magadan before 1933, when Martin seaplanes were allocated to the connection with Khabarovsk (see Ackerman, p. 259). Before embarking on the Pacific Coast air route, the mail was transiting via the Irkutsk-Khabarovsk Siberian air route. Total travel from Leningrad more than 10000 km.

Provenance: ex collection Druzhinin

Michel 677 IA (2), 682 IA (typo) all perf. 11¾ : 12¼, 50k PSE (1937 issue, 160 x 116mm: Soloviev 1A)

Standard 441 (2), 608, 50k PSE  (1937 issue, 160 x 116mm: Soloviev 1A)

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