Soviet Philatelist

Soviet Philatelist or Sovetskii Filatelist^[b] was a Soviet central philatelic magazine published in 1922–1932.^[1] In 1925 and in 1928–1932, its name was changed to Soviet Collector or Sovetskii Kollektsioner.^[c][2]

Early Soviet periodicals for collectors (top to bottom): Russian Collector, North Correspondence (2 issues), Crimean Collector, and Soviet Philatelist

Soviet Philatelist
(Soviet Collector)

Cover of the Soviet Collector's January 1925 issue showing a photo from the 1st Congress of the All-Russian Society of Philatelists
Editor-in-Chief	Kazimir Dunin-Barkovsky (1928–1932)
Editor	V. A. Bessonov (Soviet Collector)[a]
Former editors	Editors Feodor Chuchin (1922–1928) Piotr Butkevich (1928–1932) Albert Danzig (1928–1932)
Categories	philately
Frequency	monthly
Circulation	2000 (in 1922)
Publisher	Feodor Chuchin
Founder	Feodor Chuchin
Year founded	1922 (1922)
First issue	September 1922 (1922-09)
Final issue — Number	December 1932 Vol. 11, No. 12
Company	Organisation of the Commissioner for Philately and Scripophily, All-Russian Society of Philatelists
Country	USSR
Based in	Moscow
Language	Russian
OCLC number	497315537

History

By 1922, shortly after the Civil War, a number of magazines and pamphlets for collectors appeared in Soviet Russia:

• Russkii Kollektsioner (Russian Collector), published in Novocherkassk,
• Priural'skii Kollektsioner (Ural Collector),
• Krymskii Kollektsioner (Crimean Collector), etc.^[2]

However, centralisation of collectors' organisations and periodicals was wanted:

“	...Instead of dissipating our forces, wouldn't it be better to rally all Russian collectors around one banner, the outline of which is already sufficiently drawn, and produce monthly handbooks containing articles of a serious nature? This rather than subsisting on themes such as "all possible stamps of Tibet," or some such? This is an important question, and as far as the journal we are contemplating is concerned, its external and internal appearance should be more pleasing than Krymskii Kollektsioner (Crimean Collector).	”
—from Russkii Kollektsioner, 1922, "On the First Issue of Priural'skii Kollektsioner", cited in Filateliya SSSR, 1985, No. 9.[2]

By 1924, these local magazines eventually closed down. In September 1922, the new magazine, Soviet Philatelist, first saw print in Moscow.^[2] Its founder and editor was F. G. Chuchin, Commissioner for Philately and Scripophily.^[3]

In 1925, the magazine name was changed to Sovetskii Kollektsioner. The magazine was published biweekly. It was edited by V. A. Bessonov at that time.^[2]

In 1926 three magazines, Sovetskii Filatelist, Sovetskii Kollektsioner and Radio de Filintern, were combined. They began to be published under one cover. Their individual lineal numeration was preserved. The last combined issue came out in December 1927.^[2]

In the first half of 1928, the cover of the combined issues was only under one title, Sovetskii Filatelist. In July 1928, the magazine was renamed to Sovetskii Kollektsioner. It was published by the Soviet Philatelic Association and the All-Russian Society of Philatelists. The last issue appeared in December 1932.^[1][2]

History of publishing Soviet Philatelist (Soviet Collector)

Title	Year	Start Issue		End Issue
		No. (lineal No.)	Date	No. (lineal No.)	Date
Sovetskii Filatelist	1922	1	9/1922	4	12/1922
	1923	1	1/1923	12	12/1923
	1924	1 (17)	1/1924	11/12 (27/28)	12/1924
Name change to:
Sovetskii Kollektsioner	1925	1 (29)	1/1925	23/24 (51/52)	12/1925
Combination of three magazines published under one cover:
Sovetskii Filatelist	1926	1 (53)	1/1926	12 (64)	12/1926
	1927	1 (65)	1/1927	12 (76)	12/1927
Sovetskii Kollektsioner	1926	1 (25)	1/1926	12 (36)	12/1926
	1927	1 (37)	1/1927	12 (48)	12/1927
Radio de Filintern	1926	1 (13)	1/1926	12 (24)	12/1926
	1927	1 (25)	1/1927	12 (36)	12/1927
Name change to (still three unique magazines, just one masthead):
Sovetskii Filatelist	1928	1 (77)	1/1928	6 (82)	6/1928
Name change to:
Sovetskii Kollektsioner
	1928	1 (83)	7/1928	6 (88)	12/1928
	1929	1 (89/91)	1–3/1929	10/12 (98–100)	10–12/1929
	1930	1 (101)	1/1930	12 (112)	12/1930
	1931	1 (113)	1/1931	12 (124)	12/1931
	1932	1 (125)	1/1932	10/12 (134/136)	10–12/1932

Evolution of the magazine (left to right): Soviet Philatelist (1928), three-part issue (1926), and Soviet Collector (1928 and 1931)

Related pages

• All-Russian Society of Philatelists
• First All-Union Philatelic Exhibition
• Leniniana
• Organisation of the Commissioner for Philately and Scripophily
• Philatelic International
• Philately
• Soviet Philatelic Association

Notes

1. When it was published under one cover of the three-part magazine.
2. Russian: Советский филателист.
3. Russian: Советский коллекционер.