Late use of an Imperial form. Sent "Dolgovaya" (on credit), so the addressee paid the postage. Franked with nice high values of the "Small Heads" standard issue. And hey, franked with a commemorative stamp too! And double hey, with a postage due stamp, used as postage stamp? Too many reasons!
But the nicest surprise came from the destination. "Ginsburg", I hear you ask? Yeah, it didn't ring any bells with me either and Google was silent for once. It had Arabic in the bottom half so...Central Asia?
In the end it was Adrian Room's very useful 1991 book "Placename changes" that had the answer. Ginsburg is the town known as Kaakhka in Turkmenistan. It was known as Ginsburg during the 1920s. Lord known why...I can't find a suitable Ginsburg that might have served as inspiration for this very obscure renaming.
I need about 5 identical items...
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