Forgery
A significant number of provisionals are associated with the Civil War of 1918–1922. At that time, stable central authority did not exist across most of the country; many regions became independent, and the devastation and war led to substantial inflation. Frequent changes in postal rates and the inability to supply the postal network with stamps of the required denominations prompted periodic revaluations of existing stocks in accordance with instructions from the People’s Commissariat of Posts and Telegraphs of the RSFSR, which did not provide for any overprints. However, in some localities certain post offices nevertheless applied overprints to the revalued stamps they sold, or simply added inscriptions by hand. All these stamps are characterized by an extremely simple overprint technique.