22 December — the 13th issue of standard postage stamps. Postal messenger. Symbol of the postal service. Print run: 8,000,000 copies.
Artist: Vladislav Koval.
A messenger was a person (usually on foot or on horseback) whose duties included delivering news, orders, and letters. In Russia, the concept (the word) “messenger” became widespread from the mid-14th century and remained in use until the early 18th century, when the terms “courier” and “feldjaeger” came into common use.
In pre-Petrine Russia, dispatch riders (messengers) were state servitors, appointed “by enrollment,” and were maintained at the expense of the state treasury. A special courier postal service was established in 1701 by Peter I on the Smolensk and Arkhangelsk routes to deliver urgent express consignments carrying royal letters. Military couriers have been called feldjaegers (since the mid-18th century), and those delivering diplomatic mail are called diplomatic couriers.