Overprint on the twenty-first nationwide charitable issue.
Postal-charity stamps in aid of soldiers and their families. Artist Richard Germanovich Zarrin (Zarrinsh) was the designer of almost all Russian banknotes of the early 20th century and the first Soviet postage stamp.
On September 2, 1914, the head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, V. Pokhvisnev, submitted a report to the Minister of the Interior in which he noted that the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society had already issued during the war with Japan “patriotic postage stamps, the proceeds from which went to benefit orphans of the active army.” After listing the conditions under which they were published and certain changes of the day, the head of the Directorate summarized: “...considering that the right to issue patriotic stamps had once already been granted to the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society, I would deem it... to permit the issue of the said stamps, granting this right to the Society once again.” Minister N. Maklakov agreed with this proposal.
The design of the stamps was developed with the participation of the EZGB.
On September 18, 1914, the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs notified in advance the postal and postal-telegraph offices of the empire about the issue of “patriotic” stamps in denominations of 1, 3, 7, and 10 kopecks, and reported that:
- the retail price of the stamps was set with a surcharge of 1 kopeck over the face value for each stamp;
- postal and telegraph fees which, under the rules then in force, are paid with stamps may be paid with patriotic stamps, with their face value, not their retail price, being used for accounting;
- the purchase of patriotic stamps and the payment of postal items with them are not mandatory for anyone and are left to the discretion of senders.
The stamps of the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society were officially used as postage stamps during 1914–1917. In this period, they could be used to pay for all types of postal correspondence.
The sale of patriotic stamps was ordered to cease on November 19, 1917 (order of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs No. 62338 of August 19, 1917).
However, these stamps remained in postal circulation for quite a long time thereafter.