Science fiction.
A great many provisionals appeared in modern Russia in the early 1990s as well. After liberalizing prices, the government of T. Gaidar set Russia’s economy adrift in a free market. As a result, for several years hyperinflation ran the show in the country. All of this affected postal operations too. In 1992–1993 alone, six changes to postal tariffs were carried out. The rapid rise in postal rates forced post offices across the country to resort to issuing various kinds of provisionals. At first, overprints were made on USSR postage stamps held in stock, and revaluation stamps were applied to postal stationery. As stocks of stamps and postal stationery ran out, issues of surrogate postage-payment signs appeared. This happened everywhere across the country. As always, alongside postal provisionals there also appeared various philatelic issues that had nothing to do with the postal service.