Postal Service

Categories / City Services/Communication
POSTAL SERVICE. The general post-office was founded in St. Petersburg in 1714, and “regular post service” was established along the Moscow and Riga routes. In February 1714, the postal service started biweekly runs from St. Petersburg to Riga; in June it started runs from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The field post office was founded in 1716, and the so called ordinary post service in 1720, for fast conveyance of state ordinances and papers. Regular delivery of private parcels (the so called heavy post) was organized in the 1730-40s. In 1746, parcels and private correspondence were first delivered by courier, and starting in 1781 money, too, could be delivered to one's door. Post coaches appeared in 1820. In 1833, the St. Petersburg City Post was created, and the city was divided into 17 districts with 42 correspondence offices, which were located in trade stores. In 1834, reception offices appeared in the suburbs (in St. Petersburg there were as many as 108). Periodical press delivery in Russia was organized in St. Petersburg in 1838. The Department of Coaches and T-carts was opened in 1840 at the Moika Embankment; light cabriolets carried surplus-post, coaches delivered light post, and T-carts dealt with “heavy" post. Green coloured street mail boxes were installed in 1848, the same year stamped envelopes were issued; orange mailboxes for same day service appeared near railway stations in 1851, and post stamps appeared in 1857. In 1864, the City Post started sending printed matter and catalogues, and in 1866, they sent packages. By the early 1930s, the Post Office had not only planes and trains at its disposal, but also cars, cutter sleighs, and other vehicles. By the late 1930s, 203 post offices operated in Leningrad. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, communication between the front line and the rear was provided by the Field Post. In the first year of the Siege, there were 108 post offices working in Leningrad. The Leningrad Post Association was created in 1988, and included the General Leningrad Post-Office, 13 regional post offices, 345 post offices, 11 automatized post offices, and a fleet of cars. In 2003, postal service work was supervised by the St. Petersburg Office of Federal Postal Communications (SPb FPC, 9 Pochtamtskaya Street). SPb FPC incorporates the railway post office, 12 Central Post offices in St. Petersburg and 17 Central Post offices in the Leningrad Region, 289 post offices in St. Petersburg and 536 in the region, a fleet of car, and 21 mobile post offices.

References: Скропышева В. Г., Карлова Е. Л. К вашим услугам - почта: Справ. пособие. 2-е изд., перераб. и доп. М., 1990; Кутьин В. А., Соловьева Т. А., Сориц А. Н. Санкт-Петербургский почтамт. СПб., 1997.

I. A. Bogdanov. Pochtamtskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 9
Скропышева В. Г., Карлова Е. Л. К вашим услугам - почта: Справ. пособие. 2-е изд., перераб. и доп. М., 1990
Кутьин В. А., Соловьева Т. А., Сориц А. Н. Санкт-Петербургский почтамт. СПб., 1997 Siege of 1941-44
1821
1848
1858
1872