OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2007. All-Russia competition for the image for postage stamp "I’m drawing an alphabet" arranged by FSUE Russian Post, publishing-trade center "Marka" and Union of Philatelists of Russian Federation was finished. The gala-ceremony of awarding was devoted to 150th anniversary of implementing of the first Russian postage stamp and the Year of Russian language.

E. Dayan, Director General of Universal Postal Union, I. Syrtsov, Director General of FSUE Russian Post, V. Gorbatko, President of the Union of Philatelists of the RF, A. Adibekov, Director General of publishing-trade center "Marka" and representatives of International Federation of Philately took part in the ceremony.

Over two thousand educational institutions, one thousand schools of art, coteries and schools of design, 39 children’s homes and boarding schools participated in the competition. Over 17 thousand of works from 76 constituent entities of the Russian Federation were received by the regional committees. Over 3000 works were presented at all-Russian stage of the competition. The best drawings of postage stamp were demonstrated at the exhibition held presently in the Central Post Office in Saint Petersburg.

The gala-ceremony was opened by I. Syrtsov who was particularly attracted by the works of young participants of the competition.

"It’s a great pleasure to see that a lot of young citizens of our country responded our proposal on competition for drawing of postage stamp. We received many works from them", he claimed.

Murasheva Anna, pupil of Saint Petersburg school № 238 has got special prize as the participant of regional stage of the competition in North-West district. Director General of FSUE Russian Post gave her the diploma of the participant, gift album with postage stamps. Congratulating her Igor Syrtsov said: "It’s nice that children direct their art for such an interesting object as postal miniature and postage stamp".

The first place in all-Russian stage of children works was given to Bogdan Kalmikov of 11 years. He told that he was fond of art since he had been 3 years, in addition he likes football and bicycle. The deserved award was given to Bogdan by Viktor Gorbatko.

Original drawings devoted to the history of the country and Russian language, establishers of Cyrillic alphabet and first croniclers, beginning of Russian ancient book industry, post and postage stamp were presented at the final exhibition along with children works. A lot of works are made with implementation of unusual techniques as for instance applications from different materials.

Regina Zangieva, Beslan became the finalist in the nomination "junior works". The sketch of the stamp by Dmitriy Smirnov, s. Peregrebnoe of Khanty-Mansyisk Autonomous Area was recognized as the best among youth artists.

Famous philatelist from Nizhniy Novgorod Vladimir Beloborodov took the first place among the professionals. In 1971 Vladimir drew the sketch of the stamp devoted to 750th anniversary requested by the administration of the city Gorkiy. As to him, since that time he creates the sketches for envelopes, impresses. He won many international, federal and regional competitions. Vladimir noted however that this competition is of particular importance for popularization of the native language. His sketch shows the retrospective of development of Russian alphabet since tenth century to the epoch of Peter the Great.

Issue of block of stamps with their own pictures will be the main award for the participants took the first place in each of 4 nominations. The gala-ceremony of cancellation of the mentioned block will be held on the eve of the World Post Day (October, 9th) in Moscow.

Special guests of the exhibition noted the importance of the event as awarding of the participants coincided with the World Stamp Exhibition held then in Saint Petersburg. Igor Syrtsov said that "the event is not of professional but of state scale as it is the holiday for people who fond of collecting of postage stamps. It became the one means of payment and the object for collecting. As to many specialists, the exhibition held in Saint Petersburg this year is one of the best both on arrangement and exposition. He hopes that special stamps that will be issued after the competition will find worth place in the collections of philatelists and world exhibitions".

At the end of the holiday Edouard Dayan and Igor Syrtsov made cancellation of envelopes devoted to "Day of Saint Petersburg" of the World Stamp Exhibition.