Udachny, Sakha Republic, Russia

Another snowy view, this time from Russia. This picture was taken in April, brrrr!

Udachny is a town in Mirninsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located 1,370 kilometers northwest of Yakutsk on the Markha River. It has a population of 12,611 (2010 Census preliminary results).

The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic is a federal subject of Russia. Comprising half of the Far Eastern Federal District, it is the largest subnational governing body by area in the world at 3,083,523 square kilometers and the eighth largest territory in the world, if the federal subjects of Russia were compared with other countries. It is larger than Argentina and just smaller than India which covers an area of 3,287,240 km2. It has a population of fewer than one million inhabitants. Its capital is the city of Yakutsk.

The Sakha Republic is one of the ten autonomous Turkic Republics within the Russian Federation. Yakutia also fosters close cultural, political, economic and industrial relations with the independent Turkic states through membership in organizations such as the Turkic Council and the Joint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture.

I received this card from a swap with Jaroslav who lives in Moldova, hence the Moldovian stamps.

Rybnitsa, Transnistria

Something I received from a swap with Jaroslav in Moldova recently...



Rybnitsa is a city in Transnistria, Moldova. According to the 2004 Census in Transnistria, it has a population of 53,648. Rybnitsa is situated in the northern half of Transnistria, on the left bank of the Dniester, and separated from the river by a concrete dam. The city is the seat of the Rîbniţa sub-district.

Rybnitsa was founded in 1628 as a Moldavian village. As early as 1657, Rybnitsa was mentioned in documents as an important town, at the time part of the Kingdom of Poland. Strong Western European influences can be seen in this formerly Polish town. In 1793, Rybnitsa passed from Poland to Russia.

Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine. Since its declaration of independence in 1990, and especially after the War of Transnistria in 1992, it is governed de facto as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR, also known as "Pridnestrovie"), an unrecognized state which claims the territory to the east of the river Dniester, the city of Bender and its surrounding localities located on the west bank. The Republic of Moldova does not recognize the secession and considers territories controlled by the PMR to be part of Moldova's autonomous region of Stînga Nistrului ("Left Bank of the Dniester"). Transnistria's sovereignty is unrecognized by any United Nations member state and it has no diplomatic relations with them.



Transnistria has its own stamps but they are only used within Transnistria so Moldovan stamps have to be used for mail sent elsewhere. Shame, because it would've been interesting to see some local stamps. Anyway, the ones Jaroslav used are very pretty as well. The one on the right is from a set of 4 stamps issued in 1998, depicting Costumes. The other stamp is from a set of 2 from 2008 showing Deer, and also a joint issue with Kazakhstan.

Moldova

This card is sort of related to the previous one of Turkey. Stamp-wise, that is. This one has Europa stamps on, too! Sini, a Finnish postcrosser, was on holiday in Moldova, and she sent me a message asking whether I'd be interested in a swap with these stamps. So kind of her!



I don't know much about the card itself, except that it shows Moldovan National Costume.



Sini used both stamps in Moldova's issue of this year's Europa stamps. This Guguta (or Gugu?) character looks really cute! ^_^

Moldova

Overall, I don't get a huge variety of different countries with the postcards I receive, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to post about cards from different countries here whenever possible. The following card is definitely one from a country I don't received cards from too often.


MD-2037

The card shows the National History Museum of Moldova, a museum in Chişinău, the capital city of Moldova. Over 263,000 exhibits, 165000 of which belong to the national heritage, are exhibited in the National Museum of History, founded in 1983 on the former Regional Lyceum. It is situated on 121a, 31 August 1989 str., in the historical center of Chişinău.



The stamp is very pretty, but unfortunately I couldn't find any info regarding it. It would seem to be related to the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, the oldest museum in Moldova, though.