2021-03-12
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Three sisters-red girls
Indeed, red. In the truest sense of the word, three similar brands have similar destinies. We are talking about Chinese postage stamps issued in the brave era of the 'cultural Revolution'.
The first in 1968 saw the light of the brand of horizontal orientation, known as 'All of China ‒ red'. Although the light seen by this brand was limited to the maximum-the walls of the post offices of the People's Republic of China. The whole point is in the inscription, which is located under the image of joyfully happy workers walking hand in hand with an armed soldier. Literally, it translates as 'Long live the complete Victory in the Great Cultural Revolution'. However, the Chinese authorities then needed more extensive propaganda.
The great Mao, with whose 'light hand' in China in 1966 began a series of bloody events, which received the beautiful name of the 'Great Cultural Revolution', was an experienced leader. From an early age, he was fascinated by the works of Marx, Lenin, Kropotkin, he was absorbed in the idea of a general revolution and the destruction of the former state foundations. To achieve this goal, a clear hierarchy and maximum unity were necessary in the ranks of the revolutionaries. Mao Zedong understood that these factors would allow him to retain power in the country and destroy any resistance of his opponents.
Therefore, he initiates the beginning of the struggle against the 'feudal culture', which means the eradication of old ideas, traditions and habits, and, at the same time, the opposition who disagree with his course. Simply put, the country is gradually being overwhelmed by a bloody wave of terror and repression, aimed primarily against the sane social stratum. They carried the 'remnants of the old': teachers, professors, ministers of worship, and many, who became objectionable, party leaders.
But, in fact, the trouble was different. It was these forces that were able to build a real opposition to the supporters of Maoism and prevent the usurpation of power in the country. In principle, nothing new, we have already passed this somewhere...
The unified red color, the color of the sun, and, most likely, the blood that Mao, who was so eager for boundless power, so thirsted for, was absorbed by China. 'The reddest of all the reddest suns' (that's what Mao Zedong was called at that time) wanted to destroy the old hierarchies, but at the same time, to establish his own total control in the country.
This, and not just the victory of the 'cultural revolution', should have been the focus of the postage stamp in question. The inscription 'Long live the complete Victory in the Great Cultural Revolution' was rejected, and instead a similar one was released, only with a vertical image, familiar to collectors under the name 'The whole country is red.'
But, despite the fact that the inscription on it was applied 'correct', the second copy of the 'red sisters' suffered the same fate as the first.
Against the background of a worker, a peasant woman and a soldier, clutching red Mao quotations in their hands and distraught with unprecedented happiness, there is an image of a map of China.
If you look closely, you can see a colossal error of color, which in those troubled times could well have been mistaken for ideological sabotage. The fact is that the territory of the Republic of China located in the immediate vicinity on the island of Taiwan (formed after the defeat of the Kuomintang), the PRC considered its own and did not recognize its independence. On the stamp, the island of Taiwan ‒ oh, horror! ‒ it is not colored red, but simply has a neutral color.
When on November 24, 1968, the post offices of the People's Republic of China received the stamp with a face value of 8 fyns,on the same day they received an urgent order to return this postage stamp.
For such cases, the author, of course, was supposed to appear before his comrades in uniform. Indeed, nothing was known about the artist who created the brand for a long time. However, in 2009, Mr. Wang Weisheng turned up at a philatelic auction in Hong Kong. It was there that the creation of his hands was bought by an unknown collector from Asia for a fabulous sum ‒ $ 475 thousand. This copy was destined to go down in history as the most expensive brand of the People's Republic of China.As for the brand with the inscription 'Long live the complete Victory in the Great Cultural Revolution' - it was still created. Against the background of the happy masses of the people, it depicts the leaders of the revolution ‒ Mao Zedong and Lin Biao. It also gained the status of 'rare', as it also did not have to see the light ‒ this is the kind of rock that haunts the red stamps of the 'cultural revolution'.
And although in our days at the auction of the Guardian, a quick-quenched quarter block from the stamps of the third series was put up for 6-8 million yuan, for some reason there were no people who wanted to become its owners.
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