[Andrej Sikorski]

Write to lichku!
In Russia, the first postal cards were released by "the Community. St. Eugene "(known under another name:" Publisher of the Red Cross "). The Community of St. Eugenia was formed at the St. Petersburg Committee care of the nurse of the Red Cross to assist the elderly and sick sisters of mercy. The most August patronage of the community took over the Princess Eugenia Maksimilian Oldenburg - the granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I (the daughter of the Duke of Luxembourg and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna). As chairwoman of the Imperial Society for Encouragement of Arts, the Princess of Oldenburg proposed to set up production of envelopes and postcards of art (open letter) to their sale to replenish the treasury Communities. Immediate work on the organization of the publishing house was given to the chairman of the Community Evdokiya Dzhunkovsky (maid of honor of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna) and the Secretary Ivan Mikhailovich Stepanov. Copies of the first four cards with watercolor artist NN Karazin publisher issued in 1898 for the Easter holidays. In the same year were published ten subjects watercolor painters Ilya Repin, K. Makovsky, EM Bem, S. Solomko etc. Two circulation of these cards (10 thousand copies. Each) separated instantaneously. Part of circulation is distributed in the form of sets placed in the design of the envelopes with the words "in favor of the Committee to care for the sisters of the Red Cross. Printing postcards execution was carried out in various publishing houses: Eating graphic arts EI Marcus, cartographic institution AI Ilyina, Association Golike R. and A. Vilborg, printing I. Lapina (in Paris), Brukmana (in Munich) and others actively collaborated with the publishing house artists of the realistic, but the complete publishing communities represent artists of "World of Art: Alexander Benois, Konstantin Somov, MAVrubel, EE Lancere, I.YA . Bilibin, L. Bakst. Total publishing. St. Eugene released 6410 numbers of cards. After the 1917 Revolution publishing communities. St. Eugene was registered as "Commission Community art publications. St. Eugene. In 1920 a special decree all organizations of the Red Cross nurses have been eliminated. Published by the Community taken over by the National Academy of Material Culture under the name of the Popularization of Art Publications (KPHI). In 1928, postcards KPHI was banned for ideological reasons.