St. Vladimir Cathedral in Luhansk

Luhansk (formerly Voroshilovgrad) also known as Lugansk is a city in southeastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Luhansk Oblast (province). The city itself is also designated as its own separate municipality within the oblast. The current estimated population is around 445,900 (as of 2004). Luhansk is perhaps one of the few cities in the world that was renamed four times within 55 years. During the soviet times the city was called Voroshilovgrad in tribute of the Soviet military commander Kliment Voroshilov, a native of Luhansk, exactly since November 5, 1935, but on March 5, 1958, the old name Luhansk was reinstated until 1969. On January 5, 1970, after Voroshilov dead, the name of the city was changed again to Voroshilovgrad. On May 4, 1990, a decree of the Ukrainian SSR renamed again the city with its original name.

St. Vladimir Cathedral in Luhansk this unique structure. Its construction began in 1993, laying the first stone was with the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Cathedral was solemnly consecrated on 19 March 2006. St. Vladimir Cathedral today is the biggest religious buildings in southeast Ukraine. The Cathedral can accommodate about 3 thousand parishioners. This lovely card was sent to me by Stanislav who lives in Luhansk.

United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

In June 2000, after two years of fighting in a border dispute, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a cessation of hostilities agreement following proximity talks led by Algeria and the Organization of African Unity. In July, the Security Council set up UNMEE to maintain liaison with the parties and establish a mechanism for verifying the ceasefire. In September 2000, the Council authorized UNMEE to monitor the cessation of hostilities and to help ensure the observance of security commitments.

On 30 July 2008, the Security Council terminated the mandate of UNMEE with effect from the following day. The Council decision came in response to crippling restrictions imposed by Eritrea on UNMEE, as well as the cutting off of fuel supplies – making it impossible for the operation to continue carrying out its mandated tasks, and putting at risk the safety and security of UN personnel.

The picture shows a Corporal of a Canadian Regiment making friends with a young Ethiopian. The Obverse of the card at left gives more information regarding the card and the nice stamp affixed to the card. Thank you Ian Perry for this nice card.

PORSCHE 356

The Porsche 356 was the company's first production automobile. It was a lightweight and nimble handling rear-engine rear-wheel-drive 2 door sports car available in hardtop coupe and open configurations. Design innovations continued during the years of manufacture, contributing to its motorsports success and popularity. Production started in 1948 at Gmünd, Austria where approximately 50 cars were built. In 1950 the factory relocated to Zuffenhausen, Germany and general production of the 356 continued until April 1965, well after the replacement model 911 made its autumn 1963 debut. It is estimated approximately half of the total production of 76,000 356s still survive. Currently in Brazil, sells a replica of the Porsche 356, the Chamonix Super 90. Maria, this is indeed a lovely car to have and to ride. When you get to buy it, don’t forget that I am waiting to be in the passenger seat. Thank you for this pretty card Dear Friend.

East Coast Village in TaiwanFishing

Tobey sent me this pretty picture from Taiwan. The picture is of a fishing village on the East Coast. Tobey also affixed very pretty stamps on this card.

Icebreakers of Finland

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most normal ships lack: a strengthened hull, an ice-clearing shape, and the power to push through ice-covered waters. Finland depends heavily on her icebreakers to keep the sea lines of communications open. It is well known that seas around the Finnish coast are frozen even in normal winters at that latitude. No wonder they are so good at winter sports.

On 7 September 2005 The Icebreakers stamp booklet featuring Finnish icebreakers Urho, Otso, Fennica and Botnica was issued. The ships represent the last three generations of Finnish icebreakers. Each stamp shows the name and building year of the icebreaker, and also the name and building year of the sister ship. The four stamps of the booklet illustrate the 24-hour operation of the Icebreakers - the top stamp on the left depicts morning, the one below it depicts daytime ops, the picture on the top right indicates evening and the one below it nighttime ops. The oldest of the vessels in the stamp booklet, 30 years this year, is the icebreaker Urho. Otso was built in 1986. The ship is more modern in terms of technology and in particular more cost effective than Urho. Fennica, built in 1993, is the first multipurpose icebreaker in Finland. In the winter the multipurpose icebreakers sail in domestic icebreaking duties. In the summer they have offshore duties in the service of international oil and gas industry. The newest of the ships depicted on the stamps is Botnica. It was built in 1998 with advanced multipurpose icebreaker technology.

Graphic designers Ari Lakaniemi and Susanna Rumpu designed the Icebreakers stamp booklet. The stamps are based on photographs by Matti Lehto (scale models), jarmo Vehkakoski and jouni Klinga (background pictures). The price of the Icebreakers booklet is 2.60 euro. The stamp booklet contains 1st class non-denominated gummed stamps. My dear friend Merja sent me this lovely set of four maxi cards with the stamps on them.

Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp

Auschwitz or Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940–1945), was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps. Auschwitz had for a long time been a German name for Oświęcim, the town by and around which the camps were located; the name "Auschwitz" was made the official name again by the Germans after they invaded Poland in September 1939. Birkenau, the German translation of Brzezinka (birch tree), refers to a small Polish village nearby that was mostly destroyed by the Germans to make way for the camp. During the last Great War, the very name Auschwitz brought about nightmares to allied soldiers who were perhaps hundreds and thousands of miles away from this notorious place. I for one shocked when I studied it almost thirty years later when I was involved in a project at the Staff College.

Auschwitz II–Birkenau was designated by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Germany's Minister of the Interior, as the place of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe". From early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe. The camp's first commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified after the war at the Nuremberg Trials that up to three million people had died there (2.5 million gassed, and 500,000 from disease and starvation), a figure since revised to 1.1 million, around 90 percent of them Jews. Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, some 400 Jehovah's Witnesses and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities. Those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious disease, individual executions, and medical experiments.

On January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops, a day commemorated around the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 1947, Poland founded a museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, which by 1994 had seen 22 million visitors—700,000 annually—pass through the iron gates crowned with the infamous motto, Arbeit macht frei ("work makes free"). Many suspected what was happening inside the gates, but, now the true horrors were laid bare before the whole world. Pawel sent this card to me.

Helsinki

This pretty scene from Helsinki was sent to me by my dear friend Ella.