My dad, Eduard Ivanovich Netsvetov, had many different hobbies in his childhood and youth. He played drums and guitar in a rock band, knew a lot about motorcycles, and jumped on skis from ramps. But his first serious hobby was stamp collecting.

It all started when his parents, my grandparents, bought USSR stamps at Soyuzpechat kiosks. They were ordinary stamps depicting various modes of transportation, animals, plants and other objects. But for the little boy they were real treasures. He carefully kept them in a special album.

But the most interesting thing began when my father at the age of twelve went to the GDR on a school exchange. At that time schoolchildren from the Soviet Union went to visit East Germany, and their boys to us. My dad lived in a German family, familiarized himself with the culture and traditions of that country. And, of course, could not bypass postage stamps! So the collection was enriched with foreign stamps.
Over time, dad’s collection grew larger and more versatile. He exchanged stamps with collectors, bought them in stores and at exhibitions. These were stamps of the USSR of various series, dedicated to the first flight into space, artists and creative personalities, memorable dates and events, science and technology. There were stamps from GDR, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Canada, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Cuba. Each stamp was for my dad not only a piece of history, but also a symbol of friendship between nations.

Dad’s collection has now been passed down to my brother and me. It reminds us of dad’s childhood, his hobbies, and his dreams. It also reminds me that in difficult times, people found joy in simple things, such as postage stamps. It is important for me to preserve and pass on family values, traditions and history. I refined the album, breathing new life into it. I used my dad’s jeans to create the cover.

I currently work in the tourist industry. I show the guests of our region the beauty of Karelia. In the fall, a married couple from Moscow came to visit me. It turned out that Vladimir had been collecting stamps for many years. He has stamps of all countries of the world, many different collections. When he returned to Moscow, he gathered the stamps he didn’t need and sent them to me! It was a parcel weighing almost a kilogram and a half. There were a lot of stamps, and I haven’t even sorted them out yet. To say that my joy was unprecedented is not to say anything! I was delighted, to the point of tears. And I realized that I would continue my dad’s collection.  

Margarita