Irkeshtam, Fergana TK?
by David Jay, djay@ese.ogi.edu
There are apparently only two locations in the 1916 postal list described as "Telegraph Kontora". Both are at military locations in Osh Uezd, Fergana Oblast (am Arsh der Welt, Auf Deutsch). The mark shown here is incomplete and dated (I think) 1928. It may still be the old imperial mark, however. The questions are -- 1) why this odd-ball category of office 2) what was it status in later Soviet times 3) does anyone have a complete mark?
Added by Ivo Stejn, ivosteyn@rocketmail.com
Well, let's start with the bad news: I don't have a complete strike (or even an incomplete strike) from this place. But I'm not that surprised to see TK's pop up auf dem Arsch der Welt. Kyakhta had a telegraph office before it had a post office, and I'm sure there were other examples like that. Perhaps the Army was instrumental in establishing telegraph offices in the really distant reaches of the Empire (and coincidentally, close to a strategic border) with postal services being extended to places like that only much later?
Added by David Jay, djay@ese.ogi.edu
I agree with Ivo about there being telegraph offices in remote corners of the empire, and it would make sense to have telegraphic communication to strategic locations even if regular postal service was not necessary. However, the 1916 PO list does not list conventional telegraph offices at places like Irkutsk and (if it was still open) Kyakhta. So why this odd listing of two locations?
Added by Philip Robinson, PRobin391@aol.com
I was interested to see this exchange on returning from vacation (in Namibia - honest!) I can claim no expertise in the area of telegraph offices, but it is indeed surprising to find any "pure" telegraph offices of the TK type in the 1916 P.O. list - that is, offices which were not dual-purpose PTK, PTO etc. offices. Although TK offices were allowed to accept registered mail, they were telegraphic offices and were not concerned with postal business as regards their prime function. The first page of my copy of the 1916 P.O. list indicates that this 700+ page volume is "Part 1: Postal". So maybe there was a separate volume which listed pure telegraph offices? If this is so, the question arises as to why two TK offices are included in the postal part of the 1916 list. A clue may be in the description of the Irkeshtam office, which indicates that it accepted and delivered ordinary and registered mail. So maybe, unlike most telegraphic offices, these two that are shown in the 1916 P.O. list had more postal functions, and so qualified for inclusion in the postal part of the list? In regard to the Siberian telegraph offices that David mentions, Irkutsk and Kyakhta, these were certainly open in 1918-25 (Irkutsk) and 1915 (Kyakhta) as postmarks have been recorded from them - see pp.100 and 110 in my Siberia book. The fact that these offices are not included in the 1916 P.O. list may be explained on the assumptions that (1) they only accepted registered mail (like other telegraphic offices) and so did not have any special functions in regard to accepting/delivering ordinary mail etc. and (2) we are looking in the wrong part of the 1916 list.