posted 02-04-2025 04:00 PM               

There had been questionable covers with "look-alike" KNIGA cachet productions, and if my memory serves me right, the same with some of their applied signatures not being genuine as well. All/most of mine seem fine.

Take for instance the agency's seventh cover series of Voskhod 1. The only autograph I have of Vladimir Komarov is from one of those KNIGA first day covers with all three crewman autographs: Flight Commander Komarov, physiologist Boris Yegorov and doctor-scientist Konstantin Feoktistov. It was the first three-man crew in space, first in not using space pressure suits, and set a world altitude record of 209 miles at that time.

As most of us dedicated collectors know, Komarov was the first orbital spaceflight casualty in April 1967 when the Soyuz 1 command pilot was killed when his reentry parachute system failed after more than a day in space (26 hours).

The Soviet Air Force Engineer Colonel is considered as one of the rarest signatures in space flight collections as Soyuz 1 was only his second space orbital mission. But as flight commander of Voskhod 1 only three years earlier in 1964, he did hand sign a bunch of KNIGA covers for the series.

Therefore, is the above cover authentic or not, both with his autograph partly over his postage stamp image for Voskhod 1 along with the twin postal markings of "12 10 --- (for 12 Oct.) but with a year that I cannot identify!!! It looks to be "1989" that cannot be since the KNIGA Soviet postage stamps were first day stamp covers. After an early Russian space flight return to earth, the stamped covers agency would release official government stamp(s) in tribute of that particular mission and crew within a few weeks or more afterwards. All were posted at Moscow.

posted 02-04-2025 06:56 PM               

You are thinking of the KNIGA covers with Voskhod 1 stamps which are all dated 10/19/64 (not 10/12!).

Someone had a blank signed cover with the stamps/signatures and had it cancelled for the anniversary.

Found the following similar cover from Heritage auction 11/13/2021 of such an uncancelled cover.

posted 02-05-2025 06:54 AM               

One for each of the six Vostok missions and two more for the two Voskhod missions. Each cover was signed by the respective mission's cosmonaut crew.

Each of the six Vostok covers was postmarked in Moskow ("Mockba") on "10 1 64", or 10 Jan 64. The Voskhod 1 cover was postmarked in Moskow ("Mockba") on "191064", or 19 Oct 64, and the Voskhod 2 cover was postmarked in Moscow ("Mockba") on "23 565",or 23 May 65. All the stamps used on the covers were commemorative stamps picturing each cosmonaut.

The covers were not strictly speaking FDCs, as the stamps that were applied had all been previously issued. The Kniga crew covers used a red Moscow postmark.

posted 02-05-2025 11:15 AM               

In 2006 I bought this Russian invitation card from a reliable Russian dealer - mainly because I couldn't turn down an opportunity to acquire, on one item, autographs of both Yuri Gagarin and V. Komarov.

I've shown this autographed card to present an example of Komarov's autograph to use as a comparison to Ken's Komarov signed Kniga cover and as a reliable example of Komarov's autograph for reference purposes.

Here is an enlargement of the Komarov signature on the invitation card, along with a list of the five (6*) cosmonauts who signed the card. Below is information about the event (20th anniversary celebration of the Soviet victory over the German-Nazi invaders - with other signatures of WWII Soviet military heroes, front and back).