Russia: Komi Culture Center

This postcard is from Russian Komi Republic. It shows Komi Culture Center in capital city of Komi Republic, Syktyvkar.

The Komi first appear in the records of the Novgorod Republic in the 12th century, when Novgorodian (East Slavic) traders travelled to the Perm region in search of furs and animal hides. The Komi territories came under the influence of Muscovy in the late Middle Ages (late 15th to early 16th centuries). The site of Syktyvkar has been settled since the 16th century. In 1780, under Catherine the Great, it was used as a penal colony.

Starting from the expedition led by Alexander von Keyserling in 1843, the Komi territory was most extensively explored in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries by the Russians, who found ample reservoirs of various minerals, as well as timber, to exploit. After the founding of the Soviet Union, the Komi-Zyryan Autonomous Oblast was established on August 22, 1921, and on December 5, 1936, it was reorganized into the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

This postcard came in this prepay FDC dedicated to Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, top Soviet flying ace and a Marshal of the Soviet Air Force. There is also a stamp Moscow Kremlin, issued on 2009-10-01.

Thank You Eugene!