Foreword to The Bibliography of Philatelic Bulletins Published on Territory of The Czech Republic
In 1999, Mr. Bretislav Janik prepared his Bibliography of Periodic Philatelic Literature published on territory of the Czech Republic from 1869 to 2000, which was displayed on his web site. I was very happy about the work, but I missed some philatelic bulletins there. By the words ”some bulletins” I mean journals published by various philatelic sections/societies of Union of Czech Philatelists. These bulletins were not aviable to philatelic public, they were issued only for members of the organizations, but they contain a lot of interesting philatelic information.
The start of the existence of the bulletins was year 1962, when the first commission of Union of Czechoslovak Philatelists (Postal History Commission) was created in connection to the first world philatelic exhibition PRAGA 62 . In the next year another commissions were established, which got own chapters in the at that time only Czechoslovak philatelic journal FILATELIE (e.g. the Commission for Topic Philately got such chapter in 1963 and the one existed until 1966) .
The commissions established in 1966 – 1967 first philatelic sections . The philatelic sections started to publish philatelic bulletins soon after their establishing as communication channel for their members, who were situated on whole Czechoslovak territory. The first philatelic sections were as follows :
- topic sections: Space, Bohemoslovenica and Art on stamps
- territorial sections : Eastern Germany and Soviet Union
- postal history : postal stationary section .
Destinies of the bulletins and sections were different : some of them had only short existence, they were closed up, re-established, they moved for another regions to be nearer to their members, they changed their names, they were divided and merged .... . Important change occurred in 1990, when philatelic movement (and not only this one) lose ”political support” and thanks to the luck of money and member ´s activity some of the section were closed up . Another point with important influence on Czecho-Slovak philatelic life was 1993, when the former Czechoslovakia was divided to Czech Republic and Slovak Republic and the philatelic sections were splitted into two national philatelic unions – Svaz ceskych filatelistu (Union of Czech Philatelists) and Zväz slovenských filatelistov (Union of Slovak Philatelists) . In 1993 all the sections consisted of members from both countries, but in the meantime collectors registred in sections in their home country . We also have to say, that there are sections, which can be hardly marked as Czech or Slovak - e.g. topic section Fire Protection, which was long time registered in Prague, but their bulletin was written in Slovak language or the postal history section Registered Labels, which is officially registered in the Czech Republic, but editor of its bulletin lives in Slovak Republic.
I have listed only bulletins with sufficient quantity of information about them (or bulletins I know that more information is not aviable for various reasons) , but you will find here some to me unknown data as well . An integral part of the bibliography is the list of bulletins which are known to me, but I don ´t have enough information about them. Of course, I will be happy, if you have any information about them ! This my work has been published on Internet to be allowed to up date it, which I will do every time, I will find sufficient quantity of information about new bulletins (or some additional information about the yet listed bulletins) .
Here you will find information about philatelic bulletins established after Jan. 1, 2001
At the end I would like to express my best thanks to all collectors, who helped me with looking for information about the bulletins and who spent a lot of their time with the activity.
Thank to all of you !!!