Canceled stamps which appear to depict the 9th Soviet Antarctic Expedition — led by Dr. Mikhail Somov — and a moon mission (possibly the Soviet Luna program; I wish I could read Russian).
Something to note in these stamps — and the others posted throughout this week — are the similarities in graphic design. Generally, the negative space is employed to graphically depict a macroscopic aspect of the subject (ie, what the person or program was about) while the foreground is dedicated to microscopic visual aspects of the subject (ie, specific portraiture, wildlife, technology, etc).
Update 2009-02-09: I’ve uploaded an enlargement of the Antarctic Expedition stamps.
Update 2009-02-10: Many thanks to Saintneko and the artists of the Li’l Nyet web comic for furnishing a translation of these stamps in the comments below!
