I think I mentioned before I had got some stamp catalogs as part of a little puzzle contest. I got those in the mail yesterday. I emailed the guy who sent them to thank him, and mentioned the kids were from Russia and that I'd peek through the Russian stamps to see if any were specific to their areas. He's very much into stamp collecting, and he said this about Russian stamps.

"Russia is the single leader hands down for the most prolific issuer of
stamps. They issue a big set every few days, it seems. Many are more
for collectors, and hard to find actually used on mail. But I think
Russia was up to Scott # 6000 while the US had barely hit 2000. Other
Eastern bloc countries, bulgaria for one, also had large numbers, but
none approaching Russia. It is a daunting country to collect!

One of my favorite Russian stamps is the one they issued to honor
Samantha Smith, the 10-year-old American girl who wrote to Andropov in
1983 and was invited to visit Russia as his guest. This led to her
being in a TV series with Robert Wagner, then she was tragically killed,
with her father, in a plane crash. She had become a heroine to the
Russians, who were heartbroken and issued a stamp with her likeness.
(in 1985, so not in the '82 catalog, alas.)"