I was sent this card because I like flowers but the interest has turned out to be in wondering what the card is about. Its title is "Sunday 9 July 1989", it appears to be a Russian newspaper, and it looks like Gorbachev in the partly obscured picture. I can find nothing specific that happened on that date, although 1989 was a time of great upheavals for Eastern Europe.
If it means anything to any of you, I'd be interested to hear.
This is a post for Postcard Friday, which is hosted by Beth Niquette at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.
Wikipedia - July 9–July 12 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush travels to Poland and Hungary, pushing for U.S. economic aid and investment.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the date wwas meaningful to whomever created the card or for whom it was created.
I'm just glad the paper has flowers inside and not fish 'n' chips!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting mystery.
"in July 1989, in a speech to the Council of Europe, Gorbachev insisted on "the sovereign right of each people to choose their own social system," a formulation that fell just short of repudiating the Brezhnev Doctrine. By then, however, the Soviet Union's control over its outer empire already was showing signs of disintegration." from
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mongabay.com/history/russia/russia-new_thinking_foreign_policy_under_gorbachev_gorbachev's_first_year.html
And later in the summer East Germans starting escaping into Hungary. A speech foresseing the end of the Soviet Union?
Sorry this is so long.
interesting card ... always fun to look for an answer to a mystery! Happy PFF!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting!! I love to wonder about these things.
ReplyDeleteI don't really recall anything of international significance on this particular date. I was a HS senior around this time and all I can remember is that the song "If you don't know me by now" by the boy group Simply Red was very popular. In tennis terms (which I am a huge fan), the Germans were the champions in the men's and ladies singles. Boris Becker beat Stefan Edberg; Steffi Graf beat Martina Navratilova in the 1989 Wimbledon's finals :)
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The U.S. President's trip (which began on that Sunday) to the Warsaw Pact countries of Poland and Hungary was seen by the world as an overture or the beginning of a "courtship" to former Soviet bloc countries.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't know the significance of having the flowers wrapped in a newspaper instead of just regular wrapping paper. Unless it was common for flower vendors to wrap flowers in newspaper in the Soviet Union. We need to find someone who can read the Russian headlines. Can't find a cyrillic alphabet auto-translator online.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember anything really historical happened on that July 9, 1989,but I do know that I was in my junior high. :D
ReplyDeleteI sometimes don't remember what happened yesterday (that's an old person's joke although sometimes it's true!!) so won't try to come up with an answer. However, it's a really cool card and I enjoy it. Carol
ReplyDeleteWell, I was 7 years old during the year 1989, LOL. Other than that, I can't remember anything. I love sending and receiving postcards. Mine is up - My PFF Entry. Thanks for sharing and Happy PFF!
ReplyDeletePS the newspaper is Pravda, the state newspaper of the times.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting card... Happy PFF... Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteInteresting card, Sheila!
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your input into the mystery, especially Viridian for the interesting links. And Sreisaat for the tennis history. :)
ReplyDeleteTo me the flowers look like the bunches left in commemoration at a place where someone has died. It may be mourning the demise of the USSR.
I'd already been living in the San Francisco area thirteen years in 1989!
ReplyDeleteHow do we send you a postcard, Sheila? Of course, I have nothing really interesting.
In the old days, when I traveled, I used to send postcards to myself, to see how long it would take for them to get here and to have a special momento of my journey.
A bouquet of red carnations means deep and devoted love and admiration from the sender - Years ago flowers, lunches, fish n' chips and anything else that needed a cover were commonly wrapped in newspaper - but I don't know the meaning behind that particular newspaper. Nice mystery to get us all thinking!
ReplyDeleteinteresting. It would be funny if it turns out the paper does not mean anything-just something he grabbed from a pile. But that's just me :P
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the lost meaning, it is a lovely card.
ReplyDeleteGetting a reply after 3 years must be weird, but I'm sorry I just couldn't help it:) The reason behind having the flowers wrapped in a newspaper is quite simple: there was no other wrapping paper in the Soviet Union. It was either celluloid wrapping or old newspaper. My father always bought flowers in celluloid wrapper, but my grandfather only ever used the newspaper because he didn't see any reason to spend money on something that gets thrown away as soon as the flowers are brought home. Also, if I remember correctly, carnations were among the cheapest flowers available. The red carnation in the Soviet Union was also the symbol of the revolution (and maybe, probably, it was also cheap? I don't remember), and it was customary to give them on more official occasions, like being celebrated as an "udarnik" - superproductive worker. I never loved red carnations because of that. They always seemed to have a slight veneer of officialism to me. Being wrapped into the Pravda Newspaper (the leading newspaper of the Soviet Union that only ever wrote what was approved by the Party), the bouquet truly looks like a tribute to the Soviet Union.
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