The Lenin Volga-Don Shipping Canal, connecting the Volga River (which flows into the Caspian Sea) and the Don River (which flows into the Black Sea) at their closest points, near today's Volgograd, was constructed between 1938 and 1952 (with an interruption between 1941 and 1945 because of the Eastern Front campaign). The canal and its facilities were mostly built by gulag prisoners. In 1952 (a year before Stalin's death) the number of convicts employed in construction topped 100,000.
This artificial waterway is 101km long and practically provides a connection between the landlocked Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, and thus the world's oceans. The east end of the canal is located at the south of Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn (1589-1925), and Stalingrad (1925-1961), famous for its resistance during the Battle of Stalingrad against the German Army in WWII.
At the tip of the forested Sarpinsk peninsula, on the south side of Volgograd and the west side of the entrance from the Volga to the canal, was built in 1953 a lighthouse to honor Volga sailors who fought to protect the city during the Russian Revolution in 1918-1919 and during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943. It is a 26m-tall square concrete tower with a round, colonnaded chamber topped by a gallery.
About the stamps
The first stamp is part of a set of two issued on September 23, 2015, which is part of the series Sea Fleet of Russia. The last stamp is part of the series Decorative-Applied Arts of Dagestan, issued on December 18, 2008.
References
Volgograd - Wikipedia
Volga-Don Canal - Wikipedia
Lighthouses of Russia: Volga and Don - The University of North Carolina official website
Sender: Marina / Maryasha (postcrossing) RU-4123506
Ssent from Khabarovsk (Khabarovsk Krai / Russia), on 06.11.2015
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