My coworker who shared the postcards from Africa also passed along this one from Russia– postmarked 1984.  When doing my sleuthing about the background for these stamps I got stuck.  I assumed, in my post-Cold War reality, that they were Olympic commemorative stamps.  Of course, I’d forgotten that the Russians, and other Communist countries, boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games.

Instead, the Eastern Bloc held Friendship Games.  The stamps where issued by Russia to commemorate those games.  I knew that the Russians, Cubans, and other countries boycotted the 1984 Olympics– even if it didn’t come instantly to my mind.  However, I did not know about/remember the Friendship Games.  According to Wikipedia:

Some fifty states took part in the competition. While the the boycotting countries were represented by their strongest athletes, other states sent their reserve teams, consisting of athletes who failed to qualify for Los Angeles.

The things philately can teach you… clearly I need to brush up on my Cold War history.