Volgograd villagers' mail held by neighbor amid postal shortage
According to residents, no one has been delivering mail and other correspondence to Raduzhny village for a long time.
Residents of Raduzhny village in Gorodishchensky District, Volgograd Oblast, have been waiting for letters for half a year due to a shortage of postal workers. Recently, they found out that their letters ended up in the hands of the chairman of a neighboring horticultural non-profit partnership (SNT). While some thanked the person for help, others wondered: what right did he have to take someone else«s personal correspondence? A well-known lawyer explained what residents should do in this situation.
As residents of Raduzhny told V1.RU, the day before, information appeared in the village chat that their letters were at the board of the SNT in a neighboring settlement.
«Good morning. Letters for Raduzhny village were handed over from the Nova Nadezhda post office. They can be picked up at the building of the SNT »Sputnik« board, Aeroport settlement.»
Residents immediately had questions: why did post office employees hand over their letters to a person unknown to them?
«I was given a huge bag of mail for the SNT »Sputnik« Aeroport, but when sorting the mail, among our letters, there were also ones for Raduzhny village. There are no registered letters among them, only simple letters. I have a power of attorney to receive correspondence for the SNT. But your letters got mixed in by mistake,» explained the chairman. «Are we going to argue about my authority, or will someone just take the mail and distribute it to the villagers?»
Residents said that in their village, they have neither a post office nor a postal worker. According to them, some haven«t received letters for half a year, others for 9 months. And if it weren»t for this chairman, it«s unknown how much longer they would have had to wait.
«In our village chat, an announcement appeared that letters for residents of Raduzhny village are at the dacha board in Aeroport settlement. A phone number was provided to call to pick up the letters. I called, gave my address. They said there are two letters for me. The letters were dated 17 August 2025. I also picked up a letter for neighbors; they had been waiting for it for 9 months from Belarus. There was no one to deliver it. There are no postal workers,» says a resident of Raduzhny. «The chairman explained: as a legal entity, they received letters for their SNT, and when they started sorting, they came across several letters for our village. We haven»t had a postal worker for a very long time. They don«t even bring us receipts.»
Well-known lawyer Natalya Popova advised residents to contact the Russian Post office, Roskomnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media), and the prosecutor«s office. It is unlikely to achieve moral compensation, but residents can demand an inspection.
«The situation with letters delayed for more than 9 months is a gross violation of postal communication legislation. Even if the letters are received, the violation itself hasn»t disappeared. You can and should act to have the violation recorded and those responsible held accountable. This will help prevent similar cases in the future. Here is a plan for further actions.«
Step 1: Official appeal to Russian Post
Step 2: Complaint to supervisory bodies: the prosecutor«s office and Roskomnadzor
Step 3: Collective appeal
V1.RU requested a comment from the press service of Russian Post on the situation with the letters and the absence of a postal worker in Raduzhny village. At the time of publication, no response had been received.
