A nice card with view on tsaristic Revel, the Estonian Tallinn. Also in the postmark is used РЕВЕЛЪ [REVEL], seems more on the German indication Reval.
Revel is in this period capital of the government ЭСТЛЯНДСКАЯ [EHSTLYANDSKAYA] ГУБЕРНIЯ [GUBERNIYA], Estonian Government.
In the English Baedeker of 1914 we read about Reval:
“Reval (45 ft.) or Ревелъ, Esth. Tallina or Tannilin (i.e. ‘Town of the Danes’), the capital of the government of Esthonia, contains 132,000 inhab. and is picturesquely situated on a bay of the Gulf of Finland. The town, which is more mediaeval in appearance than any other in the Baltic Provinces, is divided into three parts, the Upper Town or ‘Dom’ the Lower Town, and the Suburbs. The Dom lies on the Domberg, at the height of 140 ft. abopve the sea; the Lower Town, or town proper, the seat of the merchants and municipal authorities, extends from the Domberg to the sea, and is surrounded by promenades, the old bastions, and the tower-strengthened wall, dating from the 14th cent. and still well preserved in parts. The extensive Suburbs, beyond the town proper and extending along the shores of the bay, are the headquarters of a flourishing industrial activity.”
From: Russia / Baedeker 1914. – p. 74-75
In Baedeker: 1 ft. = English foot = 0.3048 metre.
The address-side of the card above with the postmark, 25 VII 1903, of ‘crossed date’-type with serial-number ‘2’ was in use 1900-1904.
At the top is indicated the town РЕВЕЛЪ [REVEL] and the government: ЭСТЛЯН [EHSTLYAN],short for ЭСТЛЯНДСКАЯ [EHSTLYANDSKAYA] Г. [G.], short for ГУБЕРНIЯ [GUBERNIYA], Estonian Government.
At the bottom of the postmark is placed information about the rank of the post office: ПОЧ. [POCHT.] ТЕЛ. [TEL.] КОНТ. [KONT.], short for Pochtovo Telegrafnaya Kontora, Post-telegraph office.