Russia Postal Code: The 6-Digit Index Explained

A Russian postal code (in Russian, "pochtovy indeks") is a six-digit number with no letters or spaces, for example 190000 or 101000. The first three digits identify the city or regional sorting area and the last three point to the individual post office that serves the street. You can look any address up on the official Russian Post website, pochta.ru, by typing in the city, street and house number.

If you are sending a parcel, the code genuinely matters, because mail is sorted by it. If you are sending flowers with a courier, it matters far less than people expect: what gets a bouquet to the door is the street, house, building, entrance, flat and a working phone number. Below I explain how the index is built, how to find the right one, and which details we actually ask for when you order a delivery to someone in Russia.

How a Russian postal code is built

Every Russian index has exactly six digits. The system dates back to the Soviet Union in the early 1970s, and the logic has stayed the same: the first three digits describe a large sorting zone, usually a regional capital and the territory around it, and the last three digits name the specific post office. Large cities get several three-digit prefixes because one zone is not enough for millions of addresses.

A few examples make the pattern easy to see. Moscow codes start with 101 to 129, and 101000 is the Moscow main post office. St Petersburg codes run from 190 to 199, with 190000 as the city's main office. Codes for Novosibirsk begin with 630, Yekaterinburg with 620, Kazan with 420. When you see a code ending in 000, it almost always belongs to a central or main post office rather than to a residential street.

That last point trips up a lot of people abroad. Many online forms ask for a postcode and people type the first general code they find for the city, such as 190000. For a letter that can cause a delay, because it lands at the central office and has to be re-sorted. The correct code for a home address is the one of the post office that serves that particular house.

How to find the right code for a specific address

The most reliable source is the address search on pochta.ru, the Russian Post site. Type the city, street and house number in Russian or transliteration, and it returns the index of the serving office. If the search does not recognise an English spelling, try the Russian street name: "ulitsa" is street, "prospekt" is avenue, "pereulok" is lane, "naberezhnaya" is embankment, "shosse" is highway.

The easiest source of all is the recipient. Russians write their index on every utility bill and parcel form, so your mother, friend or colleague will know it by heart or can find it in seconds. Asking is also a good moment to check the rest of the address, which matters more for a courier than the code itself.

New buildings are the one case where lookups fail. Housing estates on the edges of Moscow and St Petersburg can take months to appear in post office databases, so if the search returns nothing, use the index of the nearest older building on the same street and ask the recipient to confirm it. For a courier, the exact entrance and flat matter more, and our guide on adding a flat number and entry code to a Russian address shows how to write them.

Bouquets we can deliver

Bouquet of 1 yellow sunflowers

$13

Bouquet of 3 white roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 red roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Bouquet of 3 pink roses with eucalyptus, 50 cm

$18

Writing a Russian address in the right order

Russian Post recommends writing the recipient's name first, then the street, house and flat, then the town, region and the six-digit index, and the country last when sending from abroad. In everyday Russian you will also see the reverse order, starting with the index and city, and both are understood. For an international parcel, add "Russia" or "Russian Federation" on the last line in English.

Russian addresses carry details that rarely exist elsewhere, and these are the ones that decide whether a courier finds the right door. "Dom" is the house number, "korpus" (abbreviated k.) is a building within the same plot, "stroenie" (str.) is a structure, "podyezd" is the entrance or stairwell, "etazh" is the floor and "kvartira" (kv.) is the flat. A typical line looks like: ul. Lenina, d. 12, k. 2, kv. 47.

Large Soviet-era blocks can have ten or more entrances, each with its own intercom. Without the entrance number and the door code, a courier standing in the courtyard may need to call around before getting in. We cover this in detail in Flat Number and Entry Code: Getting Your Flowers Delivered Right.

Do you need a postal code to send flowers to Russia?

For a bouquet, the index is a useful check rather than a requirement. Our couriers navigate by street and house number, not by post office zones, so a wrong or missing code will not stop the delivery. What does matter is that the street name is spelled so that we can recognise it, and that there is a phone number for the recipient.

Here is the list that actually gets flowers delivered on time: the city, the full street address with house and building number, entrance, floor, flat and intercom code, the recipient's name and phone number, and the date and time you want. If you only know part of this, write what you have in the order comment and we will clarify the rest.

The postcode does help in one situation: when two streets in different districts share a name, which happens often. Moscow alone has several Sadovaya and Sovetskaya streets. If you send the index along with the address, it removes the doubt in a second.

Ordering a bouquet to a Russian address with us

We deliver flowers across Russia. Delivery within a city costs 500 RUB; for remote districts and suburbs, the operator confirms the price when confirming your order. You pay online on the site by bank card, SBP or Yandex Pay, and the full terms are on the Delivery and payment page.

In large cities we can deliver within 1-2 hours after the order is confirmed. You can also choose an exact time (plus or minus 30 minutes), a time window of 09-12, 12-15, 15-18 or 18-21, or place the order 1-30 days ahead, which is useful when you are planning around a birthday or an anniversary from another time zone.

The courier calls the recipient about 15 minutes before arriving. If nobody is home, we agree a second delivery the same day or, with your consent, leave the flowers with a neighbour or concierge. Delivery is anonymous by default, so the courier will not name you unless you want them to, and a card with your text is free.

If the address is unfamiliar or you are unsure about the entrance code, message our manager on WhatsApp. They can help you choose a bouquet, agree the time, address and card text, and send a photo of the bouquet before it goes out.

A florist's tips for the timing and the bouquet

Plan the time window around the recipient's day rather than your own clock. Moscow and St Petersburg are on UTC+3 all year, while Novosibirsk is four hours ahead of Moscow and Vladivostok seven. A morning window of 09-12 suits retired parents; for someone who works, 18-21 means they are home to open the door and put the flowers in water straight away.

In the cold months, a short wait on a doorstep matters more than the postcode. Roses, chrysanthemums and carnations cope with a few minutes in the cold if they are wrapped, but tulips and hydrangeas are more delicate, so a precise time slot and a correct intercom code are worth the extra minute when you order.

Remember the Russian custom of odd numbers: a bouquet with an even number of stems is traditionally for funerals. If you are choosing from our bouquets catalogue, the composed arrangements already follow this, so you only need to think about it when ordering loose stems.