Šilutė 1870

This is a postal stationery of the North German Confederation / Norddeutscher Postbezirk sent in 1870 from Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) to Kinten (now Kintai, Lithuania), both located in Memelland. Actually "Norddeutscher Postbezirk" is the name for the postal area of the North German Confederation and not the state itself (it is officially: Norddeutscher Bund). Memelland was part of the Kingdom of Prussia which formed the Confederation in 1866 issuing their own stamps until 1870 before becoming the German Reich when the remaining southern Germanic states joined as well.
Heydekrug was the second largest town in Memelland and it has an interesting origin. According to Wikipedia, a guy named Georg Tallat purchased an inn together with the land and the fishing rights in 1511. "Heide" meaning: heathland and "Krug" meaning: inn, combining together in one word: Heydekrug.

Cancellations of Lit.SSR - 10

Gudžiūnai, Kauno apskritis (Kaunas County)
population: 491 (2011 census)

Gudžiūnai 1969

Lapiai, Klaipėdos apskritis (Klaipėda County)
population: 397 (2005 census)

Lapiai 1969

Lyduokiai, Vilniaus apskritis (Vilnius County)
population 142 (2011 census)

Lyduokiai 1973

Rozalimas, Šiaulių apskritis (Šiauliai County)
population: 928 (2001 census)

Rozalimas 1969

Stalgėnai, Telšių apskritis (Telšiai County)
population 465 (2001 census)

Stalgėnai 1969

Mažeikiai-Riga Railway post 1912

Муравьево / Muravjevo (now Mažeikiai, Lithuania) - Riga

Альт-Ауц / Alt-Autz (today Auce, Latvia)

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery with a railway post cancel of 1912, line 86 between Муравьево / Muravjevo (now Mažeikiai, Lithuania) and Riga which was also a part of Russia at that time. The destination of the card is Альт-Ауц / Alt-Autz, a German place name spelled in Russian alphabet. It sounds a bit weird but it was perfectly normal because the gubernia of Kurland was German speaking despite being part of the Russian Empire. The town  of Альт-Ауц / Alt-Autz is today simply called Auce, part of Latvia, just 5 km from the Lithuanian border and 25 km north east of Mažeikiai. I had been curious if "Neu-Autz" exists. If "Alt-" does, why not the "Neu-", and yes! it does actually. Wikipedia tells me it is Jaunauce which is literally the "New Auce", located just 4 km west of Auce.

Klaipėda 1941

Close up of the picture part

This is a real nice postal stationery featuring an image of Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) issued in 1941 as a part of a big series of beautiful places in the Third Reich. Memel is described as the northernmost city of Greater Germany in the text. It just makes me wonder where is the present northernmost city of Germany...
From my opinion, it would have been a perfect card if there wasn't the head of Hitler on the corner... Well, it's history, what can I do...

Kaunas 1941

Bilingual Ramygala / Рамигала arrival cancel

This is a postal stationery sent in 1941 from Kaunas to Ramygala, Lithuanian SSR. This card has much clearer postmarks than the previous one and the best part, is the Soviet Ramygala arrival cancel! I think I have written before but 1940-41 Soviet postmark of small Lithuanian towns are pretty hard to find. Again, on the back there is a Hebrew text which I have absolutely no idea what is it written about.

Krekenava 1941

Krekenava 1941?

This is a postal stationery sent most probably in 1941 from Krekenava to Ramygala, both a small Lithuanian town. Actually I'm not 100% sure about the year since the postmark is not that clear. The name of the place is obvious, the readable KREKEN- on the postmark with the address Krekenava written by the sender on the bottom. The date is III (March) 19-forty something. The first Soviet annexation of Lithuania is after June 1940 so it excludes the year 1940. The postal rate of 20 kopecks for a inland postcard is valid until 1948 so it should be sometime before that. Again I'm not 100 % sure but the use of the postmarker of the old Lithuanian First Republic is likely to be during the the first annexation between 1940 and 1941. Another reason why I think it is 1941 is that I have acquired another similar postal stationery sent in 1941 to the same recipient, which I'll be posting soon as well.

Klaipėda 1940

It is a very nice looking German commemorative postal stationery cancelled in 1940 in Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). The postmark is also a commemorative one, both for the occasion of the day of the postage stamp of January 7th 1940. The card has an old good German classic design which makes you almost forget that it has been issued under the Nazi regime.

Kupiškis 1911

This is an answer part of an Imperial Russian round trip double postal stationery sent in 1911 from Купишки / Kupishki (now Kupiškis, Lithuania),  Ков (Kovna gubernia) to ПоневѢж / Ponevezh (now Panevėžys, Lithuania). The text on the back is Jewish but the interesting part is that on the top, there is a name and an address in Chicago, US. I don't know if the sender is writing to this person or it is the sender himself since I can't read Jewish at all. Kupiškis appears in lot of prewar Jewish documents because they apparently had a large community there.

Klaipėda 1920

This is a postal stationery issued for Memelgebiet (Memel region) sent in 1920 from Memel (now Klaipėda, Lithuania) to Lobeda bei Jena, Thüringen, Germany. This is one of the two Germania overprinted postal stationery issued on September 1920. This 30 P stationery was for inland destination and the other was 40 P for foreign destination. These were valid only for 2 months which makes the used example pretty scarce. The rectangular violet cancel on the left of the postmark is the  Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) censorship stamp.

Krakės 1914

Postmark of Кроки / Kroki

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery sent in 1914 from Кроки / Kroki (now Krakės, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia) to Ковна / Kovna (now Kaunas, Lithuania). Кроки / Kroki is also the Polish name of the town but it was also known as Krok in Yiddish. The text on the back is written in Cyrillic but the last word at the bottom look like it's Jewish (or is it not? I'm not sure...). During the prewar Lithuanian Republic, it was also called Krakiai.

Sarapinai 1912

Царицыно / Tsaritsyno cancel and Ковна arrival cancel

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery sent in 1912 from Царицыно / Tsaritsyno (now Sarapinai, Lithuania), Ков (Kovna gubernia) to Ковна (now Kaunas, Lithuania), the capital of the gubernia. The name Царицыно / Tsaritsyno comes clearly from the term "Tsar", it is said that a Russian Tsar has stopped to have a rest during a trip to Germany because the village is conveniently located at the middle of the old road linking Kaunas to Kudirkos Naumiestis which was the major gateway to Eastern Prussia. Today the village is called Sarapinai, belongs to Marijampolės apskritis / Marijampolė County and counts only 33 inhabitants according to the 2001 census but back in the prewar period, there was a much larger Jewish and Polish population living there.

Joniškis 1913

Hebrew text on the back

from Янишки / Yanishki to Двинск / Dvinsk

This is a postal stationery sent in 1913 from Янишки / Yanishki (now Joniškis, Lithuania), Ков (Kovno gubernia) to Двинск / Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia). Nice arrival cancel of Двинск город.  / Dvinsk city! It has again the old manuscript looking Jewish text on the back which was the major reason why I bought this card in the first place. Prewar Joniškis had a large number of Jewish people with some fine Synagogues which were very recently restored.

Linkuva 1912?

This is an Imperial Russian postal stationery sent from Линково / Linkovo (now Linkuva, Lithuania), Ков (Kovno gubernia) to Riga. From the postmark it looks like it is 1912 but I'm not 100% sure. On the bottom left of the front, there is a part of Riga arrival machine cancel with the typical three lines. Unfortunately, the card has traces of folds but the Hebrew text on the back makes it look like an Indiana Jones old manuscript! I have absolutely no knowledge of the Hebrew language though...

Lauksargiai 1941

This is a German semi-postal stationery sent in 1941 from Laugszargen (now Lauksargiai, Lithuania) to Göttingen, Germany. It has a nice commemorative cancel of "Rückführung der Volksdeutschen aus Litauen" which can be translated as the repatriation of ethnic Germans from Lithuania. Laugszargen was a town in former Memelgebiet with a railway station bordering Lithuania. When it was re-annexed by the Third Reich in 1939, it served has repatriation gate to Germany for the ethnic Germans living in Lithuania.

Ukmergė 1899

Вилыкомıр / Vilkomir (now Ukmergė, Lithuania) 

Бердичев / Berdichev, Киевская губерния / Kiev gubernia

Клинцы / Klintsy,  Черниговская губерния / Chernigov gubernia

ГордѢевка / Gordejevka, Черниговская губерния / Chernigov gubernia

This is a postal stationery sent in 1899 from Вилыкомıр / Vilkomir (now Ukmergė, Lithuania) to ГордѢевка / Gordejevka, Черниговская губерния (Chernigov gubernia), now spelled Гордеевка / Gordeevka in modern Russian. What's interesting about this cover is not the front but rather the back of the cover with multiple of postmarks for a non-registered, non-express just regular domestic postal transaction. It is a bit confusing for the readers who are not really familiar with cyrillic alphabets so I'm gonna first list down the postmarks in chronological order:

1. front: Вилыкомıр / Vilkomir (now Ukmergė, Lithuania) 3 February 1899
2. back: Бердичев / Berdichev, Киевская губерния / Kiev gubernia (now Бердичів / Berdychiv, Ukraine) 8 February 1899 - the postmark uses the abbreviation "Киевск. г." / Kievsk. g.
3. back: Клинцы / Klintsy, Черниговская губерния / Chernigov gubernia, (now it is part of Bryansk Oblast, Russian Federation) 9 February 1899 - the postmark uses the abbreviation "Черниг. г." / Chernig. g.
4. back: ГордѢевка / Gordejevka, Черниговская губерния / Chernikov gubernia (now Гордеевка / Gordeevka, Bryansk Oblast, Russian Federation) 10 February 1899 - the postmark uses the abbreviation "Черниг. г." / Chernig. g.

What I don't get in this, is: why sending via Kiev gubernia? It's probably easier to understand if I post a map so I've looked the driving route from Бердичів / Berdychiv, Ukraine to Гордеевка / Gordeevka, Russia on Google map with Vilnius on it as well. Here it is:

Car route from Berdychev to Gordeevka via Kiev and Klintsy on Google map

Looking on this map, you can see this totally wasted and useless 500km journey by sending first to Berdychiv, Ukraine. I do not have any concrete evidence but after couple days of research, I have come up with 2 possible reasons.
Normally, most of the mail going from Vilnius to Chernigov gubernia at that time, it would go via Minsk and Gomel which is pretty much a straight line and literally the shortest way, there was even a railway post for it. For some reason, it couldn't take this route and instead went through the railway post Vilnius - Rovno (now Rivne, Ukraine). Berdychiv is located in the middle of the railway line Rovno - Kiev, itself has a station and is an important railway junction. But it still doesn't explain why Berdychiv and not a Kiev or Rovno connection postmark.
Now the second possible reason. When I was looking at Berdychiv on an old Imperial Russian map I was very confused to find a town called Гордевка / Gordevka (now Гордіївка / Gordiivka, Ukraine) right next to Berdychiv. Doesn't it sound familiar? Gordeevka, Russia and Gordevka, Ukraine, I think that it could have been a simple mistake of destination by the post office.

Whatever the conclusion, I really had fun researching those locations and the postmarks. That what really counts anyway, isn't it?