Vilnius 1941 - Postcard of Trakai

This is a postcard of Troki (now Trakai, Lithuania) sent in 1941 from Vilnius, part of German occupied Ostland to Riga, which was also part of the same territory. It has a nice simple single Hindenburg stamp franking with a postmark of Vilnius C. dated 14 XI 1941. As I've already mentioned in the past in this blog,  regular Reich stamps were also valid along with the Ostland overprinted stamps. It looks like the text is written in Russian and the slightly visible trace of red ink on the upper left corner of the stamp is probably hand stamped censorship mark. It is interesting that Polish postcards with Polish inscriptions are still available for the local market considering the place was under German occupation which often replaced anything printed in the local language by their own productions.

Riga-Kybartai Railway post 1928 - Postcard of Dainų šventė in Kaunas 1924

Dainų šventė in Kaunas 1924 (high resolution)

T.P.O. (Pašto vagonas) Ryga - Kybartai 1928

This is postcard send in 1928 by the railway post Ryga (Lithuanian spelling for Riga, the Latvian capital city) - Kybartai from Kėdainiai to France. It is a real picture postcard and shows the Lithuanian traditional song festival called Dainų šventė. The one on the picture is the first one held in Kaunas in 1924, the Lithuanian version of Wikipedia for the entry "Dainų šventė" shows a picture of the same event taken from a slightly different angle.

Vilnius 1926

This is a postcard sent in 1926 from Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Dordrecht, Netherlands. The picture shows the church of the Holy Trinity of the Basilian Monastery taken by the photographer Jan Bułhak. The card has not been franked for the regular postcard postal tariff but as "Druki", meaning "printed matter" in Polish.

Kaunas 1941

This super ordinary looking simple postcard is actually a pretty rare stuff. This is a postcard sent in August 31st 1941 from Kauen, Ostland (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to a unreadable location. The card is stampless, no indication of any kind that it is a military field post and no sign nor trace of any stamp being soaked. Actually, this is exactly how it supposed to be. According to "Deutsche Dienstpost 1939-1945 Handbuch und Stempelkatalog" written by Dr. H. Schultz, The post office of Deutsche Dienstpost Ostland in Kaunas opened in 26 July 1941, banned the use of the Lithuanian overprinted Nepriklausoma issue (at least in Kaunas) and established their own postal network. The German Reich stamps were introduced in September 1941 and finally at November 4th 1941, they have issued the overprinted Ostland Hitler stamps. The postcard in question has been used during this very short stampless period between 26 July and 1 September.

Zarasai 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova

This is a maximum card of a Russian astronaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Валентина Владимировна Терешкова) cancelled in Zarasai, Lithuania S.S.R. in 1963 which is also the year this stamp has been issued. I have seen many maximum cards but most of them are cancelled in Vilnius or Kaunas so I was a bit surprised to see a Zarasai one. According to Wikipedia, Valentina  Tereshkova was the first female ever to have flown in space. But why a Zarasai postmark? I don't know...

Nida 1942

Postmark of Nidden (Ostpr) / (East Prussia)

This is a lovely postcard of a moose sent in 1942 from Nidden (now Nida, Lithuania) to I think... Lublin (or is it Berlin?). I guess I've posted a postcard of a moose sent from Memel before on this blog but here we go again! I really don't know why there are so many moose in this region, it was even the symbol of the city Tilsit with the famous statue of a moose which you see sometime on old postcards. Not only it has a very neat postmark but I've found it with a price of 5 euros so I just couldn't resist from buying it.

Vilnius 1926

Aušros Vartai / Ostrabrama / Gate of the Dawn

This is a postcard sent in 1926 from Wilno (now Vilnius. Lithuania) during the Polish rule to Argentan in the department of Orne in France. The church in the picture is the Church of the Holy Spirit / Šventosios Dvasios bažnyčia which belongs to the Dominican monastery in Vilnius. There is a hand stamped letter "T" in the back which is the abbreviation for Taxe Perçue in French meaning postage paid, this is because the postage stamp has been franked on the other side. The fact that the postcard has been sent from the post office Wilno 2 but the sender's return address is in Oszmiany (now Ашмяны / Ashmiany, Belarus) is interesting. The illustration on the brown one grosz stamp is the Gate of Dawn / Aušros Vartai in Vilnius also known as Ostrabrama in Polish.

Vilnius 1915

This is a postcard sent in 1915 from Вильно/Vilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to... somewhere in Russia, I'm not really sure. The picture is a nice panorama of Vilnius during the reign of Russia, most probably taken from the top of the bell tower of the university towards the direction of the present hill of the crosses. The postmark is the oval railway post Вильно Вокзаль / Vilno vokzal (Vilno railway station). It is very interesting that some of the Russian cancels show Вильно/Vilno, the Polish name of the city, but there are also Вильна / Vilna in Russian.

Preila 1939

Kurische Haff / Kuršių marios / Curonian lagoon

Unfortunately the edge had been cut out for some reason but I didn't hesitate to buy this postcard because of the rare postmark. It is a postcard send in 1939 by the German Landpost from Preil (now Preila, Lithuania) to... I think Berlin O. (Ost) but I'm not sure. It could be Lublin as well, at the time part of the German occupied Poland. Landpost is a German postal service provided for an area without a post office. It usually has a violet rectangular cancel without date and a regular round cancel of the affiliating post office sometime with the inscription "Land". Most of those rectangular cancels carry an extra information like "Kreis ???" as you see in this case or "über ??? (nearby town's name)" because the area served by the Landpost is in most of the case a remote area of some kind or almost without inhabitant. There was no post office in Preila during the Memelgebiet period as well as the WWII reannexation period. As far as I know, there is no comprehensive list of the former Memelland Landpost postmarks ever published so if you do know something, please let me know, I would greatly appreciate it!

Šiauliai 1916

Schaulen - Postamt / Šiauliai - Post office

This is a German military field post (Feldpost) card of the post office building in Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) sent in 1916 to Bremen, Germany during the WWI German occupation. The postcard tells us only that it is a post office in Šiauliai so I'm sure about exactly which post office it is referring to but I can tell you for sure that it is not the main post office building used during the Imperial Russian time. It is most probably a building occupied by the German military not far from the railway station and used to house the field post office. The card itself has been sent from the field post of the 41st infantry division.

Žagarė 1924

This is a Russian new year's postcard locally used in 1924 within the town of Žagarė. I know the card is not in perfect shape but I bought it anyway because it is damaged in a right way which gives somehow an authenticity of the antiqueness. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. Žagarė is definitely not a big town so it is in a way unusual to see a locally used card. But why use a new year card on 29th of February? hm... beats me... I know that the Russians used to celebrate new year in January 17 (or are they still?) according to the Gregorian calender but still there is a big gap between February 29.

Šakiai 1941

prewar Šakių „Žiburio“ gimnazija

Šakiai 1941

This is a postcard sent in 1941 from Šakiai to Berlin - Steglitz, Germany, during the first Soviet annexation. The picture of the postcard is Šakių „Žiburio“ gimnazija („Žiburys“ gymnasium in Šakiai) taken sometime in prewar period. This gymnasium still exists today in Šakiai and is still up running. The red hand-stamped seal is the Third Reich censorship seal. Postcards during the first Soviet annexation 1940-41 is pretty rare, especially when it comes to regional towns.

Smalininkai 1906

Schmalleningken (now Smalininkai) - Hotel Deutsches Haus and the pier

TPO Bahnpost Pogegen - Schmalleningken / Pagėgiai - Smalininkai

This is a postcard sent in 1906 from Schmalleningken (now Smalininkai, Lithuania), East Prussia to Санкт-Петербург / Sankt-Peterburg, Russia. Schmalleningken was an important center on the eastern edge of Memelland having a pier facing Memel / Nemunas River and a railway connection. The postmark is a railway post (Bahnpost) of the line Pogegen (now Pagėgiai, Lithuania) - Schmalleningken. The picture of the postcard is also interesting as well, with the large steam boat "Herold" with lots of passengers getting ready to leave the pier in front of the hotel Deutsches Haus.

Kaunas 1920 - Postcard of Zapyškis

This is a postcard of Szapjeshischki (now Zapyškis, Lithuania) sent in 1920 from Kaunas to Germany. The German name Szapjeshischki probably comes from the Polish name of Zapyškis which is Sapieżyszki. The church you see on the picture is what makes this little town with a population of 250 famous, one of the finest surviving example of a gothic structure in Lithuania. If you ever have a chance to visit Kaunas by your own transportation, I would strongly recommend to make a short detour through Zapyškis to see this church of St. John the Baptist.

Panevėžys 1953 - Postcard of Preila (former Preil, Memelgebiet)

Settlement of Preila by P. Karpavičius

This is a postcard of Preila (former Preil, Memelgebiet) published in 1948, sent in 1953 from Паневежис / Panevėžys, Lithuania SSR to Киев / Kiev, Ukraine SSR. Preila is a small settlement on the Curonian Spit (Kuršių Nerija) between Nida and Klaipėda, In recent years Preila became a popular tourist destination with numerous cozy small hotels using renovated old houses like the ones you see on the picture of the postcard. I very much recommend if you ever have a chance to spend a night in the region.

Vilnius 1959

This is another Soviet maximum card commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Komsomol. Komsomol, according to Wikipedia, was the youth division of the Soviet Communist Party. It is actually an abbreviation of Коммунисти́ческий сою́з молодёжи (Kom-munisticheskii So-yuz Mol-odyozhi). The postmark is a regular Vilnius cancel of 1959, so it means that it wasn't the 40th but 41st anniversary when this card was made since the stamp was issued on 1958. I very much like this card, it visually has "the typical" look of a communist propaganda poster of the 1950's.

Vilnius 1959 - Alexander Pushkin

This is a maximum card of Alexander Pushkin cancelled in 1959 in Vilnius. A maximum card is a postcard with a cancelled postage stamp with the same topic. This one is about Alexander Pushkin, probably the best known Russian poet. Pushkin is actually not totally irrelevant to Vilnius, his great-grand father Hannibal (or Gannibal), a black African believed to be from somewhere in Cameroon, came to Vilnius with his master the emperor Peter the Great and was baptized there in 1705. The church where he has been baptized, St. Paraskeva Church, still stands today in old town of Vilnius and has a memorial plate of the event on the outer wall. Although Alexander himself never lived there, the Pushkin family house and estate (his son Gregory and the wife Barbara lived and died there) is preserved and now serves as a museum of the poet.
The postmark commemorates the 100 years of the establishment of telegraph in Vilnius.

Vilnius 1931

Wilno Katedra by J. Bułhak

A postcard of the Vilnius cathedral sent in 1931 from the post office Wilno 2 to Myszkowiec, Poland. The picture is a work of a famous Polish photographer Jan Bułhak (1876–1950), described in Wikipedia as a pioneer of the Polish photography. I have seen many postcard using his work, who knows how many there are. The Polish postal authority even issued a stamp of his work.

Picture of the St Casimir chapel inside the Vilnius Cathedral