Vilnius 1940

This is a registered cover sent in 1940 from Vilnius 4 during the Soviet occupation period to the Swiss capital Bern. It has a nice arrival cancel of Bern on the back. It even has a letter inside still but unfortunately my Polish sucks therefore I'm unable to tell you guys what is it written about... Given the fact that the Soviet took Vilnius by force from the Poles, I can imagine that the Polish author of this letter (it's obvious from his Polish name and the Polish text) didn't just write a "what's up dude"-kinda letter but rather a serious one. The interesting part is that he wrote his address as "Vilnius, Latvia", which makes it look like he probably isn't from Vilnius/Wilno originally. It is indeed pretty confusing for those who is not familiar with Lithuania's name in other languages, Most worldwide stamp collectors probably know that Lietuva is the Lithuanian name for Lithuania as you can see on their postage stamps but it sounds and looks closer to Latvia than Lithuania. I actually don't know why is it called Lithuania in English...

Vilnius 1941

January 1941 Vilnius during Soviet occupation

August 1941 Vilnius during German occupation

Along with the Paberžė cancelled stamps I have posted last time, I have got these Vilnius ones as well so I thought I might as well post them. The top one was cancelled on January 1941, still under Soviet control, and the one on the bottom was cancelled in Vilnius as well on August 1941 when the German occupation has already started there. Definitive stamps can sometime be really interesting to collect!

Kudirkos Naumiestis 1941

Wow... I mean, this was a pure coincidence that I did bump up to such Soviet stamps. Who would expect to see a 1941 Kudirkos Naumiestis postmark on a Soviet definitive, just like that... More over, the date is June 22nd 1941, day one of the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Soviet Union. Kudirkos Naumiestis was located near to the German border at that time so probably by the end of the day, the entire city was on the German hands which means that it is also the final day of the first Soviet Annexation of Lithuania and their postal service as well of course. It seems like they weren't using CCCP postmark but the old "Naumiestis Trg." postmarker from the first Lithuanian Republic which was pretty common in regional towns at that time. The stamps still have gum on the back which suggests that it is a CTO. I have once read an article about a German Dienstpost Ostland post office worker in Tallinn, Estonia, cancelling stamps with CTO on the last minute before closing down the post office in 1944 when Soviet troops were about to reach the city. I don't know about Kudirkos Naumiestis but I can believe if something similar happened there as well.

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.

Kaunas 1941

Kaunas 1941 during the first Soviet annexation

Nazi censorship seal on the back of the cover

Postmark Kaunas Central 1941 with a 1940 Soviet stamp

This is an interesting cover sent in January 1941 from Kaunas during the first Soviet annexation to Frýdek-Místek, at the time, part of the German occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Very luckily, I have been in contact with one of the descendant of the relative of the sender of the cover, Dr. Oto (Otto) Landsberger, a Czech-Jewish Frýdek-Místek native, who traveled to Lithuania from 1940 to 1941 to help the situation. According to his memoir (unpublished), he often wrote to his relatives including his son Fritz who stayed in Frýdek-Místek. His 1940-45 journey that led him ultimately to Lebanon is really incredible.
The sender spells his hometown "Friedeberg Místek" which I think he deliberately misspelled it as part of the protest to the German authority without getting too much attention. The German name for Frýdek is Friede(c)k and Místek was Freiberg.

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.

Recent Acquisitions

Here are some of the recent acquisitions of stamps:

WWI German occupation with a postmark of Schaulen (now Šiauliai, Lithuania) 1916

a stationery cut out (what a pity!) with a postmark Heydekrug (now Šilutė, Lithuania) 1895

Polish occupation period with a part of machine cancel of Wilno 2 (now Vilnius, Lithuania) 1938

Soviet stamps with a postmark of Vilnius C. 1941 during the first USSR annexation 

Postmark: Lekėčiai 1929

Postmark: Višvilė 1928 (present Viešvilė, former Wischwill, Memelgebiet)

Postmark: Alunta 1937

Raseiniai 1941

These are 3 Soviet stamps cancelled on the 22nd of June 1941 in Raseiniai. It has been clearly soaked from a paper but I guess these are CTO. CTO is a postmark used on stamps even though it has not been postally used, generally for collector's need. 22 June 1941 is actually the last day of the regular service of Soviet post office in Raseiniai because the following day on 23rd, the Germans arrived and thus began the famous battle of Raseiniai. There are also overprinted local Raseiniai stamps using the exact same CTOs but personally speaking, it does not make any sense to me. Why would you want to cancel a stamp with a postmark of the former occupier, especially when it comes to "liberation" issues. It's kinda weird to me and so far I haven't heard or read any "satisfactory" explanation. So, for this reason, I love those 3 stamps above which make more sense to me!

Raseiniai local issue with a Soviet postmark, authenticated by Dr. Gerhard Krischke

Vilnius 1940

This is a registered cover sent in November 1940 from Vilnius to Zürich, Switzerland. From what it looks like, it seems like a regular First Republic cover but Vilnius was under Soviet occupation from June 1940 to June 1941 so it is a cover under occupation. Lithuanian stamps were still postally valid as well as the newly introduced Soviet stamps. Nice arrival cancel of the post office Zürich 1 on the back!

Vilnius arrival cancellation 1940

This is a detached forwarding part of a porto free POW round trip double postal stationery sent in 1940 from the Oflag II-C located in Woldenberg (now Dobiegniew, Poland) to Vilnius, Lithuania SSR. Oflag is the abbreviation of the German word "Offizierslager" which was a officers only prisoner of war camp. The sender is obviously a Polish officer (the name Bohdan- is clearly Slavic) writing to his family member in Vilnius. Himself taken prisoner by the German and his homeland occupied by the Russian, it must be devastating. It looks like while he was at war, the address changed from Napoleono (today's S. Daukanto aikštė/square in Vilnius) to J.Vaižganto street. It has a nice arrival cancel of the post office Vilnius 6! The card is stampless because POW were able to send post for free basically when they write on this particular postal stationery. By the way, Oflag II-C Woldenberg had its own stamp with some of it Lithuanian themed design.

Šiauliai 1941

Soviet stamp franked on the back of the card

This is a detached answer part of a Soviet round trip double postal stationery cancelled in 1941 in Šiauliai / Шяуляй. The forwarding part was probably sent from somewhere in the Soviet Union but I guess for some reason, the receiver decided to make an philatelic item out of it. The date is sometime in February 1941 but the day is unclear. The interesting part is that there is a Soviet stamp franked on the plain back of the card, cancelled by the same postmark as the one on the front.
Šiauliai was occupied by the Soviet in 1940 until the Germans entered the city on June 26 1941.

Cancellations of Lit.SSR - 09 Soviet Occupation 1941

Here is a brighter close up of the Таураге/Tauragė postmark

Going through boxes of thousands of cheap stamps, you don't expect that much normally.  But here is  my lucky day and I would like to show you! Low quality damaged commemorative stamps of Soviet Union without much catalog value. What's so lucky about it? Well it's the postmark (as usual of course). The left stamp has a postmark of Таураге / Tauragė and right one, Укмерге / Ukmergė dated 1941, which means it's the first Soviet annexation before the German invasion in 1941. The postmarks of regional Lithuanian towns during this period are scarce comparing to Latvian SSR or Estonian SSR.

Kaunas 1941

The cover itself is not in perfect condition but I have decided to post it because the postmarks are clear and stamps are undamaged. This is a registered cover sent on 31.3.1941 from Каунас/Kaunas to Ленинград/Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) during the first annexation to the Soviet Union. The cover arrived on 3.4 and delivered on 4.4 according to the arrival postmark on the back. Lithuanian has been annexed by the Soviet Union on 1940 and Nazi Germany took Kaunas on 25.6.1941, not even 3 months after this cover has been used.

Vilnius 1940

Today I would like to present you an item that belongs to Nick, a philatelist from UK who is a reader of this blog and interested in postal history of Vilnius. Wow... a postcard sent in 1940 from the Soviet occupied Vilnius 10 to Warschau (German name for Warszawa) in German occupied Poland! and in addition, it is registered. Such a nice cover!! You must see his neatly presented sheet with a commentary much more interesting than mine.

Right click and open a new tab or window to have a better look!

Nick has been collecting stamps of the Baltic Republics which became the origin of his interest in Vilnius. He also has his own outstanding blog presenting the postal history of Somerset, a county in south west England: somersetph.blogspot.co.uk It is very NEATLY done and worth taking a look. (Nick, thank you for your kind permission to post on this blog!)

In contrast to his, my presentation of my collection looks like a joke... Perhaps, I should start to think about putting in a more presentable way. The question is, do I have such good taste? hm...

My collection stocked in photo album bought in "Billa" a supermarket nearby