Since I have posted the 2nd and the 3rd, why not the First? So, here we go, the First Wystawa Filatelistyczna Białystok - Wilno (Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition) held in 1977 on the ocasion of the 60th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. It looks like they didn't intend to have the 2nd at the time, there is no mention of being the first of this series of exhibition. The coat of arms of Białystok is the Polish Eagle and the Lithuanian Vytis which was also the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is also used for the coat of the Podlaskie Voivodeship which Białystok is the capital city of. The majority of ethnic Lithuanians living in Poland are concentrated in Podlaskie, preserving their own cultural identity in remote villages, especially in few counties in the north where Lithuanians exceed 70% of the population. That is very interesting fact because that's exactly how it was in Lithuania under the Commonwealth where majority were Polish speakers at that time and Lithuanian spoken only in remote villages. "IF", the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have survived until today like the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg now, I think it would look more like the present Podlaskie than the actual modern Lithuania itself.
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| Train of the Podlaskie Railway with the coat of arms running between Suwałki and Białystok If the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was still existing, the state railway would probably look like this present Podlaskie trains. |
