Šaukėnai 1931

This is a registered mail sent in 1931 from Šaukėnai to the district court in Šiauliai (Šiaulių apygardos teismas). It looks like there were some kind of legal documents. Šaukėnai is a small town in Šiauliai County with a population of little over 700. Nice arrival cancel of Šiauliai on the back!

Šaukėnai 1942

This is a cover sent in 1942 from Šaukėnai to the Šiaulių apylinkės teismo teisėjui/Šiauliai district court. Šaukėnai is a small town in Šiaulių apskritis/Šiauliai county with a population of 800. Most of Lithuania being incorporated in Ostland at that time, they have used German stamps with "Ostland" overprint but regular Reich stamps were also valid. From the postmark you can see that Šaukėnai post office wasn't the state post office called Dienstpost Ostland. Some people call it a "private" post office but I prefer not to because it wasn't really private in a modern sense. Of course, no private company were legally able to provide network of logistics through out entire Ostland for security reason. I would prefer more using the term "postal agent" which was authorized to act as a local window to the state postal service. The examples of the use of regular Reich stamps in Lithuania are surprisingly hard to find. This is probably because the remaining covers are buried among  millions of other Reich covers without being noticed unlike the ones overprinted. There are many philatelists who pay more attention to the catalog values of the stamps and much less to the postmark. Maybe if you can re-check your collection, you might find out that you actually possess a valuable "occupation" postmark. Who knows...

Vilnius 1939

Postal stationery - Kaunas 

Postal stationery - Šaukėnai 

These are postal stationery cards cancelled in 1939 at Vilnius Geležinkelio Stotis/Railway Station post office. Both sent to the same address in New York but written by different people. The first card with the picture of Kaunas has been cancelled on November 13th 1939 and the second one on the 16th of the same month. Finding Lithuanian postal stationery used in 1939 is definitely not the easiest thing, given the fact that Vilnius was handed out back to the Lithuanians by the Russians only on 28 October 1939 after the Mutual Assistance Treaty that has been signed on 10 October. It was part of Stalin's "theatrical" friendly act to hide the real intention of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which was already signed on August 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. According to the autobiography of Juozas Urbšys, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time who signed the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty (Lietuvos-Sovietų Sąjungos savitarpio pagalbos sutartis in Lithuanian), even this so-called "friendly" act was done under lots of pressure, he was called several times to meet Stalin in the middle of the night during his stay in Moscow. He has been told over and over what will happen if Lithuania would not sign the treaty. I guess this was the communist technique to intimidate someone in order to make that person do what they want. If you read the autobiography of Alexander Dubček, the former First Secretary of Czechoslovakia, you will almost feel like a Déjà vu of Urbšys when he talks about how was his stay in Moscow, after his Spring of Prague in 1964 was put down by the Warsaw Pact army.

Vilnius 1967

A women's day greetings sent in 1967 from Vilnius to Šaukėnai. Šaukėnai is a village in Kelmė distrcit with a population of little over 700. There is a nice arrival cancellation. Artwork is by L.Ramonienė. Lithuania postcard designs are surprisingly very nice especially during the 50's and 60's.