Sejny 1919

Seinai (now Sejny, Poland) 16 May 1919

While collecting stamps for years, I'm pretty sure you have experienced a "what I thought it is, actually, wasn't" phenomena at least once. Well, it just happened to me so I thought I would post about it. This is a Lithuania classic stamp, to be precise, a Michel 14. I thought the postmark on it was an early example of Raseiniai postmark, for some reason labeling it so without much thinking. Recently, I was just going through my collection and one particular Raseiniai cancel on an air post stamp caught my eye. Why? well, I thought the size of the letter on the postmark is slightly smaller than the one on my Michel 14. So I took them our and compared, and wow wow wow! it wasn't "slightly" but pretty obvious!

Isn't it possible that 1919 Raseiniai cancel is bigger than the 1924's one? Maybe everybody knows it because it is mentioned in LPS journal and I'm the only one in the world not knowing about it... Or maybe some kind of previously not known Raseiniai cancel? I thought it would be wise to check on Lithuanian Philately.com before arming my fantasies with Icarus's wings.

1919 Raseiniai and Seinai cancels taken from Lithuanian Philately.com.

Looking further at my Michel 14 I have noticed that the space between the letter "S" and the previous one is way too wide. So I've looked with the possibility of the letter S being the first letter in my mind as well. Lithuanian Philately.com is really the best site earth can provide when it comes to 1919-1923 Lithuanian postmarks and they once again proved it to me. My Michel 14 is clearly not Raseiniai but it turns out to be Seinai. When compering their 1919 Raseiniai and Seinai cancels, you can see that if you draw up and parallel line at the left edge of the number "9" of the date, the Raseiniai one does not touch the letter "N" but the Seinai one touches big time and so does my Michel 14. So it is Seinai! This was another lesson that you should not label something without much doubt.

Seinai is actually not in present Lithuania. Now it it called Sejny and belongs to Poland. According Lithuania Philately (yes, again), Sejny had a branch of Postgebiet ob. Ost during WWI and later, a Lithuanian post office for little less than 8 months but not consecutively. The Lithuanian postmarker was supplied in early May 1919 so it matches the postmark on my Michel 14 as well.

A military Field Post card sent from Sejny in 1916 during the WWI German occupation

For further postal history of Seinai, look at the article on Lithuanian Philately: Seinai 1919-1920

Here is a modern Polish FDC cancelled in Sejny with a stamp of the Madonna of Sejny. The church on the cover is St. Mary basilica, a part of the huge castle looking former Dominican monastery where the statue is preserved. I have visited once the town and found the little town very charming, specially the central square filled with bunch of Baroque buildings. I very much recommend it!

Warszawa-Vilnius Railway post 1935

This is an express letter sent in 1935 by the railway post line number 7 Warszawa - Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania) to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), Germany. I'm not sure where exactly this letter has been sent from but the sender's address is on the back and it's Slonim, today a town in Grodno region, Belarus. This TPO line 7 ran from Wilno (Vilnius) - Grodno - Białystok - then to Warszawa, so my guess is that it has been sent from Grodno then changed the line at Białystok then to Königsberg via Grajewo. Two arrival cancels on the back as well, one is Königsberg - Telegraphenamt and the other is Königsberg 5.

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

The First Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition 1977

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.

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.

The 3rd Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition 1985

This is a postcard to commemorate the III Wystawa Filatelistyczna Białystok - Wilno (3rd Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition) held in 1985. I have already posted in this blog the commemorative postcard of the 2nd Exhibition held in 1982 (please click the label "WYSTAWA FILATELISTYCZNA BIAŁYSTOK - WILNO" below this article to check it. ), this is the 3rd of its kind. The stamp used is the commemorative issue of the Wojna Obronna 1939, literally meaning "defensive war" which points out the war the Poles fought against the German invasion at the beginning of WWII in 1939, also known as "Kampania wrześniowa", the September Campaign.

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.

1968 Opening of the Polish Airline LOT line Warszawa - Wilno - Leningrad

This is an interesting first flight card sent in 1968 from Warszawa/Warsaw, Poland to Vilnius, part of the Soviet Union back then. There is a nice commemorative cancellation with the inscription "Otwarcie Linii Lotniczej PLL LOT Warszawa Wilno Leningrad" meaning: Opening of the flight line PLL LOT Warszawa Wilno (Vilnius) Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). PLL is "Polskie Linie Lotnicze", the Polish Airline and LOT is the name of that airline.
It seems like the sender sent it from Warszawa to get this special postmark to Vilnius as "poste restante" but for some reason did not pick it up. There is a arrival cancel of Vilnius opp. Lit. SSR and sent back to Warszawa. The sender didn't fill out the returning address where it should have been but the Polish Post have noticed later (that's probably why it is handwritten in red "retour" above the inscription "retour inconnu" which means: return address unknown) and sent back to Racibórz, where the sender live. It must have been such a "trouble maker" card from the postman's view but certainly interesting for us collectors.
Racibórz is a Polish town just few kilometers from the Czech border which also has a very interesting postal history going through Austrian, German, Czech, Polish rule but unfortunately this blog is about Lithuanian philately so I won't discuss it.

The capitals of the E.U. member states: Vilnius 2005

A very nice looking FDC and the stamp issued by Poland in 2005 as one of the series of the capital cities of the European Union member states. The design of the FDC cover is especially nice! Curiously, a stamp depicting the Wilno/Vilnius cathedral with similar angle has also been issued by Poland during the prewar occupation period as well.

440th Anniversary of the Union of Lublin 2009

I just love this commemorative cancel! It's commemorating the 440th Anniversary of the Union of Lublin signed by Poland and Lithuania. It was an exclusive postmark for the post office in Lublin, Poland. the coat of arms of the commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania depicting the Polish eagle and the Lithuanian Vytis is just beautiful!

The 16th Vilnius Kaziukas Fair in Poznań 2009

This is a commemorative card of the XVI Kaziuk Wileński w Poznaniu (16th Vilnius Kaziukas Fair in Poznań, Poland) held on 8 March 2009. Kaziuk is the Polish name for the traditional fair of Vilnius, Lithuania called Kaziuko mugė. Large number of Polish speaking population in Vilnius have moved to Poland as part of the Post-war population replacement orchestrated by the Soviet authority. Largest part went to Gdańsk and Poznań, which is the sites of the 2 biggest Kaziuko mugė held in Poland today by the former residents of the Vilnius region and their descendants. Besides Poland, there are several places outside of Lithuania celebrating Kaziuko mugė, Grodno, Belarus and Daugavpils, Latvia are the most known ones. However, outside of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kaziuko mugė is not celebrated (both Grodno and Daugavpils were once an important part of the Grand Duchy).
The cancellation is commemorating the 20th anniversary of Towarzystwo Miłośników Wilna i ziemi Wileńskiej (Friendship society of Vilnius and Vilnius region) on the occasion of the 16th Vilnius Kaziuk.

The 2nd Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition 1982

This is a  postcard of the II Wystawa Filatelistyczna Białystok - Wilno (2nd Białystok-Vilnius Philatelic Exhibition) held in 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the ZSRR/USSR (it is the polish abbreviation for: Związek Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich). It features a very nice illustration of Gediminas tower in Vilnius with a Commemorative cancel.