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...

Klaipėda 1958

This is a full set of the Soviet souvenir sheets commemorating the 100 years of Russian postage stamp, cancelled in Клайпеда /  Klaipėda, Lithuania SSR. Both souvenir sheets still have gum on the back which tell us that all the postmarks on them are actually CTOs most probably privately ordered since there wasn't any commercial mass production of CTO in Klaipėda as far as I know.

Cancellations of Lit.SSR - 10

Gudžiūnai, Kauno apskritis (Kaunas County)
population: 491 (2011 census)

Gudžiūnai 1969

Lapiai, Klaipėdos apskritis (Klaipėda County)
population: 397 (2005 census)

Lapiai 1969

Lyduokiai, Vilniaus apskritis (Vilnius County)
population 142 (2011 census)

Lyduokiai 1973

Rozalimas, Šiaulių apskritis (Šiauliai County)
population: 928 (2001 census)

Rozalimas 1969

Stalgėnai, Telšių apskritis (Telšiai County)
population 465 (2001 census)

Stalgėnai 1969

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.

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...

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.

Vilnius 1985 - J.S. Bach

It took me a 4 years to find a copy of this souvenir sheet cancelled in Lithuania buried among millions of Moscow CTOs

Today I saw an article on a newspaper talking about an iconic portrait of the German composer J.S. Bach being returned home to Leipzig, Germany. Conveniently, I actually do have a Bach related cover so I thought I would post here on this blog. This is a registered cover sent in 1985 from Вильнюс / Vilnius, Lithuania SSR to Warstein, West Germany. The souvenir sheet of J.S. Bach has been issued on the occasion of the 300 years anniversary of the artist's birthday. The curious thing is that the sender's last name Finkelšteinas, the Lithuanian -as ending form of the German noun Finkelstein, sounds rather more German than the recipient of the letter. I'm wondering if this person is somehow related to Ozeris Finkelšteinas, a Lithuanian Jewish politician during the prewar republic.

Joniškis 1965

This is a cover sent in 1965 from Йонишкис / Joniškis, Lithuania SSR to Montrose, Angus in Scotland, UK. I particularly like the three sport stamps on the cover, which are the ones to commemorate the 1965 Спартакиада / Spartakiada, a major sport event in USSR.

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.

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 1960

Registration label and the postmark of Вильнюс/Vilnius 24

Arrival cancel of София ц. / Sofia c. (central), Bulgaria on the back of the cover

This is a registered postal stationery cover sent on the new year's eve 1960 from the post office Вильнюс / Vilnius 24 to София / Sofia, Bulgaria. One of the thing I don't really want to get into it, is the branch post offices of Vilnius because I know it would consume a lot of time and funds. I just happen to find this cover for a Euro and I couldn't pretend I didn't see anything. For the moment, I think I would like to stick with the branch post offices of Šiauliai and maybe in the future I will think about collecting Vilnius.