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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Lazdijai 1919-1920

Lazdijai 1919-1920

July 12, 2010 By Vytautas Doniela

Lazdijai is a town in south Lithuania, ca. 40 km south-west of Alytus, close to the border with Poland. In World War One, after German forces cleared East Prussia of Russian incursion, Lazdijai was taken by 31. Infanterie-Division on February 13, 1915.

After the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, when the Red Army was halted at Alytus in mid-February 1919, Lazdijai area enjoyed relative tranquility, though in the second half of 1919 and again in 1920 it was caught up in territorial disputes and fire-fights between Lithuanians and Poles. The three Lines of Demarcation left Lazdijai on the Lithuanian side.

In the czarist period, Lazdijai had a post office (Lozdze’e) and none during the German occupation. A mandate as įgaliotinis to open a Lithuanian post office was given, as from April 22, 1919, to Jonas Slavinas. At the same time a postman, Feliksas Balutis, was also appointed. As from October 1, 1920 Jonas Slavinas was transferred to Kybartai and replaced as postmaster by Kazys Prokuraitis from the recently vacated P.O. at Seinai.

It is not certain whether Lazdijai, like some other P.O.s in south Lithuania at that time, were supplied with an initial stock of Kaunas Issues but it did have Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc.

In the absence of a regular postmarker, early cancelling was done in manuscript, showing place and date. As yet, no other provisional methods of marking have come to light. A standard calendar-type postmarker was supplied in late 1920 or 1921.

Known provisional markings:

Cancelling by MS place and date:
21 / IX [1919 or 1920?] strip of 4, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Liesis]
21 / IX [1919 or 1920?] block of 4, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Doniela]
…1920 pair, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Liesis]
…May [1919 or 1920?], Berlin IV 10 [colln. Brazdeikis]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks Tagged With: provisional cancels

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