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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Pagiriai (also Pagirys) 1919–1922

Pagiriai (also Pagirys) 1919–1922

February 23, 2012 By Vytautas Doniela

Pagiriai (later renamed Pagirys) is a township about half-way between Kėdainiai and Ukmergė. In czarist times and on WWI German military maps it was known as Pogiry. In WWI it was taken by German troops in the autumn of 1915 during their advance on Vilnius which fell on September 18, 1915. When the Germans retreated from the East at the end of 1918, the Red Army advanced close to Kėdainiai and so from January 1919 Pagiriai stayed under the Bolshevik rule until, after protracted fighting in March and April 1919, Red troops were finally dislodged on April 27, 1919 by joint action of Lithuanian regulars and German volunteer Grenzschutz.

Before WWI Pagiriai had a czarist post office Pogiri but none during the German period. In the absence of official details, it may be surmised that some sort of Lithuanian postal facility was re-opened in the second half of 1919 with the help of enterprising local municipal bodies. It is known that in the second half of 1919 mail to Pagiriai at first came via Kėdainiai but after the liberation of Aukštaitija a more basic link was established with Ukmergė.

For stamps, Pagiriai had some values of Berlin Fourth Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. In the absence of a formal canceller the facility at first resorted to a home-made two-liner reading probably PAGIRIU AGENTURA with the date added in MS.

At an unknown early date Pagiriai acquired the status of postal agency, as evidenced by its first formal postmarker (ca. 1921) which displayed “P.A.” = pašto agentūra. After some time its status was elevated to post office and the letters “P.A” in the first postmarker were removed. Some years after 1930 the name of the township was changed to PAGIRYS and the subsequent postmarkers carried the new name.

Cancelling by two-liner with date in MS:
date ? single, Kaunas Colored 40 sk [colln. V.Jurkša]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks

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