Salakas is a town in north-eastern Lithuania, ca. 20 km south of Zarasai. In World War One it was taken by German troops, mainly cavalry, advancing toward the fortress of Daugavpils (Dünaburg) in Latvia and also deploying for an encirclement of Vilnius from the north, which fell on September 18, 1915. During the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of the war, Bolshevik formations followed rather closely and, after taking the district center of Utena on December 23, came to Salakas in late December 1918
During the war of Independence and gradual eviction of Bolshevik rule in Aukštaitija (eastern Lithuania), Lithuanian troops took Salakas after a hard two-day battle on July 12, 1919.
Salakas had had a czarist post office (Soloki) but none during the German occupation. A Lithuanian post office was established when the first postmaster (“organizer”) Petras Gabė from Kaunas was officially appointed as of January 1, 1920. On January 9 Anufras Karlo was added as a postman.
For stamps, Salakas was supplied with values of Fourth Berlin Issue, probably followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. As the P.O. had no postmarker to start with, early cancelling was done in manuscript. It is not clear when the postal facility was supplied with a regular canceller, and no further provisional postal markings have been recorded so far.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by manuscript:
19 – III – 19[20 ?] singles, Fourth Berlin 40, 60 [colln. V.Jurkša]