In WWI Taujėnai (Tovjany, Towiani), a township in Aukštaitija, was taken by German troops during their flanking movement towards Vilnius after the week-long battle battle of Kupiškis. It was passed through by cavalrymen of 3. Kavallerie-Division on August 20, 1915. In czarist times, a post office in Taujėnai, as Tovjany, had been opened in 1895, but there was none there during the German occupation.
When the German army’s retreat from Russia at the end of 1918 was followed by the advancing Red Army, Taujėnai was entered in January 1919. According to a Soviet document dated February 15, 1919, a post office was set up at that time with I. A Koleda in charge. However, there is no surviving tangible evidence of its activity. During the Wars of Independence, Taujėnai was in Lithuanian hands in ca. April 1919.
The first postmaster (įgaliotinis) to open a Lithuanian post office in Taujėnai was Kazys Skystimas, with a mandate as from May 27, 1919. He stayed on until his death on February 23, 1921. According to an unclear old statement, he had been postmaster at Taujėnai in czarist times.
The stamps available at Taujėnai were values from Fourth Berlin Issue. As the P.O had not yet been supplied with a Lithuanian language canceller, it used an old czarist calendar-type postmarker with a cyrillic inscription “Tovjany” which, if the above statement is correct, may have been retained by the postmaster himself.
Some months later it was supplied with a box-type cachet which it also used for cancelling.
A standard Lithuanian calendar-type postmarker was supplied in 1920 or early 1921.
Known provisional cancellations:
By using the circular cyrillic “Tovjany”:
21 10 19 Money Order to Kaunas, Berlin IV 75 [colln. Doniela]
25 10 19 single, Berlin IV 10 [colln. Doniela]
6 11 19 single, Berlin IV 40 [colln. Wilson]
3 12 19 single, Berlin IV 1a [colln.Lapas]
17 12 19 single, Berlin IV 10 [colln. Doniela]
Date unclear, single, Berlin IV 1a [colln. Doniela]By using boxed “Taujėnai”:
Date unclear, single, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Liesis]
8–I–1920, single, Berlin IV 30 [colln. Wilson]