Troškūnai is a township in Aukštaitija, ca. 40 km south-east of Panevėžys. In World War One, it was taken by German cavalry (3. Kavallerie-Division) during the battle of Kupiškis, on July 2, 1915.
After the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, units of the Red Army came to Troškūnai area in January 1919. During the War of Independence, Lithuanian troops entered Troškūnai on May 25, 1919.
In the czarist period Troškūnai had had a post office (Trashkuny) but none during the German occupation. Its re-opening was planned or in fact completed during the brief Bolshevik period but there is no surviving evidence of its activity.
A mandate to open a Lithuanian P.O.( spelled TRAŠKUNAI) was issued to Juozas Vilkas, effective from June 10, 1919. At the same time, Pranas Ribokas was employed as postman. The following year, when for a few months Lithuanians regained sections of the Vilnius area, Juozas Vilkas was appointed postmaster of Svyriai as of September 16, 1920 and replaced by Anicitas Petkemskas.
Troškūnai (Traškunai) was supplied with values of Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc., but it also seems to have had a quantity of Second Berlin Issue. (This rare exception needs checking.)
In the absence of a regular postmarker, cancelling was first done by pen, indicating place as Traškunai and date. So far, no other provisional markings have been noted.
By 1921, Troškūnai was supplied with a standard calendar-type postmarker, with the spelling changed to TROŠKŪNAI.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by MS place (“Traškunai”) and date:
2 / IX [1919] single, Berlin II (?) 10 [colln. Liesis]
13 / XI 19 Berlin IV 10 x3 [colln. V Jurkša]