Užpaliai is a township in Aukštaitija, 16 km north of Utena. In World War One, it was passed through by Bayersche Kavallerie-Division on September 12, 1915 during the northern flanking of Vilnius. After German withdrawal from Russia, units of the Red Army came to Užpaliai in late December 1918. Lithuanian regulars (“Ukmergės rinktinė”) pushing Bolshevik troops out of Aukštaitija entered Užpaliai on June 3, 1919.
In the czarist period Užpaliai had a post office named Ushpol but none during the German occupation. A postal facility as Ushpol – projected or active – is mentioned in a Soviet document dated March 1919 but there are no other surviving traces.
A Lithuanian postal facility, possibly an agentūra, was established in late 1920 or 1921. However, so far no details are known about its status and staff.
For stamps, Užpaliai had values of Fourth Berlin Issue followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. In the absence of a formal postmarker early cancelling was done in manuscript by indicating date and place “Užpaliai”. No other early postal markings have been recorded.
A standard calendar-type postmarker was supplied in 1921(?) with the spelling “UŠPALIAI” and index “a” (its strikes are very rare !). Within a year or so this postmarker was replaced by a smaller one retaining the spelling “UŠPALIAI” but with index “1 – a”.
In later times, both spellings were used, with UŽPALIAI becoming the norm after Second World War.
Known provisional markings:
15 / II [1921?] single, Berlin IV 40 [colln. Wilson]