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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Viduklė 1920 – 1922

Viduklė 1920 – 1922

September 9, 2015 By Vytautas Doniela

Viduklė is a township ca. 18 km east of Raseiniai. Its first formal post office (russ. Vidukli) was opened in czarist times in 1913 (?), just before the start of World War One. During the German push into Žemaitija and Courland in late April 1915 Viduklė was touched by reco units of Bayersche Kavalerie-Division but after a Russian counter-offensive the locality found itself within the operations area of the German 78. Reserve-Division.

During the German withdrawal from the East at the end of 1918 the Raseiniai district was spared further hostilities and was able to form local self-administration. An effective Raseiniai District Committee, among other initiatives, undertook to create a local postal circuit and produced its own local postage stamp valued at 15 kopeks. The postal circuit included Viduklė, although so far there are no surviving items associated with its exchange point.

A formal Lithuanian postal facility, an agentūra, was opened in late 1920 or early 1921, possibly with the assistance of the local citizens’ committee. So far, no records about early staff etc. have come to light. A few years later, Viduklė’s status was raised from agentūra to post office.

Though Viduklė may have had some values of Fourth Berlin Issue, it did have some Kaunas Coloured Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc.

Early provisional cancelling was done by a 2-line cachet which included date.

LT-1920 Vidukle provisional postmark

A regular postmarker was supplied by 1922, possibly earlier.

LT-1922 Vidukle standard postmark

Cancelling by a 2-liner:
date ?, single, Kaunas Col. 20 perf.   [colln. Jankauskas]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks

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