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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Baisogala (also Beisagala)

Baisogala (also Beisagala)

July 11, 2010 By Vytautas Doniela

Baisogala is a township ca. 45 km south-east of Šiauliai with a railway station (Bejsagola) of some importance during the volatile first battle for Šiauliai in late April – early May 1915. It was finally secured during the second battle by Division Beckmann on July 22.

During the German army’s withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, when the International Division of the Red Army moved into Šiauliai on January 15, 1919 and was also probing south along the railway line, Baisogala and its environs became, in February and March, objects of serious clashes between the Bolsheviks and the newly formed units of the Lithuanian army. Baisogala was secured on March 13. Its railway station acquired even more prominence in the second half of 1919 when the Lithuanian regulars, unable to make use of the Radviliškis railway junction, had to unload at Baisogala in order to utilise another railway line Šeduva – Panevėžys and further east.

Baisogala had had a post office (Bejsagola) in czarist times but none during the German occupation. A mandate to open a Lithuanian post office was issued, effective from March 22, 1919, to įgaliotinis Prochoras Žukas. He was transferred to Alytus and replaced by Jurgis Vaitekunas as from September 9, 1919. On June 1, 1920, thanks to improved turnover the Baisogala P.O. was awarded a higher status.

As a rare instance, at the beginning Baisogala received some stamps of Second Berlin Issue, though its main stock consisted of Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue, the First Airmail Issue etc.

In the absence of a regular postmarker, early cancelling was done in manuscript, showing place and date.

At a later date, when Baisogala was supplied with its own cachet for parcel cards and money orders, it too was used for cancelling.

In late 1920, Baisogala was supplied with a standard calendar-type postmarker whose incription read „BEISAGALA“. At about the same time it was provided with a registration cachet with the spelling „BEISOGALA“. A few years later, in all subsequent postmarkers the place-name was changed to „BAISOGALA“.

Known provisional markings:

Cancelling in MS place and date:
26 / V [1919] single, Berlin II 10 [colln. Doniela]
26 / V [1919] single, Berlin IV 20 [colln. Jankauskas]
17…… cover to Minsk Litewski (rds 9.VI.20), Berlin IV 15 x2, 20 [colln. Auleytner]

Cancelling by rectangular cachet:
No date single, Berlin IV 60 [colln. Liesis]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks Tagged With: provisional cancels

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