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You are here: Home / Provisional Postmarks / Daugai 1919-1922

Daugai 1919-1922

August 5, 2010 By Vytautas Doniela

Daugai lies 20 km east of Alytus. In World War One it was taken by German infantry of XXI. Armeekorps in the battles of early September 1915 during their advance to encircle Vilnius, which fell on September 18.

During the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1918, Daugai was entered by units of the Red Army in early January 1919 but after several clashes was taken by Lithuanian troops on April 4. In early July 1919, Daugai was occupied by Polish troops as a result of Marshall Pilsudski’s intention to create a greater, confederated Poland. Polish occupation lasted until the Russo-Polish war when Lithuanians retook Daugai in early July 1920. The Lines of Demarcation left Daugai safely on the Lithuanian side.

Daugai had had a czarist post office (Daugi) but none during the German occupation. There is no record of setting up a Lithuanian postal facility during the brief “first” Lithuanian period (April – June 1919). According to memoirs, local population took their foreign mail (mainly addressed to relatives resident in the U.S.A.) directly to Alytus, and they continued to do so, in a clandestine manner, during the Polish occupation of Daugai from July 1919 to June 1920.

In late 1920 or early 1921, a Lithuanian postal facility (probably as an agentūra) was established with the help of the local Shire (valsčius) Committee, its secretary Serafimas looking after the postal business as well. For the position of postmaster a returned emigrant to the U.S.A, Milinavičius, was appointed in 1921 and stayed on until ca. 1923.

For stamps, Daugai had Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. For cancelling Daugai used a unique makeshift cachet “DAUG.” which was made up of large double letters. An earlier mode of cancelling by manuscript is likely but has not been noted. So far, no other provisional markings have been reported.

By 1922 Daugai was supplied with a standard calendar-type postmarker indicating its status as P.A. (= pašto agentūra). Later its status was raised to Post Office.

Known provisional markings:

Cancelling by cachet “DAUG.”:
No date pair, Berlin IV 60 [colln. Liesis]

Filed Under: Provisional Postmarks Tagged With: provisional cancels

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