In the history of the town of Vilnius is reflected the eventful history of Lithuania.
The town was founded in 1323 by archduke Gediminas and becames the capital of the strongly expanding Lithuania. The personal
union with Poland (1386) formed the great Polish-Lithuanian empire. As
Lithuania in the east more and more crumbled off, Poland became more and more dominant in this whole.
In 1569 the Union between Poland and Lithuania was formed, by which Lithuania became more a part of Poland.
In 1773 the eastern part of Lithuania, which formed part of the Polish-Lithuanian empire, became part of Russia. In 1792 the
rest of Poland was divided and the rest of Lithuania also became a part of the Russian empire. Lithuania was
divided in three government areas : Kowno (Kaunas), Wilna (Vilnius) en Grodno (Gardinas). After 1815 the district
Suwalki (Suvalkai) also came to Russia.
For a long time there no postmarks were used in the Russian Empire: letters were registered instead. Sometimes the weight and the received
amount had been written on the backside of the letter.
However used already in some places, there came official postmarks in 1782, which were introduced as proof that the correct
tariff was received.
In the postal regulations of 22 October 1830 it was decreed that all letters, both when sent and on arrival,
must get a postmark with place and date.
Calendar
And talking about dates: the Russian Empire used the old Julian calender to February 1918 and when mentioning dates
in association with this period
I also will do this. For our calendar, which most countries also used in that period, 12 days must be added in the period after 28 February 1800 through 28 February 1900, and 13 days through 28 February 2100.
Literature about the calendar:
From this pre-adhesive stamp period (or pre-philately) a letter from Vilnius, 1837, here below:
Picture (JPEG resized to 60 %) send by M. Lam
The seldom seen postmark: The postmark in in an old spelling. Vilnius is to recognize very well, the second word is 'January' in a very old form. |
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The postmark was not only a sign that the mail was weighed and registered and the rate was paid, it was also an sender-postmark and in fact all letters were so registered.
Often by departure als a second postmark was given: the departure-postmark. In the place of arrival an arrival-postmark was used.
By the reform of 1830 only the post-offices of St.Peterburg and Mocow held a governing function. The new Government-postoffices, as Vilnius, resorted direct under the 'Head-Postadministration', which was a part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
By the reform of 1884 the post offices were classified in seven classes. This classification was done on base of rate of 'turnover'. On the top was KONTARA Class I with an turnover of at least 100.000 rubel.
INTRODUCTION OF POSTAGE STAMPS AND THE NUMBER-CANCELLATIONS: 1857
With this also the necessity of cancellation comes into existence. In the beginning postmarks of the former period were still used for the date on the backside of the cover in combination with 'cancelling' by a writtencross in black ink. Of course this was not efficient and the cancellation coiuld be removes for re-using the postage stamp until the introduction of number-cancellations.
The numbers "1" and "2" in circles of dots were introduced as number-cancellations for St. Petersburg and Moscow in circular no. 138 of 26 february 1858. The other towns had to use the old postmarks until the coming of new cancels.Circular no. 1847 of 31May 1858 introduced these kind of cancellations for whole Russia. The circular no. 157 of 17 august 1858 gives more details.
A number (3 to 60) surrounded by points in the form of three concentric circles belongs to capitals of "guberniya", centers of districts, centers of militar districts, S.Petersburg and Moscow. #5 belongs to Wilno as capital of Wilno gub. and #19 to Kovno, as capital of Kovno gub.
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Alongside you see the stamp with number "5", the number indicating Vilnius. The stamp is Mi. 2x (10. kop.) The number-cancellations were used a short period, 1857-1860, so we find them only on the first stamps of Russia (Mi. 1-7). For the backside also the old postmarks were still used. Postage stamps were used for mail to foreign countries not until 1864. |
This picture and all pictures below on this page, if not mentioned otherwise: scanned about 300 dpi. Then set right and cut out - noted the actual print size-, resized 25 % of this image and saved as jpg with compressionfactor 15. The image of the stamp above is not resized 25 %, but 50 %.
With circular 123 of 11 December came the end for the numeral cancellations in most postoffices. Only railway and post stations and ROPIT offices used the triangular numeral cancellations until 2 June 1877.
More about the other types of dotted number-cancellations: see page about other places: numeral dot cancels and Pagelažiai
ONE-RING-POSTMARKS
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After 1860: one-ring-postmarks with only cyrillic letters (only Moscow and St. Petersburg got a double-ring-postmark): Postcard from Vilnius-4 ВИЛЬНА (Vilna), in Lithuanian Vilnius, to Brussels (1881). At the top the place name, under it the month in cyrillic letters, underneath that the year. At the bottom an ornament. In smaller places the name of government came in the place of the ornament, but Vilnius (Wilna) was also the capital of the government Wilna and so it held the ornament. Original print size of this image: 12,454 x 8,924 cm (is something more as the postal item) | 
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 | On the other side we see the date written as Julian and Gregorian style: 10/22.VII.81. The difference of 12 days must be added to the Julian to covert to the Gregorian calendar as we have seen above. See: calendar >> On the postmark we see the date 11 -I suppose this is 11 July. Resized 50 %: 
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Original print size of this image: 12,556 x 9,355 cm (is something more as the postal item). The postmark, resized 50 %:  |
ПОЧТОВАЯ КОНТОРА (POCHTOVAYA KONTORA = Post office).
Until 1884 this was a type of post office, which served a large town, as Vilnius was, and was under direct control of the Chief Office (Pochtamt) of the postal district.
Other types offices besides the 'Post Office' and 'Chief Postoffice' were: Postal sub-office (Pochtovoe Otdelenie) and Post Station (Pochtovaya Stantsiya).
 | On the other side of the card we see that the card is written in Wilna on 13 May 1885. This is our Gregorian date. In the postmark above we a great difference: an much earlier date: 29 АПР, the abbrevation for АПРЕЛЬ (APREL = April): 12 days must be added in the period after 28 February through 28 February 1900 to the Julian date for converting it to our Gregorian date and I suppose the writer has not just converted the date. See: calendar >> |
 | A card with the postmark Vilnius-12, send 1884. Original print size of this image: 14,359 x 9,152 cm (is something more as the postal item). The date in the postmark is 1 IЮЛ (IYUL =) July 1884. Resized 50 %:  |
| On the other side of the card we see the date written in the Russian Julian calender (1 July) and our Gregorian date (13 July). See: calendar >> Resized 50%:  |  |
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Postal stationary (envelop with imprinted stamp, Mi., nr U33), 5 February 1891. Original print size of this image: 14,588 x 8,213 cm (is something more as the postal item). Resized 50 %:  |
From Vilnius (Wilna 12) to Riga. This postmark gives already more information than the early one-ring-postmarks: at the bottom is indicated:
ПОЧТ. ТЕЛЕГР. КОНТ. , the abbrevation for ПОЧТОВО-ТЕЛЕГРАФНАЯ КОНТОРА (POCHTOVO-TELEGRAFNAYA KONTORA = Post-Telegraph Office).
In june 1884 the postal and telegraph departments were united. In the beginning of the telegraph (since 1866) there were scarcely connections between the post and telegraph, but it was too expensive to let it separated.
From june 1884 there were also two new types of offices: the Post-telegraph Office (Pochtovo-Telegrafnaya Kontora), as we have seen here, for a greater city as Vilnius was, and a Post-Telegrapyh Sub-Office (Pochtovo-Telegrafnoe Otdelenie). These offices combined both services: post and telegraph.
The month in the postmark above is still in cyrillic letters and the year remains directly under the month.
 | Reverse side, resized 50 %. Arrival postmark of Riga and with local mail postmark. |
In circular 13 of 5 April 1890 the instruction arrived to use Roman numerals for new stamps. This happened on suggestion of the U.P.U., the Universal Postal Union.
Also the postmarks in Russia change in the 'crossed date'-type. In the middle the day stays first, under it the month (in Roman numerals), left of the whole the century and right the rest of the year::
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From Vilnius to Magdeburg (1898) Original print size of this image: 14,766 x 11,997 cm (is something more as the postal item). The postmark, resized 50%:  |
A card with the -cross-date- postmark Vilnius-3, 26-IV-1903:
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Original print size of this image: 14,359 x 9,305 cm (is something more as the postal item). Resized 50 %:  |
 | On this other side we again written the dates according the Julian and Gregorian calendar: 26 April and 9 May 1903. See: calendar >>. Left above we an 'adminatrative' stamp of the receiver with the date 12 May (I suppose arrival on the desk) Resized 50%:  |
DOUBLE-RING-POSTMARKS
From 1903 double-ring-postmarks are used:
circular nr. 9 of 3 February 1903 introduced the double-ring-postmarks.
The old postmarks are replaced when they are worn out. Also a detailed description is given of
the new postmarks.
The postmarks consist of two rings, with the name of place in between. Day-month-year now stood on one line (in the year "19"
has been omitted. There came two sorts of postmarks: bigger for the mail and smaller for receipts.
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An arrival-postmark of Vilnius from 1910 on a postcard (P17) from ТЕЛЬШИ (TELSHI), the Lithuanian Telšiai in north-west Lithuania. Original print size of this image: 14,131 x 9,457 cm (is something more as the postal item). Postmark, resized 50%:  |
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Postal item (P21) from ВИЛЬНА (Vilna), so Vilnius, to Wielesiski (1913) with double-ring-postmark:
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Original print size of this image: 14,283 x 9,355 cm (is something more as the postal item). Postmark, resized 50%:  |
About the connection of the Postal history and tsaristic postmarks of Vilnius in connection with the railwaypost, see: the pages about railway post>>.
Literature:
