Lithuania

The republic of Lithuania is one of the Baltic republics in the northeast of Europe with 2,8 million inhabitants. It is situated between Latvia, Belarus, Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The first Lithuanian state was created in 1253. It became the largest country in Europe in the 14th century. Later the largest part of Lithuania was annexed by the Russian empire. At the end of World War I, Lithuania declared its independence. In 1940 the country was occupied by the Soviet Union and later became a Soviet republic. Finally on 11 March 1990 the Supreme Council announced the restoration of the independence and Lithuania broke away from the USSR.

Lithuania used its own stamps from 1918 to 1940 after which stamps of the Soviet Union were used. Since the declaration of independence new stamps were issued. Each year some 30 stamps and sheets are put into circulation.

During the Briefmarken-Messe in Essen in May 2017 I left stamped envelopes at almost every foreign postal administration hoping they would send them back when they arrived home. The stamp is one of the Europa stamps for 2017 and the postmark is from Vilnius. The priority label was put there by Lietuvos paštas (Lithuanian Post).

The website of the philately section of Lietuvos paštas: post.lt/philately.
This is the Lithuanian version. It is better to use this and let your browser translate it automatically, then to switch to the English version of the website. That version is still on the old website and has not been updated for some time.

Date sent: 11 May 2017

Date postmark: 17 May 2017

Date received: 19 May 2017

Number of days: 8

Envelope in collection: 83