Post

Regular exchange of information with foreign countries started in 1562 when the postal line Vilnius-Krakow-Vienna-Venice was opened. Correspondence from Lithuania reached many towns of Western Europe via Vienna. In 1671 the postal tax was imposed for the towns and townships of the Great Duchy of Lithuania.

Several postal routes crossed Lithuania in the first half of the 19th century. The most important one was Petersburg-Warsaw (crossing the towns of Vydžiai, Švenčionys, Pabradė, Nemenčinė, Vilnius, Šalčininkai). Other routes such as Vilnius-Kaunas, Warsaw-Riga, Konigsberg-Riga, Kaunas-Tilžė, and Šiauliai-Panevėžys played an important role too. Later on, the individual towns of districts were also connected by the postal roads.

All postal offices of Lithuania were closed during the World War I, when Lithuanian territory was occupied by the Germans. The Lithuanian people was allowed to use the German post only from 15 January 1916 but the letters were to be written only in German. 

During the period of independent Lithuania the development of the Lithuanian post was marked by the following important milestones: on 16 November 1918 the Minister of Transport of the Republic of Lithuania M. Yčas signed the Resolution founding the Lithuanian Post Board. The first Lithuanian postage stamps were issued on 27 December 1918. Lithuania joined the Universal Postal Union (UPU) on 1 January 1922. 126 post-offices and 40 postal agencies were operating in Lithuania at that time.

On 4 December the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union announced that with the integration of Lithuania into the USSR the Lithuanian membership in this organization has been cancelled. On 16 February 1941 all postage stamps, envelopes, and postcards were withdrawn from the circulation, and the USSR postal tariffs were approved.

During the World War II the Lithuanian communications system was destroyed, transport and rail carriage system stopped functioning. After the World War II the operations of the Lithuanian communications sector and its development were completely dependent on Moscow.

A new period of re-establishment and development of the Lithuanian Post started from 1990. The first series of the postage stamps of the independent Lithuania under the title ‘Angel’ was put into circulation on 7 October. The State Enterprise ‘Pašto ženklas’ (‘Postage Stamp’) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Lithuania was founded.

On 17 December it was decided to reorganize the management structure of the Lithuanian communications sector – to separate the postal services from the electric communication services by creating the State Enterprise ‘Lietuvos paštas’ (‘Lithuanian Post’) and the State Enterprise ‘Lietuvos telekomas’ (‘Lithuanian Telecom’).