Lithuania stamp – The-Philatelist

A tiny country between 3 large ones will be in a constant struggle to just survive. Sometimes that means fighting to preserve basic language skills, sometimes it means running to Cleveland, Ohio to be sustained by a diaspora in the faint hope of return. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp celebrates the 60th birthday of dictator Antanas Smetona. Earlier Baltic country stamps had an exuberance that seemed half way between Kaiser era Germany and early Soviet, an interesting combination. See, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/09/latvia-1919-ulmanis-slays-the-russian-dragon-to-take-kurland/ . Here we have an aging grey leader with no real answers on how Lithuania could survive. This is very reflective of the pessimism setting in. So you know, happy effing birthday.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 30 Centai stamp issued by Lithuania in 1934. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 used.

Antanas Smetona was born to peasants on an estate belonging to the widely prominent Radziwill family. Lithuania was at the time under Czarist Russian rule. There was much promotion of the Russian language in Lithuania and local students were even forced to recite prayers in Russian. Poles and Germans in the same school were allowed to use their own language. Smetona protested and was expelled. He appealed to the Czar’s education minister and was allowed to return in exchange for the compromise of saying his prayers in Latin. He then abandoned studies toward a priesthood and began studying the history of the Lithuanian language. He helped write a more complete Lithuanian grammar book for students while working in a bank. Russia’s defeat by Germany saw the Baltic states get recognized as independent after the war. The area of Memel was further taken from Germany. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/21/memel-1920-the-french-worry-about-the-germans-and-forget-to-worry-about-the-lithuanians/ . There was much pressure from Soviet Russia, Poland, and Germany to receive the territory that Lithuania processed. There were also many ambitious Lithuanians wanting to serve the new government. Getting them to agree on much was next to impossible and there was much corruption involved in repatriating to Lithuanians assets that belonged to German, Russian, Jew, and Polish residents before independence.

In 1926 Smetona participated in a coup that made him President. Over the next few years he consolidated power until he was ruling by decree. He tried hard to limit foreign influence in Lithuania. He spent lavishly on the armed forces with the view that his greatest military threat was the Soviets. To that end he gave Memel back to Germany in order to turn them into an ally as they were in the First World War.

A year later Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pact that gave the Baltic states to the Soviets. Soon Smetona was packing his bags. He did not want to be the one to hand over the country to the Soviets and he hoped that he could lead a government in exile. He was stopped at the German border by Lithuanian border guards. He tried and failed to convince the local regiment commander to offer at least token resistance to the Soviets. They then let him and his family slip over the border. Smetona found himself unwelcome in Berlin as Hitler and Stalin were then unlikely allies. He applied for a visa from not yet at war USA that was granted on the condition that he stayed out of politics. Before taking the USA up on the offer, Smetona went to Switzerland in hopes of setting up a government in exile. In Bern he found many of his old rivals in exile and none wanted to be involved with the former dictator. After a long journey that included Portugal and Brazil, he finally made it to the USA. Again he found his old rivals had no place for him, The Lithuanian Ambassador that he appointed was in cahoots with the old rivals in Bern.

Smetona’s son upon arriving in the USA had taken a factory job in Cleveland, a city that then had a large Lithuanian community. Unlike most deposed dictators then and now, Smetona did not leave Lithuania with a great sum of money. Finding no support among the diaspora in the USA, Smetona and his wife ended up moving in with his son. He died in his son’s home in 1944 due to a housefire. The government in exile was not able to do much when the Soviets retook Lithuania from the Germans. By then the Soviets were American allies and the government in exile had collaborated too much with Germany. The only achievement was maintaining recognition of Lithuanian independence as granted by the League of Nations in 1919.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Antanas Smetona. Sure he wasn’t able to keep Lithuania independent but he was able to shut up his ambitious rivals while the country faced such challenges and proved himself not a crook when he left with no stolen money. Well above par, if we understand that par is pretty low. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

To the victor go the spoils. Memel was Germany’s easternmost city and had a large Lithuanian minority. It’s position on the Baltic made it a revenue rich trading city that attracted the French. The Treaty of Versailles gave far off Memel to them and it was valuable source of war reparations. This left out the view of the people, whose will then took a surprising turn. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Who the heck are these French people and why are they here? How else to react to a standard French stamp issue just overprinted in German for use during the occupation. This might have told the Lithuanian minority something they needed to know. The French wouldn’t be there long, they would have made a definitive stamp issue. The German overprint further indicates that they are not thinking of the Lithuanians at all. Well as Gomer Pyle might say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

Todays stamp is issue A18, an 80 Pfennig on 45 Centimes stamp issued by the French administration of Memel in 1920. It was a 43 stamp issue of overprints in various denominations on a French stamp issue that began in 1900 and lasted into the 1920s. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused. If this isn’t a big enough overprint for you there is also a version with an additional airmail overprint that ups the value to $13 used. Used Memel stamps tend to be more valuable. France was in Memel to raise revenue, so naturally their printing presses worked overtime.

Memel had been a part of Prussia for a long period and the old city fortified and converted to Lutheran. The Lithuanians in the area, about 40 percent of the population were mainly in the countryside. It was a port city and being a part of Prussia saw much development and industrialization. The Prussians also did much work foresting what was essentially a sand bar to make sure the Baltic Sea would not reclaim it.

After World War I the French arrived. It was thought that after war reparations were repaid the city would become a free state in the manner of Danzig. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/19/danzig-1923-a-very-early-airmail-stamp-from-a-german-city-that-suddenly-found-itself-outside-germany/ . This was not what the new neighboring state of Lithuania wanted. Poland also wanted Memel given to Lithuania but then the whole of Lithuania given to Poland. Ambitious but not realistic. Lithuania decided to act quickly. Non uniformed troops marched in with three goals, the main German border crossing the port and the old city. They pretended to be trying to throw off the slavery of the Germans but the reality was that it was coordinated with Germany and the still German police force did not resist. The French in Memel old city refused to surrender and there were skirmishes with the Lithuanians until the French retired to barracks. A French ship arrived offshore with reinforcements but stayed offshore and instead it was decided to evacuate the French Army. French protests went out to Lithuania but taking of Memel was recognized internationally in 1924. The German residents stayed.

Having a relivily prosperous German city in Lithuania was quite a boom for the much poorer Lithuania. Memel’s 5 percent of Lithuania’s territory accounted for a third of it’s industry and 75 percent of it’s trade. The 1939 nonaggression treaty between Hitler and Stalin saw Memel returned to Germany. However toward the end the war the approach of the Red Army saw ethnic Germans flee west never to return. Memel became Klaipeda and declined economically, although the Soviets built a large shipyard there. Today Klaipeda is 87 percent Lithuanian, 6 percent Russian, with hardly any Germans. The population is in decline but the city hopes to come back based to cruise ship tourists visiting the old city.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Lithuania. For the boldness to take the city and the smarts to let the Germans be to lay their golden eggs. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.