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On a congress in Vilnius, from 18 to 23 September 1917, a National Counsel 'Lietuvos Taryba' was chosen. This counsel consisted of 20 members with Antanas Smetona as chairman. In Vilnius on 18 February 1918 the Taryba proclaimed the independence of Lithuania. The day of this proclamation, 16 February 1918, was considered as Independence-Day. With the day of armistice (11 November) the first Ministry Voldemaras enters upon one's duties.
On 16 November 1918, with the first postal regulations, the electrical engineer Benediktas Tamosevicius was appointed in the Ministry of Communication to manage the Post-, Telegraph- and Telephone-communications. This we can see thus as the beginning of the independent Lithuanian Post.

Further the executive staff consisted of J. Ducinkas, appointed 20 November 1918, Adolfas Sruoga, appointed 29 November, and J. Augunas, appointed 19 December.
The German authorities co-operated not really: even an office was not available within the Main Postoffice of Vilnius. However there were rooms empty and one decided to 'sqatt' in a room. The former room of the postmaster of Vilnius seemed well suitable for it and on 9 December L. Ducinkas broke open the door, which led to the inner courdyard. He repaired the broken glass panels and connected the room with the electricity.
The Germans protested indeed, but did not carry into effect their menaces and in this room the Lithuanian Post began her activities. After negotiations the Lithuanians could take over for 150.000 Auksinai surplus material from the Germans.
Also the Poles worked against so much as possible and hired even somebody to remove posters.

On 24 December 1918 the occupation-authorities ordered that the Lithuanians could take over the post-offices direct. At the same time also they came to an arrangement for the post-transport along the railways of the Germans: a compartment of each of four trains was destined for this. A board with 'Lietuvos Paštas' was been hung -something provisional- on the window.

In this period Vilnius changed hands more times:

1918, 18 february	Proclamation of independence, as independence-day: 16 february
1918, 3 march	Peace of Brest-Litowsk, Russia cedes Lithuania
1918, 11 november	Capitulation of Germany, Lithuania independent with Vilnius as capital
1918, 26 december	First Lithuanian post office in Vilnius
1918, 27 december	First Lithuanian stamps at the counter in Vilnius
1919, 3-4 januari	First occupation of Vilnius by Polish warriors
1919, 5 january	Government of Lithuania moved to Kaunas
1919, 5 january	First occupation of van Vilnius by bolsheviks (LSSR-LITBEL)
1919, 19 april	Second Polish occupation of Vilnius
1919	Peace-conference of Paris: Lithuania independent
1920, 12 july	Russia recognizes Lithuania with Vilnius (Peace of Moscow)
1920, 26 august	Second Lithuanian government-time in Vilnius
1920, 9 october	Third Polish occupation (general Zeligowski)
1920, 10 october	Proclamation of state "Central Lithuania"(Vilnius-area)

Because the German stamps can not be used, it was necesary to print stamps at very short notice. Benediktas Tamosevicius, since 16 november 1918 the first postmaster of Lithuania, has thus not so many possibilities.
He has tried to take over the stock stamps of Ob. Ost, but this directed to nothing. So over-printing was not possible and Ob.Ost ended his activities on 26 December. After all the first stamps of Lithuania are been really 'necessity-edition': in the night of 26 to 27 december the first stamps were printed, the first 'Vilnius-edition'. They are printed in the printing-office of M. Kukta in Vilnius, but their experience limited itself to books and forms. There was no real design: only the stock of letters of the printing-office could be used and Jonas Strazdus, an employee of the printing-office maked the 'design'. On 27 December the stamps arrived at the counter. In the first instance they were not used in Vilnius for postage, because there were on order 'more beautiful' stamps in Berlin.

Mi.1, first stamp of Lithuania, first Vilnius-edition

Four days later, 31 December, came out the second edition: only the numerals are replaced by more thick numerals.
Mi.3, second Vilnius-edition

The stock of letters of the printing-office was bad, and therefore it is good possible to reconstruate the positions of the stamps in the sheet of 20 stamps on the basis of faults of the print-plate. For the word "shatiku"thre were even not enough letters, so some emergency measures were necessary:
good letter--------------------------reversed 'h'-----------------------u with apostrophe


For the right letter (left), to make the genitivus in the Lithuanian language, 12 x a reversed 'h' was used and 1x 'n' with apostrophe.
Both issues are printed on -not gummed- 'sämisch' book-printing-paper, without watermark. The perforation was maked only between the stamps.
The cancellation of Vilnius itself was a not-dated black one-line-postmark.
The Main Post-office of Vilnius was transmitted by the Germans just on 1 January, after the Telegraph- and Telephone-system has been made useless.

VILNIUS 1919-1920
In the night of 3-4 January 1919 the city was occupied by Polish troops. The government turned aside to Kaunas, but J. Ducinkas and A. Sruoga stayed still in Vilnius active to 6 January. After the first occupation by the bolshevists (5 January) a whole new post-organisation was established, in wich in the first instance the Lithuanians were taken up, among others Sruoga and Ducinkas. After the commissioner Srotel has been succeeded by Gurvic, the situation changed.
The last one was not kindly disposed towards the Lithuanians and the oppression begun. Sruogo could fly, but J. Ducinkas was arrested and liberated not until the re-occupation of Vilnius by the Poles (19 April 1919). Beyond the official Russian Post, also -unofficially- the Polish Post continued working. The strong reorganised Lithuanian army approached Vilnius already, but the Polish armies, led by Pilsudski, could occupy the town earlier. The Supreme Council of the Allied and associated powers established a line of demarcation on 26 April, by which Vilnius temporarely came to the Poles. In 1920 the Polish Post is already really active in Vilnius.
By the second occupation by the Red Army (15 July 1920), there were postal activities of the Russians, postal activities of the Lithuanian were tolerated by them, and the Polish post continued -underground- also. The Lithuanians could set up an own post-office in the building of the former State-Bank.
Also the Russians had an own post-office. Even the bolshevist post-office could be reached by the main entrance, and one had access to the Lithuanian Post by a side-entrance. It is not clear if this was of the 'civil' Lithuanian Post or the Sovjet-Lithuanian.
Short before, on 12 July 1920, in Moscow the peace-treaty was brought about, by which Lithuania was recognized, including the area around Vilnius and Gardinas. On 25 August the Russians give over Vilnius to the Lithuanians and on 26 August the Lithuanian government is removed to Vilnius.
This endured to the third Polish occupation by troops of the Lithuanian-Whiterussian front. Postal items from this period are very rare, special from the official bolshevist period is really nothing known.

Periodicals:
BLPSNY = Bulletin of the Philatelic Society of New York [in English] HBG = Het Baltische Gebied[in Dutch]
Lituania [in German]

De eerste en tweede Vilnius uitgave : 27 dec - 31 dec. 1918 / Ruud W. van Wijnen In: HBG 1984 ; 4. - p. [4-17]	[About: Mi.1-8 ]
Litauen - ein Geheimtip für Sammler und forschende Philatelisten (IV) / Hermann Logsch In: DBZ 1982 ; nr. 14. - p. 2625-2629	[About: Vilnius-issues, Mi. 1-8, and first Kaunas-issue, Mi. 9-12]
Lithuania - postal history background : [december 1918] In: BLPSNY 1985 ; 135. - p.8577-8579	[About: postal history December 1918]
Lithuania - postal history background : [january 1919] In: BLPSNY 1986 ; 136. - p.8606-8608	[About: postal history Januari 1919]
Die Vorgeschichte der Mittellitauen-Post vom Abzug der deutschen Truppen bis zur Staatsgründung 1920 : eine Quellenstudie / von Gerhard Hahne In: Mitt.blatt Bundesarb. Polen im Bdpe.V 1989 ; 5. - p. 25-41	[About: Vilnius-area 1918-1920]
Wilna-Zeittafel In: Lituania 1996 ; nr. 5. - p. 235	[About: Vilnius chronological table]
Wilnas Post 1918-1922 / Gerhard Hahne In: Lituania 1996 ; nr. 5. - p. 289-294	[About: postal history of Vilnius 1918-1922]

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Tsaristic period

1914-1918 World War I

1920-1939 Central Lithuania and Polish Period

1939-1945 Sovjet - Lithuanian - German

1944-1990 Sovjet period

1990- Independence