Nedilia (Transcarpathia)

Nedilia (Transcarpathia) («Неділя»; Sunday). The name of three weekly papers for the ‘Ruthenian’ peasants (see Ruthenians) of Transcarpathia. The first was funded by the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture and published in Budapest from 1897 to 1918. Edited by K. Demko (1897–9) and Mykhailo Vrabel (1899–1918), it was published in the Transcarpathian dialect. From 1916 to 1918 it was forced to appear in the Hungarian alphabet. The second Nedilia was funded by Bishop Oleksander Stoika of Mukachevo. Published in Uzhhorod from October 1935 to 1938 and edited by E. Bokshai, it appeared in an artificial language based on the Transcarpathian dialect and promoted a non-Russophile, non-Ukrainian, ‘Ruthenian’ identity, Greek Catholicism, and loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic. The third Nedilia was published in Uzhhorod after the defeat and occupation of Carpatho-Ukraine by Hungary. Edited by Oleksander Ilnytsky under the title Karpats'ka nedilia (1939–41) and by A. Nemet as Nedilia (1941–4), it was the unofficial organ of Mukachevo eparchy and promoted a pro-Hungarian ‘Ugro-Ruthenian’ identity. It was closed down after the Soviet occupation of Transcarpathia.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]