A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF “NÁRODNÁ JEDNOTA”, THE FIRST WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF SLOVAKS IN VOJVODINA

Abstract

In the interwar period, the Slovak minority in Vojvodina had a highly developed publishing activity, which was largely influenced by the establishment of the Book-printing House of the Participatory Society in 1919. In the ranks of Slovak intelligence, after the First World War, the thought had matured about publishing a political weekly as a manifestation of the emancipated life of the Slovak minority in the territory of Vojvodina, because the magazines from Slovakia either did not arrive regularly or wrote nothing about the conditions in Vojvodina. The socio-political weekly Národná Jednota (National Unity) (1920-1941) was a successor to Dolnozemský Slovák (The Lower Land Slovak).

The aims of the newspaper were: fostering of national awareness in the new circumstances of separation from its “Czechoslovak” nation, cultivating loyalty to the state in which they lived after the break-up of Austro-Hungary, and especially cultivating love for the Serbian fraternal nation, which allowed them a free nationalidentity. Although the concept of the newspaper was culturally instructive, and the newspaper was supposed to be impartial, its main objective was to represent minority interests and to support Slovak civil and national rights.

The editorial board also added a children’s supplement, without additional payment and increased subscription,, which was published in the period of 1936-1938. Not only did this children’s supplement of NJ have a utilitarian-didactic focus, but thanks to fiction contributions from Slovak and other nations literatures, it also influenced the aesthetic and moral feelings of little readers. An important place was occupied by education for national awareness, which was the focus of the entire newspaper NJ.

After cessation of printing, Národná Jednota wasthe newspaper with the longest continuous publication. Many consider it to be the most importnant Slovak minority newspaper of that time and an extraordinary source for exploring the lives of Vojvodinian Slovaks.