The Sub-Carpathian Messenger - Jay T. Carrigan

About Fedor Feketa
Fedor Feketa (in Hungarian Fekete Ferenc) was a Ukrainian born 1789 in the village Turia
Remeta. When a smeltering works was established in his village, he became responsible for
the daily delivery of mail to and from Uzhhorod (Ungvár) some 25 kilometers away across
mountainous terrain, which he carried out on foot, no matter what the weather. The post
he delivered and collected was from 5, Sobranetska street in Uzhhorod (still there today!).
This was a post office stage on the Budapest – Koshytsi - Lviv [i.e. Budapest – Kassa – Lemberg
in traditional naming] line. Crossing a river in 1839 he fell in to the freezing water,
his lungs became infected and he died 18 March 1839. He had probably been a postman for
over 30 years! The illustrated bronze statue [shown on the title page of SCM #001] was
erected in the nearby town of Perechyn in November 2004 and shows Fedor Feketa in traditional
‘Hutsul’ dress crossing two stones on the river where he fell.
We thank Peter Cybiniak and Roman Dubyniak for providing this information.
About us and the Newsletter
The Study Circle is a loose group of persons who are interested in the postal (and general)
history of the area known as Kárpátalja in Hungarian, as Podkarpatská Rus during the First
Czechoslovakian Republic, which had a short day of independence as Carpatho Ukraine,
and later was integrated into the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union as the ‘Zakarpatskaja
Oblast’. Since 1991 it is the westernmost administrative district in the Ukraine.
The first issue of our Newsletter has been sent to about 25 persons we thought might be
interested, and we have received positive replies from most of them. The current list of
recipients is
Jay T. CARRIGAN (USA) Seppo LAAKSONEN (Finland)
Tom COSSABOOM (USA) John LECHTANSKI (USA)
Andrew CRONIN (Canada) Alexander MALYCKY (Canada)
Peter CYBINIAK (United Kingdom) Jerry MARKEWICH (Canada)
Rex A. DIXON (United Kingdom) B. Sc. NAGY Gábor (Hungary)
Roman DUBYNIAK (United Kingdom) Tønnes ORE (Norway)
Harold FORD (USA) Dr. Juan E. PAGE (Spain)
GIDÓFALVY Péter (Hungary) Alex POPOVITCH (Ukraine)
David HOLT (United Kingdom) Jan ROMPES (Cyprus)
Otto HORNUNG (honorary member) Michael SHULEWSKY (USA)
Savoy HORVATH (USA) Jim SIMON (USA)
Alexander IVAKHNO (Ukraine) Ctibor SOBOTKA (The Netherlands)
Martin JURKOVI (Slovakia) Ing. Jan VERLEG (The Netherlands)
Dr. Helmut KOBELBAUER (Austria) Dr. Michal ZIKA (Slovakia)
Dr. Ingert KUZYCH (USA)
All articles in the Newsletter carrying the name of an author are the sole responsibility of
this author and should not be taken to represent the common opinion of the Study Circle.
Such articles are, if not marked otherwise, copyrighted by the respective author. Free use
within the Study Circle is granted.
We will “print” everything even only loosely connected with our subject of interest so any
contribution is certainly welcome. Please send it (as a Word 2000 document, graphical
elements in JPEG, 300 dpi) to our editor’s e-mail address (kb@aatc.at). His postal address,
if you would need it, is:
Dr. Helmut Kobelbauer
Untergrossau 81, A-8261 Sinabelkirchen, Austria / Europe
The Sub-Carpathian Messenger – Number 2 (January 2009) Page 2