Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). OUN-UPA

In Ukraine, 5 million 300 thousand civilians died at the hands of the Nazis, 2 million 300 thousand able-bodied Ukrainian women and Ukrainians were driven to Germany.
850,000 Jews, 220,000 Poles, more than 400,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and another 500,000 civilian Ukrainians died at the hands of punishers - Bandera. 20 thousand soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army and law enforcement agencies were killed, approximately 4-5 thousand of their own "warriors" of the UPA, who were not "active and nationally conscious" enough.

June 30, 1941. The Nachtigall Battalion, under the command of R. Shukhevych, who broke into Lviv at dawn together with the German advanced units, in the first days destroyed more than 3 thousand Poles from Lviv, including 70 world-famous scientists. And within a week, R. Shukhevych's "Nachtigal" battalion brutally annihilated about 7,000 civilians, including children, women, and the elderly. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky held a divine service in the courtyard of the Svyatoyura Cathedral in honor of "the invincible German army and its chief leader, Adolf Hitler." With the blessing of the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the mass extermination of civilians in Ukraine by Bandera, Nakhtigalev, Upovtsy and warriors of the SS division "Galicia" began.

R. Shukhevych.
Created with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War by an Abwehr agent, a member of the Chernivtsi regional OUN wire, Voynovsky, Bukovinsky kuren (about 500 people) arrived in Kiev on September 22, 1941, where from September 28 he took part in the massacre of innocent people of different nationalities in BABY YARU. Then 350 thousand people were deprived of their lives, including 160 thousand Jews, of which 50 thousand were children! And not only took part, but was the main executor of this bloody battle. For these atrocities and cannibalism, for zeal in the service of fascism, Voinovsky was awarded the rank of SS major.
Among the 1,500 punishers at Babi Yar, there were 1,200 policemen from the OUN and only 300 Germans!

At the beginning of 1942, the Nachtigal battalion was reorganized into the 201st SS police battalion and, led by Captain Shukhevych, was sent to Belarus to fight partisans. It was the Nakhtigalevites who wiped off the face of the earth the Belarusian village of KHATYN, the Volyn village of KORBELISY, in which over 2,800 civilians were killed and burned, mostly children, women, the elderly and the sick.
On February 9, 1943, Bandera from the gang of Pyotr Netovich, under the guise of Soviet partisans, entered the Polish village of Parosle near Vladimirets, Rivne region. The peasants, who had previously provided assistance to the partisans, warmly welcomed the guests. After eating plenty, the bandits began to rape women and girls. Before they were killed, their chests, noses and ears were cut off. Then they began to torture the rest of the villagers. Men were stripped of their genitals before they died. Finished off with blows of an ax on the head.

Two teenagers, the Gorshkevich brothers, who tried to call real partisans for help, had their stomachs cut open, their legs and arms cut off, their wounds were abundantly covered with salt, leaving the half-dead to die in the field. In total, 173 people, including 43 children, were brutally tortured in this village.
In one of the houses on the table among the leftovers and unfinished bottles of moonshine lay a dead one-year-old child, whose naked body was nailed to the table boards with a bayonet. The monsters put a half-eaten pickled cucumber into his mouth.
March 1943 In the outskirts of Huta Stepanska, Stepan commune, Kostopil district, Ukrainian nationalists stole 18 Polish girls by deception, who were killed after being raped. The bodies of the girls were placed side by side, and a ribbon was placed on them with the inscription: “This is how the frogs should die.”

On March 7, 1943, in the district of Terazh (Lutsk district), Bandera captured several Polish children in the pasture, who were muzzled in the nearest forest.
On May 5, 1943, in Lipniki (Kostopol district), three-year-old Stasik Pavlyuk was smashed in the head against the wall, holding him by the legs.
On June 8, 1943, in the village of Chertozh-Vodnik (Rivne district), the upovtsy, in the absence of their parents' home, muzzled the three children of the Bronevskys: Vladislav, 14 years old, Elena, 10 years old, and Henry, 12 years old.
On July 11, 1943, during the service of God, Bandera attacked the village of Osmigovichi and killed believers. A week later, our village was attacked... The little children were thrown into the well, and the big ones were locked up in the basement and filled up. One Banderite, holding the baby by the legs, hit his head against the wall. The mother of that baby screamed until she was pierced with a bayonet.
July 11, 1943 Biskupichi village, Mykulichi commune, Vladimir-Volynsky district. Ukrainian nationalists committed a massacre, herding residents into a school building. Then the family of Vladislav Yaskula was brutally murdered. The executioners broke into the house when everyone was asleep. Parents and five children were killed with axes, they were all put together, covered with straw from mattresses and set on fire.
On July 11, in Kalusovo (Vladimir district), during the massacre, the Upovites muzzled the two-month-old baby Iosif Fili, tore him by the legs, and put the parts of the calf on the table.

July 12, 1943 Colonia Maria Volya, commune Mykulychi, Vladimir-Volynsky district. Around 15.00, Ukrainian nationalists surrounded her and began to muzzle the Poles, using firearms, axes, knives, pitchforks and sticks. About 200 people (45 families) died. Some of the people, about 30 people, were thrown alive into a well and there they were killed with stones. Those who fled were chased down and finished off. During this massacre, the Ukrainian Didukh was ordered to kill a Polish woman and two children. When he did not comply with the order, they killed him, his wife and two children. Eighteen children aged 3 to 12, who hid in the grain fields, were caught by the criminals, put on a bed cart, brought to the village of Chestny Krest and killed there, punched with pitchforks, chopped with axes. The action was led by Kwasnitsky.
August 29-30, 1943, by order of the commander of the so-called military district of the OUN "Oleg" on
On the territory of Kovelsky, Lyubomlsky and Turinsky districts of the Volyn region, several hundred people of the UPA under the leadership of Yury Stelmashchuk massacred the entire Polish population. They plundered all their property and burned their farms. In total, in these areas on August 29 and 30, 1943, more than 15 thousand people were slaughtered and shot by Bandera, among whom there were many elderly people, women and children.

They drove the entire population to one place without exception, surrounded it and began the massacre. After there was not a single living person left, they dug large pits, dumped all the corpses into them and covered them with earth. To hide the traces of this terrible action, we kindled fires on the graves. So they completely destroyed dozens of small villages and farms ... "
In mid-September 1943, about 3,000 residents of Polish nationality were killed and stabbed to death by UPA gangs in the Gorokhovsky and former Senkivichsky districts of the Volyn region. It is characteristic that one of the groups of the UPA was led by a priest of the autocephalous church, who was in the OUN, who absolved his flock of sins for the atrocities committed. People were laid on the ground in rows, face down, and then shot. Once again laying down people for execution, a Bandera man shot a 3-4-year-old boy. The bullet blew off the top of his skull. The child got up, began to scream and run from one side to the other with an open pulsating brain. Bandera continued to shoot, and the child ran until the next bullet calmed him ...
On November 11, 1943, on the orders of commander Laidaki, one hundred (company. Auth.), led by Nedotypolsky, went to liquidate the Polish colony Khvashchevat. The whole colony was burned, 10 Poles were killed... 45 horses were taken away...

In the autumn of 1943, the soldiers of the "army of the immortals" killed dozens of Polish children in the village of Lozova, Ternopil district. In the alley, they "decorated" the trunk of each tree with the corpse of a child who had been killed before.
According to Western researcher Alexander Korman, the corpses were nailed to trees in such a way as to create the appearance of a “wreath”.
Yu.Kh. from Poland: “In March 1944, our village of Guta Shklyana, commune Lopatyn, was attacked by Bandera, among them was one named Didukh from the village of Oglyadov. Five people were killed, cut in half. A minor was raped."
March 16, 1944 Stanislavshchina: group "L" and group "Garkusha" in the amount of 30 persons destroyed 25 Poles ...
On March 19, 1944, a group "L" and a county fighter in the amount of 23 people held an action in the village. Zelenivka (Tovmachchin). 13 farms were burned, 16 Poles were killed.

On March 28, 1944, Sulima's group of 30 people destroyed 18 Poles ...
On March 29, 1944, the Semyon group liquidated 12 Poles in Pererosl and burned 18 farms ...
April 1, 1944 Ternopil region: killed in the village. White 19 Poles, 11 households burned
April 2, 1944 Ternopil region: nine Poles were killed, two Jewish women who were in the service of the Poles ...
On April 5, 1944, the Zaliznyak regional group carried out an action in Porogy and Yablintsy. Six houses were burned, 16 Poles were destroyed ...
April 5, 1944 Kholmshchina: the groups "Galaida" and "Tigers" carried out a liquidation action against the colonies: Gubynok, Lupche, Polediv, Zharnyky ... In addition, the self-defense group "Fox" destroyed the colony Marysin and Radkiv, and the Orla group - Polish colonies in Riplyn. Several dozen Polish soldiers and many civilians were killed.”

On April 9, 1944, the Nechay group liquidated in the village. Pasichnaya 25 Poles...
On April 11, 1944, the Dovbush group liquidated 81 Poles in Rafaylovo.
April 14, 1944 Ternopil region: 38 Poles were killed...
April 15, 1944 in the village. Fat 66 Poles were killed, 23 households were burned...
On April 16, 1944, the Dovbush group liquidated in the village. Green 20 Poles...”.
On April 27, 1944, the district fighting liquidated 55 men and five women Poles in the village of Ulatsko-Seredkevichi. At the same time, about 100 farms were burned ... And further in this report, figures are given in detail, with accounting accuracy, more precisely, detailed statements about the number of liquidated Poles by the UPA group: “Streams - 3 (local), Lyubich-Koleitsy - 3 (local). )..., Lyubich - 10 (beige)..., Tyagliv - 15 (women, local) and 44 (unknown)..., Zabirye - 30 (local and unknown), Rivers - 15 ( local and unknown).
April 17, 1944 Khovkovshchina: the UPA group (Gromovoy) and the Dovbush combat unit destroyed the Polish stronghold of Stanislivok. At the same time, about 80 Polish men were liquidated.
April 19, 1944 Lyubachivshchina: the UPA group "Avengers" destroyed the Polish village of Rutka, the village was burned and 80 Poles liquidated ...
From April 30, 1944 - to May 12, 1944 in the village. Glibovichi killed 42 Poles; near the villages: Myseva - 22, Township - 36, Zarubina - 27, Bechas - 18, Nedylyska - 19, Grabnik -19, Galina - 80, Zhabokrug - 40 Poles. All actions were carried out by the district militia with the help of the Orly UPA
In the summer of 1944, a hundred "Igor" stumbled in the Paridub forest on a camp of gypsies who had fled from the persecution of the Nazis. The bandits robbed them and brutally killed them. They cut them with saws, strangled them with strangleholds, chopped them into pieces with axes. In total, 140 gypsies were killed, including 67 children.

From the village of Volkovya one night, Bandera brought a whole family into the forest. For a long time they mocked the unfortunate people. Seeing that the wife of the head of the family was pregnant, they cut open her stomach, pulled the fetus out of it, and instead pushed in a live rabbit.
One night, the bandits broke into the Ukrainian village of Lozovaya. Over 100 peaceful peasants were killed within 1.5 hours. A bandit with an ax in his hands broke into the hut of Nastya Dyagun and hacked to death her three sons. The smallest, four-year-old Vladik, cut off his arms and legs. In Makukha's hut, the killers found two children, three-year-old Ivasik and ten-month-old Joseph. A ten-month-old child, seeing a man, was delighted and with a laugh stretched out her hands to him, showing her four teeth. But the ruthless bandit slashed the baby's head with a knife, and cut his head with an ax to his brother Ivasik.
After the warriors of the “army of the immortals” left the village, dead bodies were found on the bed, on the floor and on the stove in the hut of the peasant Kuzi. Splashes of human brain and blood froze on the walls and ceiling. Bandera's ax cut short the lives of six innocent children: the eldest of them was 9 years old, and the youngest was 3 years old.

Ch.B. from the USA: “On Podlesye, that was the name of the village, the Bandera people muzzled four from the family of the miller Petrushevsky, while the 17-year-old Adolfina was dragged along a rocky rural road until she died.”
F.B. from Canada: “Bandera came to our yard, grabbed our father and cut off his head with an ax, our sister was pierced with a stake. Mom, seeing this, died of a broken heart.
Yu.V. from the UK: “My brother's wife was Ukrainian. Because she married a Pole, 18 Bandera raped her. She didn’t get out of this shock ... she drowned herself in the Dniester.”
At night, from the village of Khmyzovo, a village girl of seventeen years old, or even younger, was brought to the forest. Her fault was that she, along with other rural girls, went to dances when a military unit of the Red Army was stationed in the village. "Kubik" saw the girl and asked "Varnak" for permission to personally interrogate her. He demanded that she confess that she was "walking" with the soldiers. The girl swore that it was not. “And I’ll check it now,” “Kubik” grinned, sharpening a pine stick with a knife. In a moment, he jumped up to the prisoner and with the sharp end of the stick began to poke her between her legs until he drove a pine stake into the girl's genitals.
The same young girl Motrya Panasyuk was tortured by Bandera for a long time, and then her heart was torn out of her chest.
Thousands of Ukrainians died a terrible, martyr's death.

R. Shukhevych's henchmen from the Security Council waged a merciless fight against the Soviet partisans and underground fighters. In confirmation, here is another document from the Rivne archive:
“10/21/43 ... 7 Bolshevik scouts were captured, who were going from Kamenets-Podolsky to Polissya. After the investigation, evidence was obtained that these were Bolshevik intelligence officers, and they
destroyed... On October 28, 1943, a teacher-scammer was destroyed in the village of Bogdanovka, Koretsky district... In the village of Trostyanets, 1 house was burned down and a family was thrown into the fire alive... Headquarters. 10/31/43 Chef R. 1 V. Zima.
Nurse Yashchenko D.P. - Soon we witnessed how the OUN slaughtered entire hospitals, which at first they left in the rear as before - without guards. They carved stars on the body of the wounded, cut off their ears, tongues, genitals. They mocked the defenseless liberators of their land from the Nazis as they wanted. And now we are told that these so-called "patriots" of Ukraine fought only with the "punishers" of the NKVD. All this is a lie! What kind of patriots are they?! This is a rabid animal.
A policeman from the village of Ratno, Volyn region, A. Koshelyuk, while serving with the Germans, personally shot about a hundred civilians. He took part in the destruction of the population of the village of Kortelis, which received the name of the "Ukrainian Lidice" among the people. Later he joined the UPA. In the police and the UPA he was known under the nickname Dorosh.
Roman Shukhevych: “... The OUN can act in such a way that, having recognized the radian power, we will be poor. Do not zalyakuvati, but physically snicker! It is not necessary to be afraid that people will curse us for being greedy. Out of 40 million of the Ukrainian population, half will be deprived - there is nothing terrible for them ... ".

Bandera, who improved the skills of executioners in the German police units and the SS troops, literally excelled in the art of torturing defenseless people. Chuprinka (R. Shukhevych) served as an example for them, encouraging such studies in every possible way.
When the whole world was healing the wounds inflicted on humanity by the most terrible of all previous wars, Shukhevych's thugs killed more than 80 thousand people in Western Ukrainian lands. The overwhelming majority of those who died were peaceful people of civilian professions far from politics. A significant percentage of those who died at the hands of nationalist murderers were innocent children and the elderly.
In the village of Svatovo, four female teachers who were tortured to death by Shukhevych's henchmen are well remembered. For being from the Soviet Donbass!

Raisa Borzilo, teacher, p. Pervomaisk. Before her execution, the nationalists accused her of promoting the Soviet system at school. The Bandera people gouged her eyes out alive, cut off her tongue, then put a noose of wire around her neck and dragged her into the field.
There are thousands of such examples.
Here is what one of the organizers of the genocide on the lands of Western Ukraine told the commander of the UPA group Fyodor Vorobets after his detention by law enforcement agencies:
“... I do not deny that under my leadership a large number of atrocities were committed against ... civilians, not to mention the mass destruction of OUN-UPA members suspected of collaborating with Soviet authorities ... Suffice it to say that in one in the regions of Sarnensky, Bereznovsky, Klesovsky, Rokitnyansky, Dubrovetsky, Vysotsky and other regions of the Rovno region and in two regions of the Pinsk region of the Byelorussian SSR, gangs and fighters of the Security Service subordinate to me, according to reports received by me, in one 1945 destroyed six thousand Soviet citizens..."
(Criminal case of F. Vorobets. Kept in the SBU Department for the Volyn region.).

The result of the exhumation of the victims of the massacre of Poles in the villages of Ostrówka and Vola Ostrovetska carried out on August 17-22, 1992, committed by OUN-UPA monsters - The total number of victims in the two listed villages is 2,000 Poles.
In accordance with the norms of the International Tribunal, such acts are qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity, and as having no statute of limitations!!!
The actions of the Banderaites can only be called GENOCIDE against humanity, and is it worth recalling that the hands of the bandits from the UPA were stained with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Belarusians and Russians killed during the establishment of the “new world order” in Ukraine. In many Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian cities, monuments to the victims of the Bandera GENOCIDE should be erected! It is necessary to publish a book "In memory of the victims of the GENOCIDE who died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists and Bandera."

The main organizer of the genocide of Poles and Jews was Chuprynka (R. Shukhevych), who issued a special order that read:
“Treat Jews the same way as Poles and Gypsies: destroy mercilessly, spare no one... Take care of doctors, pharmacists, chemists, nurses; keep them under guard... The Jews used for digging bunkers and building fortifications, upon completion of work, shall be liquidated without publicity..."
(Prus E. Holokost po banderowsku. Wroclaw, 1995).

The souls of the innocent victims are crying out for a fair trial for the brutal murderers - Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN-UPA!
OUN-UPA crimes have no statute of limitations.

The study of the history of the struggle of the power organs of the USSR to eliminate the Bandera movement in the western regions of Ukraine in the middle of the last century is a very double-edged and painful problem. The nationalist governments of Ukraine throughout the 24 years of its "independent" existence diligently supported the propaganda efforts of many biased "historians" such as S. Kulchytsky, Y. Shapoval, V. Sergiychuk, V. Idzio, I. Bilas and others to whitewash the executioner and collaborationist activities of the armed underground OUN-UPA. And one of the main dogmas of this process, canonizedOhin the infamous opus "Fahovy visnovokworking group of historians at the Uryadoviy komіsії z vyvchennya diyalnosti OUN and UPA» (2005) was the “Myth of the Disguised Enkavedeshniki”, thoroughly exposed only in 2007 in the article of the same name by the Dnepropetrovsk researcher Oleg Rosov (later this work was repeatedly republished). As he rightly noted: “The lack of an evidence base forces Ukrainian historians to stoop to a banal forgery of archival materials” . On such falsifications, in particular, the head of the Branch Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine under the Yushchenko administration and one of the main apologists for Banderaism, Vladimir Vyatrovich, was noticed. .
The subject of our research is one debatable episode from the history of the fight against the nationalist underground in Volhynia. Namely: the destruction of the NVRO and subsequent events related to the activities of the "intelligence-combat groups" and the Dubnovsky legendary wire. These events were partly covered in the essays of the former Bandera member Y. Omelchuk, published in the early 1960s and experienced a new surge of interest in the early 1990s after the publication of S. Chisnok's articles. Already inXXI century, the problem was studied by the Volyn local historian N. Rutsky and the historian Y. Antonyuk, however, their attempts should be recognized as very unsatisfactory, due to the frank tendentiousness characteristic of almost all modern Ukrainian historiography, and the uncritical perception of the previous opus by S. Chisnok. A detailed analysis of the work is given below.

So, in the context of the beginning of the liberation of the territory of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders and the expansion of the ranks of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), too tainted by cooperation with the Germans (the former commander of the 201st battalion of the German Schutzmannschaft police, Roman Shukhevych, who had the rank of Hauptmann of the Abwehr, was declared the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army ) among the leaders of the nationalist movement in Volhynia, the idea of ​​​​creating a new military-political force was born: the "People's Liberation Revolutionary Organization". As it was stated in the "Statute of the NVRO": "People's voluntary revolutionary organization works together with the main imperialist organizations of other peoples in order to condense the struggle". This initiative was led by members of the OUN Central Wire Mikhailo Stepanyak (pseudo “Sergei”), Rostislav Voloshin (“Pavlenko”), Yakov Busel (“Zaslavsky”), they were supported by a number of middle-level commanders. However, such "revisionism" was extremely hostile to the leadership of the Bandera faction of the OUN, which, acting on the models of the Nazi party, did not tolerate any opposition. There followed a denunciation from the “regional conductor of the OUN to the PZUZ” Galician P. Oleinik (“Eney”) to the commander-in-chief R. Shukhevych: created by the Belarusian NVRO. The first good man of that crochet is a bіlshovitsky agent (bo vіn in 41 p. buv pіd pіd okupatsієyu bіlshovіvіv), unfortunately, it's a member of the central wire of the OUN - "Pavlenko" that yoga right hand in the UPA, like a temple - clap "Bosota", now appointments in my place as the commander of the pivnіchno-zahіdnoї group of the UPA. Raise the political situation in a negligent way, for the health rozlem threatens the fallen Ukrainian independent state under the wire of the OUN" .
A quick and brutal reaction followed, described in detail in an essay by one of the former OUN members, Yustin Omelchuk ("Zhurba"). Voloshin was isolated in a bunker and forced to sign a text condemning the idea of ​​creating a NVRO: “Inthe light of new tributes, which are used by the OUN guards and the leader of Bandera, it became clear that the so-called. NVRO been viewed umіlo zatіyana bіlshovitskoyu agents, dwellers rozklasti vnutrі revolyutsіyno-natsіonalіstichny front OUN ... Nakae negayno pripiniti sorts of robot sіttsі NVRO ... members OUN provokatsіyno vtyagnutі in NVRO, SSMSC not vikonayut tsogo behest, nadalі vvazhatimutsya bіlshovitskimi agents i pіdlyagatimut sudovі OUN ". Busel soon died under unclear circumstances, and Stepanyak was arrested by security officers near the village of Derman, possibly saving his life in this way.
All the commanders and archers who were involved in the NVRO began to brutally exterminate the Bandera "Security Service". Matvey Tokar (“Bosota”) was beheaded with an ax, the political referee of his headquarters Sochi (“Kozub”) and the staff officer “Taras” were hanged from trees and burned alive, the district guide of the Dubenshchina “Gamalia” died on a torture machine, the entire “chota” (company) the guards of the headquarters, led by the "Falcon", were strangled with strangleholds. To these victims were added 72 cadets of the local sub-officer school of the UPA. Another 150 activists were exterminated by esbists A. Prisyazhnyuk (“Broom”) and D. Kazvan (“Chernik”) near the village of Gorbakovka, Goshchansky district, but their work was not completed, because one of the militants P. Dzhurik (“Chubaty”) fled to the commander Andrey Trachuk (Chumak, pseudo "Lomonos") and informed him about the true purpose of the "vidpravi". "Lomonos" dispersed the punishers at the assembly point 142 and disappeared. “In this regard, in a number of districts - the entire Demidovsky, part of Kozinsky and Mlynovsky - operations remained unfinished,” Metla reported.. After the signing of the "circular appeal" with the renunciation of the NVRO, Voloshin was also liquidated - he was stabbed to death by the agent of "Dubovoy" "Yurko", although it was officially announced that "Colonel Pavlenko" fell in the fight against the Bolsheviks.
And to hunt for the unfinished Lomonos, a punitive detachment was sent under the command of Ivan Litvinchuk (Oak). It was then that Chumak was officially accused of working for the NKVD. RThe officer of the SB "Broom" reported: "One of our foremen Lomonis was transferred to the security officers. Enkavedists from the same guards who surrendered to the Bolsheviks created a special mission under the command of Lomonos from the high-ranking guards of the Chekists. Stink walk around the villages and farms, giving themselves to the UPA warriors.
It seems quite convincing that the esbists carried out the order of S. Bandera with such accusations, which was first published in the mentioned essay by Y. Omelchuk and is now widely used in anti-Bandera literature: Under the new situations we wake up a new bibli ... Masovіsti Our Ruhop will be unwashed to assign a thieves of Lіkvіdatsіyu ... pіd fitty bіlshvitka ... Пісной месть стійкі Елементі дисності мествій більшокі инушки по польшоківівів ... Вони инойной with bіlshovism: their mass transition to bіk bіlshovikіv undermined the prestige of the OUN-UPA; Tom needlessly NEGAYNO І Yaknayb_lsha Tairno in ІМ "I am a Veliko-ї иціной їн и писисsezgadanі Elelenti OUN-UPA Lіkvіduvati dual way: a) Visilati Bіlshі y Menshі Vіddіli UPA on the bіj zbіlshoviki І Saturavati Situzії, ї і і інисили більшоки наты і terenovі boїvki and іnshih osіb stanitsa and subdistrict scale supradistrict and district SB due to indemnification under the supervision of bolshovitsky agents" .
Therefore, despite the exemplary past of Lomonos as a fanatical fighter against the Bolsheviks (withserved in the German Schutzpolice, then in the UPA, in April 1944 he participated in the battle near Gurbami, in August he led the “cleansing” of Demidovshchina, during which 60 local residents were killed, for an attempt by several subordinates to read the "Appeal" of the Soviet authorities with a call to surrender, he ordered them to be executed), a strict order was given to find and punish the apostate.
The punitive group of the UPA "Zavihvost" under the command of I. Litvinchuk consisted of 60 militants dressed in Soviet uniforms and white camouflage coats. On January 8, 1945, they overtook the Lomonos detachment of 38 people near the village of Sukhovolya, Lutsk region, surrounded and disarmed. In addition to the UPA fighters, a priest from the village of Torgovishche fell into the hands of the punishers, who, according to Y. Antonyuk, led the point of contact of the Volyn regional wire of the OUN and collaborated with the UNKGB. Antonyuk also assures that, in order to comply with the law, “Dubovoy” waited a long time for the investigator from the Regional Wire of the PZUZ, and only because of the lateness of the latter was forced to hang all those arrested on the spot, except for “Lomonos” himself and the priest. Referring to the memoirs of a certain resident of Lutsk, Galina Kokhanskaya, he also claims that these two, after all, after all, after waiting for the investigator, were handed over to him. However, the original document - the report of "Dubovoy", found in his bunker 5 years later, reads: "on a farm with. Suhovolya Lutskyi district rose to 38 members of the UPA, ocholyuvana "Lomonos" hundreds, yak diyala on the territory of the Demidivskyi district of the Rivne region and for the award of the Security Service of the stench of the stench of the path of suffocation for those who encouraged the creation of the OUN in Volyn. By the way, according to Antonyuk, at that time, a member of the Blueberry militia, Safat Panasyuk (“Batko”), was already in Trachuk’s detachment, but there is no confirmation of this fact on the link he provided.
One of the "rebels" still managed to escape and surrender to the employees of the Lutsk UMGB, who immediately sent an operational-military group to the scene. "Oak" was surrounded near the village of Radomyshl. However, although with difficulty, after a fierce battle, having suffered significant losses, he managed to break through towards the Druzhkopol station, where his detachment finally broke away from the pursuing Chekists.
According to Y.Antonyuk, after the liquidation of the Lomonos group in March 1945, the Security Council began a new "purge" among the leadership of the OUN-UPA in the Rivne region. And in fact, this played into the hands of the regionalUNKGB, which took advantage of the occasion to withdraw from the underground and recruit a number of Bandera activists. Among them were: deputy referent of the Security Service of the Dubnovsky sub-district of the OUN "Grozny" (undercover pseudonym "Mikola"); Andrey Ostapyuk (“Danube”, also known as “Spivak”, undercover alias “Voron”); commandant of the Security Service of the subdistrict, former centurion Pavlo Dzhurik ("Chubaty", agent "Popovich"); commander of the military field gendarmerie kuren UPA "Loboda" (agent "Yura"); former militant of the hundreds of OUN (m) "Khron", centurion of the "Lomonos" kuren Vladimir Zborovsky ("Ozon", "Yagur", agent "Winged") (according to other sources, under the pseudo "Ozon" and "Yagur" Gavrilo Vidny acted) .
From these personnel, the legendary district wire of the OUN was formed, which was initially headed by "Mikola", the district referent of the Security Council and the commandant of the Security Service of the Demidov district was appointed "Maxim", the commandant of the Security Service of the Kozinsky district - "Yura", the commandant of the combatant of the district wire "Winged", and "Popovich ”, “Crow” and “Arrow” - sub-district, with combats of 10 people each. And after the successful recruitment on August 2, 1945 of the political referent of the UPA “Lomonos” unit, Yustin Omelchuk (“Horytsvet”, “Zhurba”), he headed the “wire” under the pseudo “Socrates”. It should be noted that Yustin Mikhailovich in the pre-war years was a member of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and later, after the completion of the operational games, he was engaged in literary work, releasing two collections of anti-Bandera essays "Underlyudki" (1963) and "Zmova" (1967).
The activity of the legendary wire was aimed at intercepting communication channels with the Regional Wire of the OUN, maximizing expansion and coverage by the influence of local combat operations, and was very successful. Until August, in addition to the above-mentioned, another 42 OUN members were recruited into the network, and then another 59 plus more than 40 were used “in the dark”. Combat activities were also carried out: the security officer of the Dubnovsky subdistrict of the OUN “Shugay”, the militants “Chumak” and “Chernogorets”, who killed the director of the Demidov MTS and the director of the district industrial complex, were liquidated; the commandant of the Security Council of the Demidov district wire of the OUN P. Tarasyuk (“Pugach”) and his bodyguard “Chumak”, who were preparing an attempt on the life of the secretary of the Demidov district committee of the CP (b) U and others.
It should be noted that the regional leadership of the OUN was so isolated from the region that for a long time they considered Ozon to be the leader of this group and therefore called its members “Ozonists”. Here are the documents: “In the Dubenshchyna, playing villainous agents under the influence of the old agent of the skhidnyak Yagura-Azot, the huge hundreds of kuren Lomonos, call yourself the regional wire of the OUN and see a leaflet to the Ukrainian people; letters from the PZUZ conductor N. Kozak (“Luka”) to P. Oleinik (“Roman”) dated 12/1/1945). ““Ozonivtsi” basically represented for us that threat that, stinking violently against us, stinks, could inflict losses on people ... The Ministry of Internal Affairs managed to re-recruit and re-recruit from a hundred hundred women. The OUN stinks of their work against the people as a rehabilitation for nationalist sins, which they finished off against the USSR, being in the UPA ”(from the essay by I. Dubovoy “A short sketch of the political crisis that happened in the OUN on the PZUZ in 1944-1946 pp” dated 20.02 .1947) .Perhaps this is due to the fact that it was Ozon that in August 1945, on behalf of the OUN regional wire, published a leaflet criticizing PZK organizer P. Oleinik, which was preserved in the archives of the SBU .
The work of the legendary wire achieved its goal, exacerbating mutual distrust among the OUN underground. In May 1945, P. Oleinik stated that in the Koretsky and Kostopolsky supra-districts, 50% of the OUN-UPA personnel were "in the service of the NKVD", and in the Sarnensky supra-district the figure reached 80%. After that, the esbysts carried out another "cutting", however, according to him, it "appeared in practice inconsistent" . As a result, in December 1945 there was a real split: the SB assistant Stepan Yanishevsky (“Far”), having fled when Fyodor Vorobets (“Vereshchak”), the conductor of the PSUZ, fled during an attempt to arrest him, announced the disconnection from the Regional Wire and, without coordination with the Central Wire of the OUN, organized a new Regional wire "Odessa", the influence of which extended to the territory of Koretsky, partially Kostopol and Goshchansky districts, as well as to certain areas of Zhytomyr, Kamenetz-Podolsky and Kiev regions. His subordination included underground workers who “during various zbіg of the situation broke off ... machines, and tі, yakі maly opinitisya on the machines”, that is, those who barely escaped a terrible death on the torture machines of the SB - the Bandera Gestapo. The highest ranks of the OUN-UPA were forced to react to the split, for example, the last conductor of the OUN to the PZUZ, Vasyl Galasa (“Orlan”) wrote: “All 1946 and 1947 rr. passed importantly in the fight against Dalekivshchyna ... A non-compromising, biased, both-sided propaganda struggle began, slandering, accusing, and often it came to fraternization.
However, the main object of our research is not the top leaders of the OUN-UPA, but one interesting character from the lower echelon - Safat Panasyuk (from the village of Ilpiboki, born around 1904). In 1993, in the newspaper of the diaspora Bandera “Way of Peremogi”, which at that time was moving from Munich to Kiev, an essay appeared by a certain Rivne local historian Semyon Chisnok (Chasnyk), full of nationalist demagogy and ridiculous inventions, and depicting the activities of S. Panasyuk, who allegedly committed atrocities in as part of the "special detachment of the NKVD" under the guise of a UPA warrior on the territory of the Demidov district. I will give a few pearls: “Five hundred people with their own hands, having driven in all non-humans,” say with tears in the eyes of Sofia Voloshkov. Torturing the wines of my brother Anton Gudzyuk, UPA warrior. At the same time they rolled up Artem Sidoruk, Panas Pashchuk, Vira Pashchuk and Ivan Gutyuk. All the stinks were UPA warriors, skering in the battlefield ... Only in one village in Paris, their "special detachment", choked by Safat Panasyuk, having killed thirty chotiri people in the years of 1944-1946" .
As they say, it's already interesting. The general statement reads: "500 innocent people in one fell swoop and personally." However, as it comes down to specifics, it turns out that the entire “special squad” killed only 34 people in two years, and by no means innocent, but UPA warriors. We add that these data are obviously false, because Panasyuk's combat unit officially surrendered to the Demidov regional department of the NKVD on 11/20/1945, which means that in 1946 it could no longer act. We continue to quote

“Our militants attacked all the cities and villages of the region even before the arrival of the German army,” Bandera proudly wrote.

Miroslava BERDNIK

June 22, 2006 marked the 65th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War. Today you won't see this phrase in our children's history books, you won't hear it on TV shows, you won't read it in newspapers. In modern school textbooks, this day is called the beginning of the battle between "two totalitarian regimes" for the enslavement of a free and democratic Europe. And the heroes who liberated Ukraine from the invaders are members of the OUN-UPA. But all these books, newspapers, TV shows cannot overshadow archival documents and human memory - almost every family in Ukraine has the scars of that terrible war: graves on churchyards, yellowed field mail triangles, darkened orders. What is the baggage of "merits" in the fight against Nazism OUN "heroes"? Why do the orange authorities today call them true liberators, and in the future they plan to legitimize this at the state level?

On the eve of the war

In 1939, the population of Western Ukraine greeted the Red Army with bread and salt. Over time, the repressions of the NKVD began there. But the literature is silent about their cause and the role of the OUN in provoking them.

During the preparation of the German aggression against Poland, Hitler's intelligence service flooded the country with its agents, mainly OUN members. They were supposed to paralyze the resistance of the Poles to the Germans. The influential OUN member Kost Pankovsky, who during the Second World War was the deputy head of the so-called. Ukrainian Central Committee Vladimir Kubiyevich, one of the initiators and inspirers of the creation of the SS division "Galicia", in his work "The Rocks of the German Occupation" (1965, Toronto) writes that on the eve of the Nazi attack on Poland, "the OUN wire planned to raise an armed uprising in the rear Polish troops and formed a military detachment - "Ukrainian Legion" under the command of Colonel Roman Sushko. After the occupation of Poland, the Nazis invited them to work in the "Ukrainian police", intended to fight the Polish resistance.

The activities of the "Ukrainian policemen" "on the teren" of Poland were highly appreciated by the German owners. Therefore, shortly before the attack on the Soviet Union, the Nazis began mass training of OUN police personnel for the future occupation regime in Ukraine. The leaders of the OUN, with the money of Hitler's intelligence, created schools of the "Ukrainian police" in Kholm and Przemysl. They were led by Gestapo officers Müller, Ryder, Walter. A similar school was established in Berlin. At the same time, German military intelligence launched training for espionage and sabotage activities on the territory of the USSR. In a special camp on Lake Chiemsee (Germany), saboteurs were trained from Ukrainian nationalists, and spies were trained in the Quinzgut military training center (TsGAOO of Ukraine, f. 1, op. 4, 338, sheet 22).

After September 1939, the activities of the nationalist underground became more covert. During the reunification of the western regions of Ukraine with the Ukrainian SSR, the leadership of the Krakow wire of the OUN instructed its underground units not to be hostile towards Soviet military personnel, to retain personnel, preparing them for future active operations against the USSR. They also had to collect weapons using the collapse of the Polish army , infiltrate local and party authorities. So, the former member of the Lviv executive A.A. Lutsky, for example, managed to get into the apparatus of one of the district executive committees of the Stanislav region and even achieve election as a deputy to the People's Assembly. Fearing possible exposure, at the end of 1939 he fled to Krakow. Soviet authorities identified 156 OUN members in the Stanislav region alone, embedded in village committees.

The OUN leadership began to organize acts of sabotage and terror in Western Ukraine. According to incomplete data, in the second half of 1940 they carried out 30 terrorist attacks, and on the eve of the German attack on the USSR, there were 17 of them in just two months of 1941 (Archive of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. F. 16, op. 39, l. 765) . So they killed the instructor of the Stusiv district committee of the CP (b) U of the Ternopil region I. Rybolovko, the prosecutor of the Monastyrsky district Doroshenko and other Soviet and party workers (Archive of the KGB for the Ternopil region, d. 72, v. 1, l. 1). In July 1940, a grenade was thrown into the cinema during a film demonstration in Lvov. As a result of the explosion, 28 people were injured (Archive of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. F.16, op. 33, p.n. 23, fol. 765). The same actions, as well as acts of sabotage, were organized in many western regions of Ukraine. In addition, the Germans demanded from the leaders of the OUN to intensify the organization of an armed uprising, which would serve as a pretext for war against the USSR. As one of the leaders of the Abwehr, Colonel E. Stolze testified in Nuremberg, preparations for it (Military History Journal, 1990, No. 4), directly led by his subordinate officers Dering and Market. Communication between Stolze and Bandera was provided by Rico Yariy. On March 10, 1940, a meeting of the leadership of the OUN was held in Krakow, at which the following plan of action was developed: 1. Prepare and quickly transfer to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR the leading cadres of the OUN to create headquarters in Volhynia and Lvov to organize an armed uprising. 2. Within two months, study the territory, have a clear idea of ​​the presence of rebel forces, weapons, supplies, the mood of the population, the presence and location of Soviet troops (Ternopil Regional Party Archive, f. 1, op. 1-a, d. 2, l. 125- 127).

Trusted members of the organization visited the OUN underground on Soviet territory. Among them was a member of the central wire, as well as an Abwehr agent A. Lutsky ("Bogun"). Being detained in January 1945, he testified that “the main task assigned to the wire was to prepare, by the end of the summer of 1940, an uprising against Soviet power throughout Western Ukraine. We carried out urgent military training for members of the OUN, collected and concentrated weapons in one place. They provided for the capture of military-strategic objects: mail, telegraph, etc. They made up the so-called. a black book - a list of employees of party and Soviet bodies, local activists and employees of the NKVD, who immediately had to be destroyed when the war began ”(Archive of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. F. 16, op. 33, p. n. 23, l. 297). Lutsky testified that “if the uprising provoked by us in Western Ukraine had lasted at least a few days, then Germany would have come to our aid” (Ibid.). The same testimony was given by his deputy Mikhail Senkiv. Well, just like the "call for help" of the Sudeten Germans! However, in the summer of 1940, at the direction of Canaris, the preparation of an armed uprising was removed from the agenda, since Germany was not yet fully prepared for an attack on the Soviet Union.

OUN marching groups followed the advancing German units

“Ukrainian integral nationalists,” notes Canadian historian O. Subtelny, “enthusiastically welcomed the German attack on the USSR, considering it as a promising opportunity to establish an independent Ukrainian state” (Subtelny O.Ukraina. Іstoriya. - Kiev. 1993, p. 567). In the OUN brochure entitled “For Ukrainian Statehood”, which is a review of the reports of a number of leaders of the territorial underground organizations of Bandera, it is recorded: “Before the start of the German-Soviet war, the OUN, despite incredible difficulties, organized a network of underground workers in the villages, which ... in general in a number of districts of the Ternopil region organized armed demonstrations by insurgent detachments, disarmed many military units. In general... our militants attacked all the towns and villages of the region even before the arrival of the German army.” Similar crimes were committed by Ukrainian nationalists on the territory of Lvov, Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Drohobych, Volyn and Chernivtsi regions. So, on June 28, 1941, near the city of Przemyshlyany in the Lvov region, several OUN gangs attacked small detachments of the Red Army and individual vehicles that evacuated women and children. Over the Red Army and defenseless people, the militants committed a cruel massacre. The same gangs helped the Nazis capture Przemyshlyany. In the area of ​​​​the village of Rudka, a unit of the fascist army ran into the courageous resistance of the Soviet troops. The Nazis asked for help from the OUN, and, as this brochure says, they took an active part in "the most important battles." The nationalists were also active in the Volyn and Rivne regions.

The atrocities of the OUN gangs are reported in the report of the headquarters of the South-Western Front dated June 24, 1941: “In the Ustlug area, enemy sabotage groups are operating, dressed in our uniform. Warehouses are on fire in the area. During the 22nd and in the morning of June 23, the enemy landed on Khirov, Drogobych, Borislav, the last two were destroyed ”(Archive of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, d. 490, vol. 1, l. 100).

The leaders of the OUN sent several so-called marching groups to Ukraine after the advancing units of the fascist army. These divisions, according to the definition of the OUN "guides", were "a kind of political army", which included nationalists who had experience of fighting in conditions of deep underground. The route of their movement was agreed in advance with the Abwehr. So, the northern marching group of 2,500 people moved along the route Lutsk - Zhytomyr - Kiev. Average - 1500 OUN - in the direction of Poltava - Sumy - Kharkiv. The southern one - consisting of 880 people - followed the route Ternopil - Vinnitsa - Dnepropetrovsk - Odessa.

The activity of these groups was reduced to performing the functions of an auxiliary occupation apparatus in the occupied territory of the republic: they helped the Nazis form the so-called Ukrainian police, city and district councils, as well as other bodies of the fascist occupation administration. At the same time, the group members established contacts with various kinds of criminal elements, using them to identify the local underground and Soviet partisans.

From the very beginning of their existence, the mentioned self-government bodies were under the rule of the Nazi occupation administration. The materials available in the archives of Ukraine confirm this. For example, in the instructions of the Reichskommissar of Ukraine Erich Koch for No. 119 “On the attitude of military units to the Ukrainian population” it is emphasized: “... the created Ukrainian national local governments or district governments should not be considered as independent administrations or authorized from higher authorities, but as entrusted to connections with the German military authorities. Their task is to carry out the orders of the latter” (TsGAOOOU, f. 1, op. 1-14, items 115, fol. 73-76).

Nightingale songs and "crystal nights"

The unfortunate historians who received their titles for glorifying Marxism-Leninism are now trying to convince the younger generation that it was the OUN-UPA warriors who defended the population of Ukraine from the invaders. I will briefly remind HOW they did it.

In punitive operations against the civilian population, military units were used, formed mainly from OUN members specially trained for this purpose: the legions named after Konovalets, the so-called "Ukrainian Legion" and others. The notorious Nachtigal was especially "famous". Melnikovets Bogdan Mikhailyuk wrote in his pamphlet “Bandera’s Revolt”, published in 1950: “They (Bandera. — Auth.) called him the big name "Legion", and the Germans "Nightingale", since his task was to go behind the German troops, sing Ukrainian songs and create German-friendly moods among the Ukrainian population. How did the "nightingales" create "friendly moods for the Germans"? Historian Walter Brockdorf, a former Wehrmacht soldier and author of The Secret Commands of the Second World War (Munich, 1967), writes: “They took long daggers in their teeth, rolled up the sleeves of their tunics, holding weapons at the ready. Their appearance was disgusting when they rushed into the city... As if possessed, loudly whooping, foaming at the mouth, with bulging eyes, the Ukrainians rushed through the streets of Lvov. Everyone who fell into their hands was brutally executed ”(Brockdorf W. Geheimkommandos des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Munchen, 1967, - S. 126-127). Already in the first hours of the occupation of Lviv, massacres began against its inhabitants, accompanied by torture. For this, special teams were created from the legionnaires, who were engaged in the liquidation of local government employees, Poles and Jews. In the period from July 1 to July 4, 1941, with the participation of the Nakhtigalevites, prominent Polish scientists and intellectuals were destroyed in Lvov - Academician Solovy, professors Bartel, Boy-Zhelensky, Seradsky, Nowicki, Lomnitsky, Domasevich, Rentsky, Weigel, Ostrovsky, Manchevsky, Grek, Krukovsky, Dobzhanetsky and others.

Thousands of innocent Soviet citizens were tortured by the Nakhtigalev executioners in Zolochev and Ternopol, Satanov and Vinnitsa, other cities and villages of Ukraine and Belarus, where the Abwehr unit was held. These executioners also committed bloody orgies and mass executions in Stanislav. There, in the first days of the Nazi occupation, 250 teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers were destroyed.

The nationalists dealt particularly cruelly with the Jewish population. In the first months of the occupation of the western regions of Ukraine, the OUN, together with the Nazis, arranged "crystal nights" - they shot, killed and burned tens of thousands of Jews in Lvov, Ternopil, Nadvirna. In Stanislav alone, from July 1941 to July 1942, the Nazis, together with the OUN, destroyed 26 thousand Jews, which was confirmed in Munster (Germany) at the trial of the former head of the security police and SD in Stanislav G. Krieger in 1966 (Cherednichenko V. P. Nationalism against the nation. - K., 1970, p. 95).

For the armed struggle against the Belarusian partisans, the Nachtigal battalion was withdrawn from the front at the end of October 1941 and merged into one formation with the Roland battalion - the so-called Schutzmannschaft battalion. In mid-March 1942, the Schutzmanschaft Battalion-201, led by an OUN member, Abwehr Major Yevgeny Pobeguschiy, and his deputy, Hauptmann Roman Shukhevych, were transferred to Belarus. Here it became known as a unit of the 201st police division, which, together with other brigades and operational battalions, operated under the leadership of SS-Obergruppenführer Bach-Zalewski. For "military prowess" Runner and Shukhevych were awarded "iron crosses" by the Nazis. What was the "military prowess" of Runner and Shukhevych, as well as the entire Schutzmannschaft battalion, is stated in the book of the famous Ukrainian researcher V.I. “Even today,” the author writes, “it is clearly indicated that the Schutzmannschaft battalion could not be buried in the partisan region, in Belarus, but at the warehouse of the carnal formations of SS Obergrupenführer von Bach-Zalewski against the Belarusian partisans and civilians, taking the fate of the caral operations “Swamp Fever”, “Trikutnik”, “Cottbus” and others” (M., 1999, - p. 27). On their "combat account" dozens of burned farms and villages, including the infamous Khatyn, countless lives of Belarusian citizens ruined.

The Schutzmannschaft-battalion-201 left its bloody trail on Ukrainian soil, destroying the Volyn village of Kortelisy and 2,800 of its inhabitants, which was once written in the book "Flamed Kortelisi" by the Byutovite poet Volodymyr Yavorivsky, who is now seeking honors and status for these executioners heroes.

The role of Ukrainian nationalists in the tragedy of Babi Yar is still terra incognita for researchers. In the Soviet period, this was done for the sake of the friendship of peoples, contemptuously called the former singer of this very friendship, Vitaly Korotich, vulgar. Today's "historians" are trying to "wash the black dog white."

September 20, 1941 Kiev was occupied by the Germans. And a few days later, the future participants in the bloody action at Babi Yar arrived in the city - Sonderkommando 4a, led by the sadist Paul Blobel, two punitive Ukrainian police battalions under the command of B. Konik and I. Kedyumich, as well as the infamous "Bukovina Chicken" under the leadership of the fanatic Peter Voinovsky, who had already distinguished himself by bloody pogroms, executions and robberies on the way to Kiev in Kamianets-Podolsky, Zhmerinka, Proskurov, Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr and other cities. By September 26, over 2 thousand policemen and SS men had gathered in Kiev (Kruglov A. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, - K., 2000. p. 203).

The Germans did not leave us lists with the names of specific perpetrators of the crime at Babi Yar. But today they are proudly spoken of as heroes by modern national democrats. Zerkalo Nedeli (No. 39 (104), September 28-October 4, 1996) in the article “Damn the one who dares to forget” quotes the statement of the deputy of the Rivne City Council V. Shkuratyuk: “I am proud of the fact that among 1500 punishers in Babi Yar had 1,200 OUN policemen and only three hundred Germans.”

They are truly "famous" for centuries!

UPA - the brainchild of the German intelligence services

A lie is the assertion that the UPA was created to fight the German occupiers. The French researcher Alain Guerin directly pointed out that the UPA is a product of the long-term activity of the German intelligence service (Guerin A. Gray Cardinal. - M., 1971). It was created entirely according to the Hitler model. Most of its leaders were trained by the Nazis in special military reconnaissance and sabotage schools in Germany on the eve of the war. Many were awarded military ranks of the Abwehr. For example, the commander of the UPA Klyachkivsky (“Savur”) had the rank of senior lieutenant of the Abwehr and at the same time was a member of the central wire of the OUN. department of Rosenberg, and since February 1943 - an intermediary in negotiations between the commands of the UPA and the German occupation authorities. Negotiations on the interaction of the UPA and German troops against the Red Army were led by Alexander Lutsky ("Bohun"), a senior lieutenant of the Abwehr, a member of the main headquarters of the UPA, commander of the UPA "West-Karpaty"; Vasily Sidor ("Rustle") - captain of the Abwehr, company commander of the Schutzmannschaft battalion, "famous" in Belarus, then commander of the West-Karpaty UPA (after leaving the post of Lutsky); Petr Melnik ("Khmara") - company commander of the SS division "Galicia", commander of the UPA kuren in the Stanislav region; Mikhail Andrusyak ("Rizun") - Lieutenant of the Abwehr, served in the Nachtigall, commanded a detachment in the Stanislav region; Yuri Lopatinsky (“Kalina”) is a senior lieutenant of the Abwehr, a member of the central wire of the OUN, a member of the main headquarters of the UPA. The heads of the security service (SB) of the UPA were, as a rule, former employees of the Gestapo, gendarmerie, auxiliary Ukrainian police. All named and many other leaders were awarded German orders.

The Nazis not only formed the UPA, but also armed it. This was done by the Abwehrkommando-202. According to incomplete data, 700 mortars, about 10 thousand heavy and light machine guns, 26 thousand machine guns, 22 thousand pistols, 100 thousand grenades, 80 thousand mines and shells, several million rounds of ammunition, radio stations, portable cars and etc.

A typical example of the interaction of the OUN-UPA with German troops is the fact that on January 13, 1944, the German garrison in Kamen-Kashirsky, Volyn region, was replaced by UPA units. He left 300 rifles, 2 boxes of cartridges, 65 sets of uniforms, 200 pairs of linen and other equipment (Marxism and modernity. - 2000, No. 1 (15), p. 162).

In March 1944, partisans of A.F. Fedorov’s formation, while repelling an armed UPA attack on one of the detachments, captured a document confirming the connection of the warriors with the Germans. Here is its content: “Friendly Bogdan! Send 15 people to our hut, who will work on the construction of the bridge. On March 3, 1944, I agreed with the German captain Oshft that we would build a bridge for the crossing of German troops, for which they would give us reinforcements - two battalions with all the equipment. Together with these battalions on March 18 with. we will clear the forest on both sides of the Stokhod river from the red partisans and give free passage to the rear of the Red Army for our UPA detachments, which are waiting there. We stayed at the negotiations for 15 hours. The Germans gave us lunch. Glory to Ukraine! Eagle Commander. March 5, 1944" (archive of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR).

The cooperation of the UPA with the Germans was not an isolated fact, but was encouraged from above. So, on February 12, 1944, the Commander-in-Chief of the Security Police and the SD in Ukraine, SS Brigadeführer and Police Major General Brenner, on February 12, 1944, oriented intelligence agencies subordinate to him in the western regions of Ukraine to the fact that in connection with the successful negotiations with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the area of ​​the villages of Derazhnoe, Verba ( Rovenskaya region. - Auth.) the leaders of the UPA undertook to throw their intelligence officers into the Soviet rear and inform the department of the 1st combat groups located at the headquarters of the German armies "South" about the results of their work. In this regard, Brenner ordered to allow free movement of UPA agents with Captain Felix’s passes, to prohibit the seizure of weapons from UPA members, and when UPA groups meet with German military units, use identification marks (spread fingers of the left hand raised in front of the face) (TsGAVOVU of Ukraine, f .4628, inventory 1, file 10, pp. 218-233).

During the defeat by the Soviet troops of the UPA group in the Rivne region in April 1944. 65 German servicemen were taken prisoner, acting as part of the structural units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. This fact is mentioned in the collection of documents "Internal Troops in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". It also contains a statement by one German prisoner of war about the connections of the command of the German Wehrmacht and the UPA in the joint struggle against the Red Army and Soviet partisans.

Alain Guerin in the book "The Gray Cardinal" answers the question: did Bandera kill the Germans, and if they did, then under what circumstances? Yes, they did, writes Guérin, but only by misunderstanding or when they got rid of them as "unmasking material". The fact is that many German soldiers were seconded to the UPA units. Once surrounded by Soviet troops, Bandera in a number of cases destroyed their allies in order to cover up the traces of German-Ukrainian cooperation. Due to a misunderstanding - if the means of identification did not work, for example, when the Germans, dressed in the uniform of the Red Army, took Bandera for enemies.

OUN - Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - an illegal organization that tried to implement the idea of ​​creating an independent Ukrainian state.

The predecessor of the OUN was the illegal patriotic Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), whose members were mostly former soldiers of the Ukrainian armed formations. They did not come to terms with the defeat of the liberation movement of 1917-1920. and decided to continue the struggle for the independence of all occupied Ukrainian lands. Headed UVO E. Konovalets.

The OUN created the First Congress, later called the Great Gathering of the OUN, held in Vienna on January 28 - February 3, 1929. The OUN included 3 main structures that existed separately until then:

1.Ukrainian military organization (UVO), more precisely, officers and soldiers of the Ukrainian armies of the recent liberation period, whose activities until that time were mainly political and terrorist;
2. Nationalist groups abroad, primarily in Prague, Berlin and Vienna, such as the "Group of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth", "League of Ukrainian Nationalists", "Union of Organizations of Ukrainian Nationalists";
3.Nationalist groups in Western Ukrainian lands such as the "Ukrainian State Youth Group" and the "Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth".

The Wire (Guide) of Ukrainian Nationalists (PUN) was approved in the following composition: Chairman (OUN Conductor) - Y. Konovalets, members - D. Andrievsky, Y. Vasiyan, D. Demchuk, M. Kapustyansky, P. Kozhevnykiv, L. Kostariv , V. Martinets, M. Stsiborsky; chief judge of the OUN - J. Dub, chief controller - J. Moralevich. The Big Gathering became the main body of the OUN.

The idea of ​​struggle for a united sovereign Ukraine permeated all the speeches, discussions, and resolutions of the Congress. The revolutionary, forceful struggle against all the enslavers of the Ukrainian people was proclaimed as a means to achieve the goal.

The OUN set itself the task of creating normal conditions for the life of the people, awakening in them a national consciousness, placing them at the service of the development of statehood, so that the Ukrainian nation would take its proper place among other state nations of the world.

In a number of countries of post-war Europe, a form of political government with a sole leader-chief gained popularity. The leadership of the OUN believed that this form was the most effective in the struggle for the restoration of a sovereign Ukrainian state.

In contrast to Ukrainian politicians who saw national liberation in the context of universal political and diplomatic paths, nationalist ideologues leaned towards armed methods. Their liberation concept was based on the principle of "permanent revolution". An uninterrupted chain of sabotage, sabotage and terrorist acts, active and passive resistance of the entire people was supposed to lead to a powerful explosion of the national revolution, which would certainly end with the revival of Ukrainian statehood.

The OUN adopted violence as a political weapon against external and internal enemies. The bulk of the organization's activities were directed against the Polish regime. Under the leadership of the Regional Executive (executive body) in the Western Ukrainian lands, the OUN carried out hundreds of sabotage actions in Galicia and Volhynia with arson of the estates of Polish landowners (which provoked "Pacification" in 1930), boycotts of public schools and the Polish tobacco and vodka monopoly, dozens of expropriation attacks on government offices in order to obtain capital for their activities, as well as about 60 murders. The most prominent victims of the organization were a Polish high-ranking official B. Peratsky, an official of the Soviet consulate A. Mailov (killed in retaliation for the famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine) and I. Babiy, director of the Ukrainian Academic Gymnasium in Lvov (Ukrainian accused of collaborating with Polish police).

OUN members were predominantly students and youth. There is no reliable data on the size of the organization, but according to some estimates, in 1939 it reached 20 thousand people.

The main publications of the OUN were the legal magazine "Development of the Nation" and the illegal "Bulletin of the Regional Executive of the OUN on ZUZ", "Horn", "Youth", "Nationalist" and "Ukrainian Nationalist". A certain number of legal newspapers in Western Ukraine were under strong nationalist influence.

An ally was needed in the struggle for independence. The leaders of the OUN saw Germany as such an ally. It is clear that the ally state was not interested in the emergence of a new independent state, however, the governments of many countries supported anti-Soviet movements in order to weaken the USSR. During 1934 - 1937. a number of leading members of the OUN were seconded to England, Japan and Italy.

To achieve the set goals, it was decided to use any tactics, methods and means of struggle, including terror. The tactics of actions, in particular, military and sabotage-terrorist acts against the invaders, were discussed at the OUN conference in Berlin in June 1934.

A supporter of the need for military and terrorist actions was the regional conductor of the OUN (regional conductor - the leader in a particular territory) in Western Ukrainian lands S. Bandera.

E. Konovalets also believed that military and terrorist actions are necessary, but are allowed only as self-defense against the terror of the invaders. The defensive nature of hostilities gives members of the organization the moral right to open political struggle, to gain prestige among the population and in the international arena. The sabotage, terrorist actions of the OUN were the result of fierce resistance to the no less cruel colonial policy of the Polish authorities. And during the reign of Marshal Pilsudski and his successors, nothing was done to change or even soften this policy.

E. Konovalets was killed on May 23, 1938 in Rotterdam. The death of E. Konovalets led to the question of who should become his successor. Fundamental differences emerged between members of the OUN in Western Ukraine and abroad. The regional cadres, who bore the main burden of the underground struggle, consisted of young people who were striving for leadership. They unconditionally adopted authoritarian ideas and methods. D. Dontsov, who promoted the cult of will and strength, had a strong influence on their worldview. The senior leaders of the OUN tended to be more conservative. Onatsky and Stsiborsky, for example, emphasized the positive features of Italian fascism, but condemned Nazism.

The second large congress of the OUN, which was held in Rome on August 27, 1939, elected A. Melnik as the chairman of the organization and gave him the title of "leader", declaring him responsible only "before God, the nation and his own conscience." At the II Congress of the OUN, an attempt was made to develop a coherent ideological and political program.

In accordance with this program, the future state should be built on the principle of "nationocracy", that is, "the power of the nation in the state." It was proclaimed that, at the will of the nation, the head of state will be the chairman of the state - the Leader of the Nation, who should symbolize the sovereignty and unity of the nation, lead the armed forces, lead the state through subordinate and responsible executive bodies before him

The OUN program did not claim to be original and was not a turning point in the development of Ukrainian political thought. It was a compilation of nationalist programs, taking Ukrainian reality into account.

During the meetings of the Roman Congress, its participants received news of the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Despite this, the leadership of the movement did not change its attitude towards the German ally.

The German-Polish war ended unexpectedly for the Ukrainians, because. in September 1939, the Western Ukrainian lands were occupied by the Bolsheviks, who formally did not participate in the war.

Assessing the situation as favorable for the deployment of a large-scale anti-Soviet struggle, the foreign OUN centers at the turn of 1939-1940. began forced preparations for an armed uprising in Ukraine.

With the beginning of this activity in the OUN, there was a clear tendency to demarcate views on the success of the future action between the old emigration members of the OUN and the revolutionary-minded youth. The emigrants, led by the PUN, did not see the possibility of an effective armed uprising, considering it a waste of human strength and lives. A. Melnik and his inner circle were inclined to think about the need to withdraw most of the members of the OUN from Ukraine to the General Government (the territory of Poland occupied by the Germans), and the rest to carry out, first of all, agitation and propaganda work and prepare for sabotage and local armed uprisings only in in the event of a war between the USSR and neighboring states. The main forces of the OUN were planned to be trained with the help of German military instructors in the General Governorate and used in the fight against Bolshevism as a separate allied Ukrainian army during the Wehrmacht's campaign against the USSR. For this purpose, the Ukrainian-German military bureau, headed by Colonel R. Sushko, actively operated in Krakow.

In contrast to the old emigrants, the young and radical OUN considered the position of the PUN to be amorphous, non-revolutionary, and harmful. They demanded that the leadership of the Organization immediately develop and send to Ukraine detailed instructions for organizing an uprising. The OUN youth, who were overly optimistic, believed that the uprising in Ukraine could really shake the foundations of Soviet power (at least in the Western Ukrainian region), prove to the world community the desire of the people for independence, and, most importantly, create an unstable situation on the eastern borders of the Third Reich, forcing Berlin to intervene in these events and unleash a war against the USSR even if the German government has no such plans. Young radicals saw the need to develop organizational work in four directions - preparing and conducting an uprising in the Ukrainian SSR, creating nationalist military units abroad, general military training of the OUN in the General Government and providing the rebels in Ukraine with personnel, plans, instructions, maps, manuals, etc. .

Back in early January 1940, S. Bandera, together with his like-minded people, decided to significantly strengthen the OUN underground in the Ukrainian SSR. For this purpose, shock groups of 5 to 20 people were formed from people trained in illegal work, who were sent to the Ukrainian SSR and were supposed to lead the underground, create rebel and sabotage detachments.

These groups consisted of two parts: the first had an organizational task, and the second - smaller - carried out protection when crossing the border and immediately returned back. The armament of the groups consisted of one light machine gun, rifles, pistols and hand grenades (two for each militant). The border was necessarily crossed at night, as a rule, in a wooded area. They took few things, they tried to memorize the instructions and orders of the leadership, all members of the group had with them false documents, real Soviet money and foreign currency (the latter was sewn into shoes or clothes). Such a detachment began its movement to the east after the report of intelligence officers from the OUN security service (SB) about the passage of the German border patrol on a pre-selected section of the border.

The final split occurred at the Krakow congress of the OUN in February 1940, where the Revolutionary Faction of the OUN was created, called the OUN-B, after the name of Bandera, in contrast to the OUN-M, headed by Melnik. Bandera's adherents postulated a transition to hostilities, the organization of a partisan movement in the territories of Ukraine that belonged to or were recently included in the USSR, dissociation from movements that blindly oriented themselves to Nazi Germany. The Melnikovites, who were guided by Germany, considered partisan actions on the territory of the USSR an adventure, drew attention to the need to preserve forces for decisive actions, the time for which had not yet come. During the war, the OUN-B adopted the name Revolutionary OUN (OUN-R).

Preparing for a war against the USSR, certain circles in Germany, in particular the military intelligence (Abwehr) of the Wehrmacht, headed by Canaris, wanted to use the Ukrainians' desire for independence in their own interests. Abwehr planned to use various groups of Ukrainians, and in particular OUN members, as saboteurs on front-line communications, translators at military units, in various positions in the lower and middle administrations in the occupied territory, to collect intelligence information.

There were politicians in Germany who completely rejected cooperation with Ukrainian nationalists, considering them possible rivals. The relevant services of the National Socialist Party controlled the activities of Ukrainian nationalists. In a memorandum dated September 17, 1940, A. Shikendanz, an employee of the East Department of the Foreign Policy Department of the Nazi Party, warned of the danger from the OUN, pointing out its hostile attitude towards the Reich. He emphasized that this organization has the support of the chief of intelligence, Canaris, and this may have political consequences in the future. It was noted to Canaris that the OUN could in no way lay claim to a political role. Canaris replied that he did not consider it appropriate to ban an organization that has influence on the Ukrainian emigration and promotes its unification. S. Bandera met with Canaris, to whom he clearly and clearly presented Ukrainian positions and received from him full support for the Ukrainian political concept.

There were other thoughts in the Nazi leadership. In a letter dated September 18, 1940, addressed to the head of the Gestapo and SD, Heydrich, Shchikendanz noted that after the Soviet occupation of Galicia, the OUN lost its political significance, so its activities that threaten the security of the German state should not be supported. Fearing that the Western states would not use the Ukrainians against Germany, the Foreign Policy Bureau of the Nazi Party invited the relevant services to spread rumors about a future solution to the Ukrainian question, imagining that after defeating England and France, Germany would be able to fight the Bolsheviks, drive them out of Poland, and thus create an independent Ukraine. Such statements were aimed at reassuring the Ukrainians, creating the illusion of attention to the Ukrainian issue.

In a prepared memo on the future occupation of the USSR dated April 2, 1941, it is noted: "Ukraine (outlying region) ... The political task in this region will be the assertion of its own national life for the possible creation of a political formation, the purpose of which would be to independently or as part of the Don and Caucasus regions in the form of the Black Sea Confederation, it constantly opposed Moscow and protected the vital German space in the East.

One of Rosenberg's instructions to the Reichskommissar of Ukraine dated May 7, 1941, envisaged the creation of a free Ukrainian state in the future, closely connected with Germany. Rosenberg emphasized that in Ukraine it is necessary to develop certain aspirations for independence, historical consciousness, culture, to allow the opening of a university in Kiev, and so on.

On the Ukrainian lands, which were included in the General Governorate, created on the territory of Poland, the Germans allowed the opening of Ukrainian schools, cultural societies, religious life came to life. There were committees of help and support for refugees who arrived from the USSR. To coordinate their activities in June 1940, with the consent of the Germans, the Ukrainian Central Committee was created.

The plans of the leaders of the OUN-B were built in the hope of a long and destroying war on both sides. As they are exhausted, Ukrainian state authorities, troops will be formed, which over time will become the dominant force in the occupied Ukrainian territory. Then it will be possible to dictate their own conditions and launch wide-ranging activities to create their own state. The primary task of the organization was to prevent the transformation of Ukraine into an object of foreign ownership. States that will be at war with totalitarian Russia, and which will not pose a danger to Ukraine, will be considered its allies. Relations between Ukraine and such countries will depend on whether the latter recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Concerned about the activation of the OUN-B and reports from their foreign agents that the nationalists were preparing a general uprising for April-May 1940, the Soviet secret services carried out mass arrests of all those suspected of involvement in the underground. The strongest blows were inflicted on Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne and Volyn regions. More than six hundred members of the organization, among whom were leading cadres, were in prison.

Such impressive successes of the NKVD were explained, first of all, by general arrests among socially active youth, and especially among the population, which, according to the order of the command of the NKVD of the USSR of October 11, 1939 "On the introduction of a unified system for accounting for anti-Soviet elements identified by an undercover search", was subject to special registration . These "enemies of the Soviet order" included all former members of legal parties operating in Poland, national, religious and youth organizations, previously convicted by the Soviet authorities and family members of "counter-revolutionaries" shot by the Bolsheviks, citizens who had relatives abroad, etc.

Most young people were arrested on the standard "gang" charge. To prove such "guilt" was not difficult. The "humane" Soviet legislation (Article 56, paragraph 17 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR) gave a surprisingly convenient definition of the concept of "gang" for the investigation. Thus, an "armed gang" was considered a group of people that had three features: a) two or more members in its composition; b) at least one of the "bandits" had to be armed with any weapon (an ax, a bayonet, a pitchfork, a scythe also fell into the "weapon" category); c) the presence of the gang members intent to commit a crime. Thanks to this wording, the NKVD investigation teams could detain any two rural guys with pitchforks and declare them a "gang", accusing them of intending (!) to commit some kind of "crime".

In order to intimidate the underground and the entire population of the region, the investigating authorities of the NKVD selected eleven leaders of the Organization from those arrested for a public trial. The nationalists were tried on October 29, 1940, in an open court in Lvov, and all but one were sentenced to death. The sentence was executed on February 20, 1941. For the same purpose, in 1941, a number of show trials were held in the case of arrested members of the OUN.

So, on January 15-19, 1941, the "Trial of the 59" took place in Lvov. On May 7, 1941, a new, this time even larger trial began in Drohobych - 62 OUN members were tried, on May 12-13 in the same Drohobych they were already tried 39 Ukrainian nationalists.Their result: executions and long camp terms.

However, the result of total intimidation turned out to be the opposite - the underground activists became more active, once again, convinced that the "workers' and peasants' power" had only one sentence for them - death, and in the eyes of the population the authority of the OUN only grew.

The entire Ukrainian ethnic territory in the zone of German occupation of Poland was covered with a dense network of various military courses and training. Separate elements of military and ideological training were studied: drill training, weapon arrangement, protection against gas attacks, first aid, orientation on the ground, topography, composition and organization of the army, the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism. Those who were able were selected for special courses in Krakow. There, training was carried out for three months and fourteen teachers worked with eighteen cadets. The listeners were given a thorough knowledge of all military disciplines, the ideology of nationalism, geopolitics, underground organizational activities, propaganda, intelligence and counterintelligence, the system of state administration in the USSR, the structure of the Soviet security agencies and the Red Army, forensic science, interrogation, police service, photography, Japanese wrestling (karate). The lecture courses were worked out in some detail; in their preparation, materials from the military and police academies in Germany and Poland were used, as well as OUN intelligence data on the system of military exercises in the USSR. Classes on courses were daily, they lasted for eight hours. The exams were held in a creative form - the cadet was given the task to write a call to insurrection, develop a plan for an armed uprising in a specific area (based on the existing location of enemy forces, terrain features, underground capabilities, etc.), describe a scheme for organizing state life and police on the territory of a separate areas, etc. The examiners at the Krakow courses were R. Shukhevych and J. Stetsko. Separate headquarters courses operated in Krakow for OUN members who had military ranks. The program of such military training was modeled on the training programs for officers in foreign armies known to the nationalists.

The situation in the General Government was such that the Nationalists were relatively free to conduct theoretical military exercises, but the practice of live firing, maneuvers, field fortifications, etc., without the consent of the Germans was impossible. The only real way to obtain permission from the Germans to conduct combat training of members of the OUN-B was to strengthen contacts with the Wehrmacht intelligence Abwehr. Nationalists, in exchange for intelligence information about the USSR, received the opportunity to train their fighters and commanders in paramilitary work teams, police schools in Kholm and Przemysl, etc. Special training in sabotage work for several hundred Bandera took place in the Abwehr camps in Zakopane, Krinitsa, Comanche. The OUN used the opportunity to fill military units with its members on conditions that did not entail political or military obligations, but which made it possible to carry out full-fledged military training.

In each region of Western Soviet Ukraine, from 5 to 20 OUN intelligence officers worked, who collected and transmitted information to the district leadership about the units of the Red Army, the internal troops of the NKVD, their weapons, deployment, command and rank and file, places of residence of the families of commanders, military facilities, the possibility of sabotage on them, etc. This data was used both in the development of plans for the uprising and for transfer to the Germans (as payment for the provided material, technical and financial assistance).

The efforts of OUN members to infiltrate all kinds of military or paramilitary formations in order to receive military training have created the illusion of German assistance to Ukrainians in solving the "Ukrainian problem" in the near future. The spring months of 1941 also saw an increase in the counterintelligence activities of the OUN Security Service (SB), which exposed the agents of the NKVD, and also carried out a purge in the ranks of the organization. The security service took the entire underground into the steel grip of discipline - the Security Service officers acted under the regional, district, and district leaderships of the OUN-B. In each grassroots cell of the organization, a secret esbist informant worked.

At this time, with the permission and with the help of the Germans, two military formations numbering about 600 people were created. "Nachtigal" and "Roland". The Germans expected that these units would assist the offensive troops. The OUN wanted to make them the backbone of the national army.

On June 15, 1941, the leadership of the OUN-B developed a "Memorandum" to the German government, which expressed the conviction that the solution of the Ukrainian issue, which meets the "historical and national interests of Ukraine, will also benefit Germany. German troops entering Ukraine will meet as liberators, but this attitude may change if Germany comes "to Ukraine without the intention of restoring the Ukrainian state ...".

The "Memorandum" stressed that Ukraine should create its own economic zone in the European Economic Area in order to be independent and economically. That is why the demand was put forward for the formation of Ukrainian armed forces to protect the Ukrainian state and the newly organized eastern space.

The "Memorandum" was handed over to the German government only on June 23, 1941, that is, the day after the start of the war.

On June 22, 1941, a meeting of representatives of various political parties in exile was held in Krakow with the participation of S. Bandera, at which the Ukrainian National Committee (UNK) was created. His task is to lead and develop activities to improve public life in Ukraine. During the meeting, those present learned about the beginning of the war.

Deciding to build an independent state, both factions of the OUN sent secret derivative groups to Ukraine with the aim of establishing local government from conscious Ukrainians. Their number was about 2000 people. (mostly members of the OUN-B. These groups were active in large cities. The OUN-M group, which reached Kiev in September 1941, published the Ukrainian Word newspaper and formed the Ukrainian National Council (led by Velichkovsky), which consisted mainly of eastern Ukrainians.Its members were arrested in December 1941, and more than 40 of them, in particular E. Teliga and their leader O. Olzhych, were arrested and shot immediately, some died in Babi Yar. He was kept under house arrest in Berlin until January 1944, when, along with other arrested OUN-M leaders, he was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

The leadership launched activities for the preparation of government bodies, other state structures, and newspaper editorial offices.

The special group, having reached Lvov on June 28, 1941, initiated the National Assembly, which on June 30 proclaimed the independence of Ukraine. A provisional government was called in, led by OUN-B member Yaroslav Stetsko. The declaration of an independent Ukraine, not agreed with the Germans, was a deliberate and risky attempt to present them with a fait accompli. Stetsko's government received the support of the leaders of many political groups. However, the blessing of Metropolitan A. Sheptytsky, who was considered a symbol of Ukrainian patriotism, was of decisive importance. July 1 at the Cathedral of St. Yura, a thanksgiving service was held in honor of the liberation of Lviv from Soviet occupation. During the service, Sheptytsky's proclamation was read, in which it was noted that by the will of God a new era had begun in the life of the state, conciliar, independent Ukraine and that the National Assembly, which took place yesterday in Lvov, proclaimed and confirmed this historic event. In the first ten days of July, the Ukrainian National Council was created - a kind of parliament - headed by K. Levitsky. The declaration of an independent Ukraine was received with enthusiasm by the majority of Ukrainian society, and it was accompanied by numerous rallies and thanksgiving services. This was - as it turned out later - the peak of the success of the concept of "nationalist revolution" carried out by the OUN-B.

The call of the Stetsko government was strongly resisted by the Melnyk group, which spoke in favor of short-term cooperation with the Germans and tried to create a regular Ukrainian army under the Wehrmacht. The UCC in Krakow, managed by Kubiyovych, also treated with restraint the declared independence.

The Germans did not expect such a development of events and on July 11 arrested Stetsko and four of his employees. Bandera was also detained. In Berlin, where they were transferred, they demanded the withdrawal of the act on June 30, 1941. Bandera and his associates did not agree to this and in September they were imprisoned in a camp in Sachsenhausen. In the Ukrainian politics of the III Reich, Himmler's concept won, the direct executor of which was E. Koch. It assumed the transformation of Ukraine into a German colony, in contrast to the concept of Rosenberg, which suggests the creation of a German satellite - the Ukrainian state. The blow for the groups that were oriented towards an alliance with the Germans, first of all, was the proclamation (August 1, 1941) of the decision to annex the Eastern part of Poland and the southern part of Volhynia to the General Governorate, and then the cession of the Odessa district to Romania. Ukraine has become the object of merciless German exploitation. Only to maintain apparent decency, the General Volyn-Podolsky Commissariat was established with leadership in Brest and a puppet Ukrainian Council, and a Ukrainian university was created in Rivne. Ukrainian elements were supported in territories where they were in minority and when it was in German interests. Despite the collapse of hopes to quickly achieve the freedom of Ukraine, most of the organizations that were still favorable to Germany sought further cooperation with the Germans.

The liquidation of the Stetsko government and the imprisonment of the OUN-B activists caused the remaining at large to go underground. The leadership of the OUN-B was taken over by one of Bandera's closest associates, Nikolai Lebed; the Germans offered a high reward for his capture. Many figures and adherents of the OUN-B were repressed. The German authorities expressively noted that they would not tolerate any manifestations of Ukrainian independence.

Thus, neither the nationalists' declarations of loyalty to the Germans, nor the search for ways to cooperate with them were successful. The Nazis did not need political partners who sought their own independent state. The collapse of hopes to get the Ukrainian state in cooperation with Germany forced the OUN-B to take an anti-German position. This decision was also prompted by the German repressive policy regarding the members of the organization. In September 1941, on the eve of the capture of Kiev, the Gestapo carried out arrests and executions of many OUN members. Both Ukrainian formations were withdrawn from the front and disbanded. Of these, a police battalion was created and sent to Belarus to protect the rear communications of the Wehrmacht. E. Pobigushchiy became the battalion commander, R. Shukhevych became his deputy.

The OUN went underground and began intensive preparations for armed struggle. This decision of the OUN was the first response of warring Ukraine to invading Germany. N. Lebed in September 1941 held an OUN conference (First), at which it was decided to continue the activities begun by the Ukrainian government, to launch a wide propaganda of the ideas and slogans of the liberation struggle, it was ordered to collect and stockpile weapons, to train new personnel for the liberation struggle.

The occupying power was concerned that the resistance of Ukrainian nationalists had intensified. Numerous reports noted that the OUN infiltrated the administration, the police and other structures to deploy activities in favor of Ukrainian statehood, armed resistance. Hitler's secret services came to the conclusion: "Among the various ethnic groups, Ukrainian nationalism must be considered the strongest political current. S. Bandera's movement became an organization illegal and, mainly, anti-German.

The OUN-B outlined a further program of activities at the Second Conference in April 1942. Its resolutions emphasized that the organization, in its struggle for the statehood of Ukraine, is guided by the principles proclaimed by the Act of June 30, 1941, since it declared the desire of the Ukrainian people to live their own political life. Nationalists need to take into account the possibility of armed struggle and choose for it a moment when both opponents will exhaust themselves. Therefore, all energy should be directed already now to the preparation of a nationwide uprising that will ensure victory. For this, it is necessary to create our own armed forces.

On the issue of the future political structure of independent Ukraine, contrary to the Bolshevik concept of internationalism and the German concept of the so-called "New Europe", the OUN-B put forward its own concept of a fair national, political and economic restructuring of Europe on the basis of free national states under the slogan "Freedom to peoples and man!".

At this time, i.e. Since the spring of 1942, the military personnel of the OUN-B began to form detachments of the Ukrainian National Self-Defense in Volhynia under the command of S. Kachinsky and I. Peregiynyak. By the summer, there were already over 600 fighters who became the core of the future rebel army.

One of the German documents pointed out that statements about the fight against Bolshevism, which is now directed against the Nazi occupiers, are disappearing from nationalist propaganda.

The first OUN armed formations in Volhynia finally took shape in October 1942. First, they fought against Soviet partisans and detachments of the Polish underground Home Army (AK), who terrorized the rural population. Soon they also opposed the Germans, who massively caught young people for export to the Reich, robbed the population.

In February 1943, the leadership of the OUN-B convened the Third Conference, at which an analysis of previous activities was made and tasks for the future were outlined. The resolutions of the conference said that Ukraine is between the hammer and the anvil of two enemy forces - German and Soviet imperialism, so the Ukrainian people must fight, relying on their own strength. The struggle of Ukrainians must proceed from the principle of recognition by other peoples and states of the right of the Ukrainian people to independence. It was emphasized that the OUN-B opposes cooperation with the Germans, since their support is actually support for German imperialism against Ukraine. Ukrainians who joined the armed formations created by the Germans were condemned. They should not serve as cannon fodder for foreign troops who aim to further enslave the Ukrainian people.

The anti-Hitler resistance movement began with the formation of the Polessky Sich, headed by Taras Borovets (Bulba), who collaborated with the OUN-M. In the autumn of 1942, both factions formed armed detachments in Volhynia and Polissya to fight the Germans and Soviet partisans.

Bandera armed formations were replenished with young people who were hiding from being taken to Germany, as well as the local Ukrainian police, who joined their ranks. In the first half of April 1943, Bandera controlled the territory of Volhynia and a significant part of Polissya. Some territories were controlled by Soviet partisans and T. Borovets formations, which acted under the name of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Bulba and most of his adherents, former officers of the UNR army, had military experience and prepared for war in advance, hoping to keep in touch with the OUN, which A. Melnyk began to lead in August 1939. When the OUN split into two groups over the course of a year, Borovets decided to keep separate, considering himself superior and more organized. A feud began, especially when he sent invitations to enter his system and formed a new Ukrainian government.

In the summer of 1943, negotiations were held between the Bandera, Melnikov and Bulbovites on joint actions, but did not give positive results.

After some time, the detachments of T. Borovets were disarmed. The detachments of the OUN-B received the name into which many detachments of the Melnikovites joined.

To destroy the UPA detachments, the German special services equipped punitive expeditions, abandoned guard troops, and sometimes regular troops. There were also battles between the UPA and the Soviet partisans, whom the OUN also considered enemies, supporting Moscow's desire to establish its power on Ukrainian soil. Among the Soviet partisans, in whose detachments there were many Ukrainians, the Soviet leadership carried out propaganda against the soldiers of the UPA. They were called "bourgeois nationalists", "traitors" who sold the Ukrainian people to the bourgeois West and sought to establish the power of the landowners and capitalists in Ukraine, and many believed this propaganda.

The Germans took advantage of national enmity, setting the Poles against the Ukrainians, and vice versa. Against the OUN rebels, as well as against the Soviet partisans, formations from the Soviet military, created by the Germans, were used, which included representatives of different nationalities. The tragedy was that two powerful totalitarian systems, Stalinism and Hitlerism, intertwined in a duel, and the peoples of many countries perished. Particularly unfavorable was the fate of the unprotected, stateless Ukrainians, who found themselves on both sides of the front, dressed in different uniforms and considered each other enemies.

In August 1943, under the protection of the UPA in the rear of the Germans, the Third Extraordinary Gathering of the OUN-B took place, at which the ideological, political and theoretical provisions of the program adopted at the previous Krakow gathering were revised. The resolutions emphasized that the OUN was fighting against internationalist and fascist National Socialist programs and political concepts, against communist Bolshevism.

The right of national minorities to cultivate their own national culture in form and content was recognized. The OUN-B undertakes to take care of political cooperation with other enslaved peoples, subject to their equality and the absence of encroachments on foreign territories for the purpose of enslavement.

The decision of the Third Gathering proclaimed the principle of collegiality in the management of the organization. Instead of a sole conductor, the Bureau of the OUN leadership was introduced, formed from three persons: R. Shukhevych - chairman, D. Mashsky, R. Voloshin - members. The political program of the OUN, adopted by the Gathering, extended to the UPA. In connection with the territorial spread of actions and the quantitative increase of the UPA, the Main Military Headquarters of the UPA (GVSh) was created. In the autumn of 1943, Lieutenant Colonel R. Shukhevych (Taras Chuprinka) took over as Chief Commander.

As a result of propaganda work, in the summer of 1943, national armed groups of Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Tatars, etc. were formed in the ranks of the UPA. In November, on the initiative of R. Shukhevych, under the protection of the UPA, the first conference of the enslaved peoples of Eastern Europe and Asia was held. It was attended by 39 delegates representing 13 peoples of the USSR. At the conference, the issue of the international political situation was discussed, it was determined that the modern war between German National Socialism and Soviet Bolshevism is an aggressive war for world domination, for a new redistribution of material wealth, for the enslavement of peoples and their exploitation. Both belligerent states do not accept the right of peoples to free political and cultural development in independent nation-states. In the war, both sides are exhausted, which creates the conditions for the development of a revolutionary liberation struggle.

In the decision of the conference, the political tasks of the enslaved peoples were defined: for the rapid and complete victory of the national revolution, one common front of all the enslaved peoples is needed. Therefore, it was decided to create a general committee of the peoples of Eastern Europe and Asia, which would be able to coordinate all the national revolutionary forces of these peoples, work out a single line and tactics in the fight against the common enemy, and at a crucial moment give the command for the simultaneous uprising of all enslaved peoples.

In connection with the intensification of the struggle of the UPA, the leadership of the OUN in the Ukrainian lands came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a single political leadership of the entire liberation struggle in Ukraine - the Ukrainian underground revolutionary government. This body, according to R. Shukhevych, was supposed to be a continuation of the Ukrainian state government, created in Lvov on June 30, 1941 by the leadership of the OUN-B, but liquidated by the Germans. An initiative committee was created, which held talks with representatives of Ukrainian political parties and organizations. Active Ukrainian revolutionaries, regardless of their ideological or party affiliation, who recognized the only correct platform for the liberation struggle against the Bolshevik and German occupiers. The first Big meeting of the UGVR took place on July 11-15, 1944 near the village of Nedilna on Samborshin under the protection of UPA units. It was chaired by R. Voloshin and secretary M. Duzhogo. It was attended by 20 people, the remaining 10 did not come for various reasons.

Among the creators of the UGVR were 10 members of the OUN, the rest represented other political groups. At the gathering, the main legislative documents of the UGVR were adopted - "Device", "Platform" and "Universal". The Presidium of the UGVR was elected consisting of: K. Osmak - President, V. Mudry, I. Grinyokh and I. Vovchuk - first, second and third vice-presidents, Y. Bilenky - Judge General, Chief Commander of the UPA Roman Shukhevych - Chairman of the General Secretariat, and Secretary General of Military Affairs, N. Lebed - Secretary General of Foreign Affairs, R. Voloshin - Secretary General of Internal Affairs.

The main task of its activity was considered by the UGVR to be the organization of the struggle against the Germans and the Soviet power, which was returning to Ukraine. The command of the UPA, following the instructions of the UGVR, gradually organized life in the territories it controlled. Each village had instructions for creating self-defense to protect the population, organizing intelligence for German units, Soviet and Polish partisans, who often robbed and killed local residents. In some places, schools were even opened, medical care for residents was established, and basic necessities were produced.

The German administration noted the intensification of the activities of the Soviet partisans, the Polish and OUN resistance movements. These formations divided the territory into spheres of influence, so the power of the Germans was concentrated mainly in cities. Differences between the Soviet partisans and the UPA escalated. On orders from Moscow, the commanders of partisan formations launched an armed struggle against "Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists." Soviet partisans carried out punitive measures against the population of those villages that supported the upovtsy. Upovtsy also pursued residents who provided assistance to the partisans. This confrontation had all the signs of a civil war. People died, evil begot evil. In October 1943, the UPA command turned to the Soviet partisans with a leaflet in which they approved of their struggle against the Germans. However, it is not necessary to fight for the replacement of one occupier of Ukraine by another. The goal of the UPA is an independent, independent Ukraine. And there were cases when the commanders of the detachments established contacts with the UPA formations, agreed not to conduct an armed struggle with each other. The Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine condemned this practice and demanded a resolute struggle against "enemies of the Ukrainian people, Hitler's agents." With the approach of the front, the confrontation intensified, and the struggle went to destruction.

The change in the situation on the fronts of the war in favor of the USSR made adjustments to the policy of the OUN-UPA leadership regarding the Germans and the USSR. After all, it was clear that the independence of Ukraine would soon have to be obtained in the fight against the new occupier. Therefore, a non-aggression agreement with the Germans was necessary. Such an agreement would enable each party to act in its own interests. The command of the UPA was looking for contacts with the Wehrmacht. In some areas, individual UPA commanders entered into a neutrality agreement with the command of German units in exchange for weapons and military equipment. The Germans agreed to cooperate, especially in those cases when the UPA formations operated in the rear of the Soviet troops or fought against the Soviet partisans, collected intelligence. Often these agreements were violated, as the UPA prevented the total robbery of the Ukrainian territory and the removal of the population by the retreating Nazis, and the German command, in turn, unleashed terror against the Upov formations. One of the tragic pages of the war period in Western Ukraine was the creation at the end of 1943 of the SS division "Galicia". At first it was planned to call it the Ukrainian division of the Sich Riflemen, but Himmler was categorically against the word "Ukrainian", arguing that in 1917-1919 Ukraine reacted badly to German expansion. About 11 thousand volunteers were recruited into the division. Why did these people volunteer?

When Germany began to lose the war, its leaders began to look for additional resources, gradually changing the policy regarding the enslaved peoples, promising already some advantages, say, for Ukraine, subject to the support of its population. Secondly, the Stalinist version of power was even worse for the Western Ukrainian peasant than the German one. He somehow already adapted to German back in the time of the Austrians. And the "Moskal" was worse, took away what he had acquired, destroyed people. Third, last. Learn to fight, get weapons, military training.

In the battle near Brody on July 22, 1944, the Galicia division was almost completely defeated by Soviet troops. The remnants of it were reorganized, supplemented by German units in Slovakia, then in Yugoslavia and Austria, where they later surrendered to the British. The defeat and shame of cooperation with the enemy formed a stain for many decades on "Galicia", as well as on the army of the Russian General Vlasov.

But the division "Galicia" did not fight against "their own". She fought against those who were strangers to her. With some invaders allied against others.

Of the 11 thousand, 1,500 survived, after the reorganization, the division became semi-Ukrainian, as one of its leaders, the chief of staff, Colonel of the Reichswehr Gaike, writes, it was staffed by Germans from newly released criminals. These elements did everything already in Slovakia, but everything was attributed to the Ukrainians.

Gaike served two years in English captivity, returned home and worked safely in the field of business, since there were no war crimes for him. The division "Galicia", which he led, was unequivocally interpreted in its homeland as treacherous, as it fought against the Red Army, and never had a single opportunity, either for justification, or for a reasoned refutation and removal of the Cain stigma.

Having lost the territory of the USSR, in particular Ukraine, the Nazis launched activities to unite all anti-Bolshevik forces against the USSR. In an effort to win over the nationalists, the Nazis released in September 1944 S. Bandera and other OUN leaders from the concentration camp.

The Germans tried to subordinate the Ukrainians to the "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia", which was headed by Vlasov. However, the leaders of Ukrainian political organizations did not agree to this, believing that Vlasov expressed the pro-imperial interests of the future "new" Russia, which would include the republics of the USSR. OUN-B stood on the positions of independence, defended the right to create an independent Ukraine. S. Bandera refused to head the "Ukrainian National Committee", which was created under the control of the Germans.

In the autumn of 1944, the UPA command established contact with the head of the "Abwehrkommando 202" Kirn, agreed on cooperation on the following terms: the Germans must release the arrested nationalists from concentration camps; the German army will ensure their formation with weapons, materials, means of communication, medicines; The military organizes radio communication schools and training in other military specialties for the Upovites. For this, the UPA agreed to the allocation of people to train sabotage groups that would carry out the tasks of the Germans, remaining subordinate to the rebel command, and would collect intelligence information about the Red Army.

In accordance with the agreement, in April 1945, the Germans landed several groups on Western Ukrainian territory to sabotage the communications of the Soviet troops. After the retreat of German troops beyond the borders of Ukraine, the OUN-B and UPA faced the question of the further actions of the rebel formations. There were two options for resolving this issue: either retreat to the west, or stay in Ukraine and continue the fight against the Soviet regime.

The decisive word belonged to the head of the OUN in the Ukrainian lands, the chairman of the General Secretariat of the UGVR, the Chief Commander of the UPA R. Shukhevych. He and his comrades-in-arms clearly understood that the struggle against the powerful armed forces, supplemented by a well-established system of mass party-political propaganda, is certain death, and refusal to fight is capitulation. The OUN-B decided to continue the fight in Ukraine.

According to R. Shukhevych, the state is a reality for its people as long as the people fight for it. The commanders and ordinary soldiers of the UPA, who remained in Ukraine, in the rear of the Soviet troops, took upon themselves the entire burden of the liberation movement and had to win or die, since in the struggle for the statehood of Ukraine there can be no capitulation, compromises, there can be no doubt about expediency of the chosen path.

The tasks and goal of the OUN-UPA struggle are quite expressively reflected in the German memo, compiled at a time when Soviet power was already restored throughout Ukraine: "UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) is a military organization of the currently strongest political movement, which is called OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). The OUN wants to create an independent Ukrainian state and fights against the "occupiers" on the Ukrainian national territory. The Soviet Union or Russia and Poland are considered the main and historical enemies of the Ukrainian people. The main political direction of action is: to: a) to conduct an uncompromising armed struggle against the Soviet Union and the Red Army; b) to preserve the national substance of the Ukrainian people.

Further, the memo emphasizes that the Ukrainian insurgent movement is a serious danger for the Soviet leadership, and it is forced to use units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and regular troops to fight it. The size of the UPA was estimated at approximately 80-100 thousand fighters of the regular army, that is, those who had military training.

In February 1945, on the initiative of R. Shukhevych, a conference was convened, where the question of the leadership of the OUN was discussed, since by that time its pre-war leader S. Bandera had come out of prison. He conveyed his decision that at the first opportunity he would arrive in his native lands and lead the organization. However, it was decided that S. Bandera, due to the danger to his life, should be in exile.

Deciding to continue the fight against the Soviet government as an occupier of Ukraine, R. Shukhevych, who holds the positions of the Chief Commander of the UPA, chairman of the General Secretariat of the UGVR and leader of the OUN, put a lot of effort into developing and implementing a program for this struggle. The main principles of the program were set forth in the "Declaration of the Wire of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists after the end of the Second World War in Europe", published in May 1945.

The OUN wire emphasized that the main ideological and political basis for the activities of the OUN and the UPA was and remains the idea of ​​​​the Ukrainian Independent Collective State. The most difficult period begins in the liberation struggle. It fell to the fate of their generation to continue the work of creating an independent Ukraine, regardless of whether they win this fight.

In relation to the Russian and other peoples that were part of the USSR, it was stated that Stalin and the Communist Party created and maintain a totalitarian regime that brought much trouble and suffering to the Russian people themselves, just as the Nazis led the German people to tragedy. Therefore, the task is to fight against the Stalinist totalitarian system, and not against the Russian people. The conditions under which the UPA fought in the post-war period were extremely difficult. Significant forces of the NKVD, the NKGB (since 1946, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the MGB), regular units, and destruction battalions were thrown against it. There were many losses in the combat units of the UPA. However, as noted in the resolutions of the OUN-B conference in June 1946, the revolutionary Ukrainian movement heroically withstood the mass terror of the Bolshevik armed forces, so that the occupier failed neither to destroy the revolutionary movement and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, nor to intimidate the people with repressions and force them to refuse to participate. in the revolutionary struggle.

In order to avoid heavy casualties in open armed struggle, the conference decided to switch to underground forms of activity. In July 1946, the "Appeal of the Chief Commander to the UPA" was issued, in which he gave the order to go underground. Regular kurens and hundreds of UPAs were disbanded, underground sabotage groups that fought by surprise attacks on special forces and regular units. The fight intensified more and more. In 1947, on the territory of 8 regions, the nationalist underground carried out 906 armed and political actions against the Soviet regime. These are mostly battles with special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, which were sent to fight against the OUN underground and detachments and which confiscated agricultural products from the peasants, carried out collectivization.

Trying to eliminate the rebel movement, the Central Committee of the CP(b)U and the government of the Ukrainian SSR issued a series of appeals to the OUN-UPA members, in which they promised amnesty to those who agreed to surrender to the authorities. The appearance of appeals, as a rule, was accompanied by a broad propaganda campaign. Promises of amnesty had a strong influence on the population. Members of the OUN underground, the UPA, young men and men who avoided mobilization into the army or resisted collectivization came to the Soviet authorities. Party and Soviet bodies considered the cases of each of them, administrative positions were offered to the most authoritative, others were resettled to the east and to the industrial regions of Ukraine. The press widely published calls for those who came out of the underground to stop the fight, some became agents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, pointed to the location of the rebel units, warehouses with weapons and equipment, and the families of the underground.

The most common method of repressive agencies in the fight against the insurgents was the creation and use of so-called special forces, which acted under the guise of UPA units or fighters of the "Security Service" of the OUN. The purpose of such provocative intelligence formations is to carry out undercover work to identify the leaders of the OUN, UPA commanders, their physical destruction, infiltrate the OUN-UPA environment with the aim of disintegrating and disorganizing them, organizing political provocations, killing civilians, compromising the national liberation movement of the Ukrainian people and discrediting the idea of ​​struggle for an independent conciliar Ukrainian state. Such groups were used for mutual incitement of different strata of the Ukrainian population, opposition of Western and Eastern Ukraine.

Special detachments, formed by the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, committed mass crimes among the population. Quite convincing evidence of this is provided in the memorandum of the military prosecutor of the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian District, Colonel of Justice Kosharsky, dated February 15, 1949 "On the facts of gross violation of Soviet legality in the activities of the so-called special groups of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" addressed to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) U N.S. Khrushchev. From this document we learn that the Ministry of State Security of Ukraine and its departments in the western regions widely use the so-called special groups that acted under the guise of UPA bandits to identify "the enemy Ukrainian-nationalist underground". Posing as Bandera, members of the special groups tortured local residents, accusing them of having links with the MGB, to whom they allegedly gave out members of the OUN and UPA. The document cites a number of examples when people slandered themselves under torture, suffered morally and physically. As a rule, these crimes were attributed to the UPA units. The population was constantly terrorized by attacks, raids by units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB. The recruitment of agents - "sexots" (secret employees - abbr.) was widely practiced. As a rule, there was one agent for 10 houses, who monitored and reported on "suspicious" fellow villagers.

Having gone underground, the UPA combat groups also launched a struggle against units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, regular troops, and destruction battalions. As P. Mirchuk, a participant in the insurgent movement, wrote, it was the revenge of the people for injustice, for trampling on their rights, for millions of Ukrainian patriots tortured, sent to prisons or concentration camps, for robbing the Ukrainian population and mocking them, for trying to nationally decompose the Ukrainian people and demoralize his. According to him, the UPA units carried out in 1947-1948. 2.328 different armed skirmishes and battles with units and groups of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, destruction battalions. Upovtsy unleashed mass terror against those who supported the Soviet government, joined the collective farms. Administrative, collective farm buildings, premises of party cells, village councils, etc. were destroyed. There were also casualties among the civilian population.

Hard times have come for the nationalist underground. There were not enough weapons, food, ammunition. And most importantly, the hopes of the leaders of the OUN for unleashing a war between the USSR and Western states did not come true.

It is clear that the expectations of the leadership of the OUN-UPA-UGVR for external assistance were illusory. In the meantime, the position of the insurgent movement was getting worse and worse. On March 5, 1950, in the village of Belogorshcha near Lvov, surrounded by special forces of the MGB, the Chief Commander of the UPA, Cornet General R. Shukhevych, died. His successor, Colonel V. Cook, in the face of constant persecution, was unable to launch an active struggle against the Soviet regime. With his arrest in May 1954, the activities of the nationalist underground began to fade. The last fires of armed resistance were liquidated in 1956.

The armed confrontation between the UPA and the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-MGB, reinforced by regular units, resulted in numerous casualties on both sides. Thousands of nationally conscious families, whose relatives were in the UPA or financially helped the nationalists, were deported without trial to the eastern regions of the USSR, Siberia, Central Asia, and were deprived of all civil rights. Peaceful people were persecuted, punished, died from cold, hunger, disease.

In the spring of 1959, a Soviet agent, a Lvov resident Bogdan Stashinsky, living under a false name in Germany, “liquidated” Stepan Bandera in Munich by spitting a poisonous substance into his face through a special device. Heart spasm, and the end. But the remains of small glass on the face and a detailed forensic examination showed: murder. This became widely known when Stashinsky, together with his German wife from the GDR, fled to the West, repented, served a seven-year sentence, and wrote a book. Translated into many languages, it brought him a lot of money. After leaving prison, the author probably changed his surname and lives quietly somewhere...

At the end of the war, A. Melnik again headed the OUN-M, S. Bandera and Y. Stetsko were elected to the leadership in Ukraine. In February 1946, under the leadership of S. Bandera, the Foreign Part of the OUN (ZCH OUN) was formed in Munich. On the basis of the revision in 1943 of the ideological foundations of the nationalist movement, a conflict unfolded between a group of representatives of the OUN-B in Ukraine (N. Lebed and others) and the foreign organization of S. Bandera. The latter was accused of opposing the changes and their consequences - the democratization of the OUN-B, the autonomous status of the UPA and the UGVR, as well as the rejection of dogmatism and elitism. The Ukrainian emissaries made their critical views public in the Ukrainian Tribune. S. Bandera and his group in their main organ "Liberation Policy" argued that the ideological revision brings the OUN too close to socialism and communism. The culmination of this dispute was the exclusion of the opposition at the OUN ZCH conference in Mittenwald on August 28-31, 1948. In 1953-54. The leadership of the OUN-B in Ukraine again confirmed the revision of the ideological foundations and instructed S. Bandera, Z. Matla and L. Rebet to form a new government of the ZCH OUN. The negotiations were fruitless, and in 1956 two of the leadership - the triumvirate - Z. Matla and L. Rebet founded a new organization known as OUN-Z (Foreign), or twins (according to the number of founding leaders). Its leaders founded the research society "Prologue", which published "Ukrainian Independent" and sponsored the journal "Modernity". After the assassination of L. Rebet in 1957, the organization was headed by B. Kordyuk, and later by L. Rebet's widow D. Rebet.

The OUN-M developed a conservative corporate ideology after the war. The Third Great Gathering, on August 30, 1947, limited the power of the leader by making him responsible to the Gathering, which was to be convened every three years, and introducing into the program the principles of equality before the law, independence of the judiciary, freedom of conscience, speech, the press, and political opposition. "National Solidarism" O. Boydunik (1945), who modernized the ideology of the organization, defended the Ukrainian independent state based on the cooperation of corporate social groups.

The dispute between the two factions of the OUN continued in Germany immediately after the war: they fought for dominance in the camps for displaced persons and in the emigration Ukrainian National Council. The OUN-M and its allies gained control of the Soviet, and the ZCH OUN was removed. The OUN factions had a decisive influence on the emigrant Ukrainian community. The public image of the community was formed largely under the influence of nationalist devotion to the cause of the liberation of Ukraine. Soviet propaganda sought to discredit the OUN as Nazi collaborators and mercenaries for Western intelligence services. Claiming a vanguard role in the struggle against Russian imperialism, the OUN-B tried to become the dominant force in emigre life. Its organizing platform was the World Ukrainian Liberation Front, formed in 1973, which included the Organization for the Defense of the Four Freedoms of Ukraine (USA), the Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine, the Union of Ukrainians (Great Britain), the Association of Ukrainians in France, "Prosvita" (Argentina), the League liberation of Ukraine in Australia and New Zealand and their branches. The most prominent publications of the front: "The Way of Victory" (Munich, Lvov), "Ukrainian Thought" (London), "National Tribune" (New York) and "Gomin Ukraine" (Toronto). S. Bandera headed the OUN-B until his assassination in 1959. His successors were S. Lenkavsky, Ya. Stetsko (1968-86), V. Oleskiv (1987-91) and the widow of Ya. .).

Emigration nationalist organizations that were founded in the 1930s, such as the Organization for the State Revival of Ukraine (USA), the Ukrainian National Association (Canada) and the Ukrainian National Unity in France after 1940, sided with the OUN-M. The Union of Ukrainians in Great Britain was founded in 1949 as a rival of the Union of Ukrainians in Great Britain. All these organizations belonged to a coordinating association known as "Ideologically Related Nationalist Organizations" (chairman of the secretariat P. Dorozhinsky OUN-M). The most prominent publications of the OUN-M were "Ukrainian Word" (Paris-Kiev-Lviv), "Independent Ukraine" (Chicago, USA), "New Way" (Toronto, Canada), "Our Call" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and "Farmer" (Curitiba, Brazil). After the death of A. Melnik in 1964, the OUN-M was headed by O. Shtul-Zhdanovich, D. Kvitkovsky (1977-79), Plavyuk (since 1981). In the last two decades, the political grouping that was in opposition to the OUN-B tended towards the closest cooperation and consolidation and formed broader associations, such as the Ukrainian Democratic Movement (1976) and the Conference of Ukrainian Political Parties and Organizations (1979). The rivalry between the OUN factions for a long time divided and exhausted the forces of the emigration organizations that served as their fronts. In order to reconcile the nationalist groups of different directions, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (MKSU) had to sacrifice the principle of a majority vote and an effective decision-making procedure. In 1980, the OUN-B acquired control of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America; thus, the latter ceased to represent the Ukrainian community as a whole. The strength and influence of the OUN factions fell into decay due to assimilative pressure, ideological differences with Western-liberal-democratic values.

The OUN-B has been operating in Ukraine since 1990. In 1992, together with other nationalist organizations in Ukraine, it formed the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists (KUN), in which it occupies a leading position. KUN was headed by S. Stetsko, who since 1992 permanently lived in Ukraine, and in 1994 took Ukrainian citizenship. She died in 2004. She was buried in Kiev at the Baikove cemetery.

The OUN-M began to operate in Ukraine in 1990. In May 1993, the 12th Gathering took place in the city of Irpen near Kiev. PUN was again headed by Plavyuk, the OUN Council - Corresponding Member. NAS of Ukraine, prof. K. Tovstyuk, Council of Seniors - prof. Y. Boyko. The recognition of the authority of this organization was the fact of being elected in 1989 as the President of the UNR in the exile of Plavyuk. However, a number of political scientists stated that the OUN-M has practically turned into a Western-type party, and only the name remains of nationalism. OUN-M actively cooperates with other political organizations. Its representatives are members of the MKSU, creating there, together with other groups, a faction of Democratic Nationalism. In 1992, the OUN was registered in Ukraine. The newspaper "Ukrainian Word", which was previously published in Paris, in 1992 moved its activities to Lvov (ed. I. Los), and in 1993 - to Kiev (ed. G. Verbovy). In 1992, the journal "Development of the State" began to be published in Kiev.

In the 1990s, OUN-Z decided not to transfer its activities to Ukrainian territory, remaining abroad. However, this did not mean refusing the help of Ukrainian democratic movements. The ideology of the OUN-Z was transformed into the ideology of the so-called. liberal nationalism, which is very close to the ideology of the Melnikovites. Often these organizations act as allies. After the death of D. Rebet in 1992, the leadership was headed by prof. A. Kaminsky. The doubles published the journal Sovremennost (since 1961), which, however, was not their party organ, but contained a number of materials on socio-political and topics of literature and art. In 1991, the editorial office of the journal was transferred to Kiev (co-editors - T. Gunchak and I. Dziuba).

In 1993, another group was formed, which is called the OUN in Ukraine (OUNvU). This group, headed by M. Slivka and I. Kandyba, was formed as a result of the unification of the wing of the political organizations "State Independence of Ukraine" and part of the nationalists who did not agree with the policy of the KUN. At the end of 1993, the OUNvU was registered at the state level as a party. OUNvU publishes the newspaper "Unconquered Nation".

Recently, in the conditions of the existence of Ukrainian statehood, contact has been made and negotiations have begun between various parts of the OUN.

The structure of the OUN.

The supreme governing body of the OUN is the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, in the OUN-B - the Great Gathering of the OUN. Between Assemblies such functions were performed by the Conference. The collection was approved by the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists (in the OUN-B - the Leadership of the OUN) and the Chairman of the PUN (in the OUN-R - the Conductor of the OUN). Until 1941, the Chairman of the PUN had the title of Leader and unlimited powers. When the Leadership did not have the opportunity to meet in full force, its functions were performed by a Narrow Leadership of three people. Bandera also had similar bodies - the OUN Bureau or the Council of Commissioners. In addition, a regional conductor was assigned to each territory, who carried out the decision of the Leadership in his territory. The regional guide was at the head of the regional leadership. The district leadership of the OUN was subordinate to him. The conductor of the lowest level of the OUN had 5 members under his command. A member of the OUN had to submit a report or proposal strictly on command - only to his guide, who conveyed this proposal to the leadership. Such a system provided strict secrecy. In the 1940s the conspiracy was further strengthened - instead of the system of "fives" the system of "triples" was introduced. The implementation of the decisions of the Leadership was carried out by executives (executive bodies), which were divided into a number of referents (military, ideological, propaganda, etc.). Organizational offenses or crimes were considered by the Revolutionary Tribunal (later - the Organizational Court), the decisions of which could be canceled by the Chairman of the PUN (over time, he was deprived of such rights). Recently, a complex hierarchical system has appeared in the OUN-M: the secretariat has the executive power, and the management functions in the period between the Assemblies - the Leadership. However, two more institutions with purely nominal functions have been created - the Council of the OUN and the Council of Seniors, which makes the structure of the organization heavily overloaded.

Symbols of the OUN.

The attributes of the OUN-M are: a blue flag with a nationalist Trident and the actual nationalist Trident (a stylized image of a Trident with a sword in the middle), which appeared on the seals of the OUN.

Since 1940, the OUN-B has been using a different symbolism: a black and red flag and an emblem: a sword in a circle with the tip down, a trident on the hilt and the letters O.U.N.

OUN-Z refused to use the red and black flag as the flag of the organization. However, all parts of the OUN consider the anthem of the organization "We were born in a great time" ("March of Ukrainian nationalists") on the next. O. Babia. They also recognize the "Decalogue" by S. Lenkavsky and "Signs of the character of a Ukrainian nationalist" by D. Miron.

Appendix

WHAT DOES THE UKRAINIAN REBELLION ARMY (UPA) FIGHT FOR?

A brief summary of the idea and program of the UPA. (The document was written in 1944 and published as a pamphlet).

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army is fighting for every nation to live a free life in its own independent state. The abolition of national oppression and exploitation of nations, the system of free peoples in their own independent states is the only system that ensures a just solution of the national and social question in the whole world.

The UPA is fighting against the imperialists and empires, because in them one ruling people oppresses culturally and politically and exploits economically other peoples. Therefore, the UPA is against the USSR and against the German "New Europe".

The UPA is fighting resolutely against all internationalist and fascist-national-socialist programs and political concepts, for they are an instrument of the imperialists' policy of conquest. Therefore, the UPA is against communist Bolshevism and against German National Socialism.

The UPA is against “liberating”, “taking under protection”, “giving a helping hand”, etc., because behind these crafty words lies a disgusting content - enslavement, violence and arbitrariness. Therefore, the UPA will fight against the Russian-Bolshevik invaders until it clears Ukraine of all foreign "guardians" and "liberators", until we achieve the Ukrainian Independent Collective Power (USSD), where, finally, the worker, peasant and intellectual will be able to to live and develop freely, prosperously and culturally.

In the ranks of the UPA, Ukrainian peasants, workers and intellectuals are fighting against the oppressors, for a new economic order and for a new social order in Ukraine:

For the destruction of the Bolshevik collective farms and German Gromkhozes, for land for the peasants without a ransom, for a free economy and free use of the results of labor

For large-scale industry to be national-state property, and small industry to be cooperative-public

For the participation of the worker in the management of factories, for the vocational-technical, and not the commissar-party principle in leadership

For an eight-hour working day, overtime work can only be freely voluntary, like any work in general, and the worker receives a separate increased payment for it.

For a fair remuneration of labor, for the participation of the worker in the income of the enterprise. With an eight-hour working day, the worker will receive the wages necessary to provide for the material and spiritual needs of his entire family. With an annual calculation of the economic condition of the enterprise, each worker will receive: in social-cooperative enterprises - a dividend (the part of the annual profit belonging to him), and in national-state enterprises - a bonus

For free labor, free choice of profession, free choice of place of work

For freedom of trade unions. For the destruction of Stakhanovism, socialist competition, raising standards, etc. ways of exploiting the labor force

For a free craft, for the voluntary association of artisans in artels, for the right to leave the artel and individually perform their work

For the national-state organization of large-scale trade, for social-cooperative medium and small trade, for private petty trade, for free bazaars

For the complete equality of women and men in all public and state rights and duties, for women's free access to all schools, to all professions. For the fact that a woman, first of all, is engaged in light work, so that she does not look for earnings in mines, mines and other hard work and, as a result, does not tear her health. For state protection of motherhood, for the release of women from circumstances that force them to work. The father of the family will receive, in addition to individual earnings, an additional payment for the maintenance of his wife and young children. Only under such conditions will a woman be able to fulfill her exceptionally important, honorable, responsible duty as a mother and educator of the younger generation.

For the steady increase in the level of education and culture of the broadest masses of the people by expanding the network of schools, publishing houses, libraries, museums, cinemas, theaters, etc.

For increasing professional knowledge, for the tireless growth of highly qualified specialists in all sectors of public and state life

For the free access of young people to all schools, for free education. For the state provision of students with scholarships, meals, housing and teaching aids

For the comprehensive development of the younger generation - moral, mental and physical. For free access to all scientific and cultural acquisitions of mankind

For respect for the work of the intelligentsia. For the creation of such material working conditions under which the intellectual would not have to worry about tomorrow and the fate of his family, so that he could calmly devote himself to cultural and creative work, had the necessary conditions for working on himself, constantly enriching his knowledge and raising his mental and cultural level

For the full provision of all workers in old age and in case of illness or disability

For the expansion of the protection of public health, for an increase in the number of hospitals, sanatoriums, resorts and rest houses, for an increase in medical and medical personnel. For the right of workers to free use of all health care institutions

For special state guardianship of children and youth, for an increase in the number of nurseries, kindergartens, orphanages, holiday camps, sanatoriums and sports organizations. For the coverage of all children and youth by state institutions of guardianship and education

For freedom of the press, speech, thought, belief, faith and worldview. Against the official public outpouring of ideological doctrines and dogmas

For the free recognition and performance of cults that do not oppose civil morality

For cultural relations with other peoples, for the right to travel abroad to study or get acquainted with the life, life and cultural acquisitions of other peoples

For the full right of national minorities to cultivate and develop their own national culture in form and content

For the equality of all citizens of Ukraine, regardless of nationality, in state and public rights and obligations, for the equal right to work, earnings and rest

For a free, Ukrainian in form and content culture, for heroic spirituality, high morality, for social solidarity, friendship and discipline

In order to carry out its political state program, the Ukrainian people create and expand their own political and military force.

The political force is organized, expanded and consolidated by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The military force of the Ukrainian people is currently the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The UPA will achieve not only victory in the Ukrainian revolution, but, turning into a regular Ukrainian People's Army, will consolidate the Ukrainian State and stand on its borders, protecting it from external enemies.

Guided by the idea of ​​a new just order in the world and desiring complete victory over the imperialists, the OUN leads the Ukrainian people in a common anti-imperialist front with other peoples enslaved or threatened by German, Russian and other imperialisms.

The Ukrainian Independent Collective (United) Power (USSD) will strive for permanent friendship and cooperation with the independent states of free peoples, and will strive for permanent peace.

We will win only through the Ukrainian National Revolution, only through a nationwide uprising, only with weapons in our hands. Therefore, no one dares to stand aside, look closely and wait.

Everyone to the front of the struggle for liberation! The sooner the broadest circles of the masses will be in the ranks of the UPA and OUN, the shorter will be the time of our enslavement. Every citizen of Ukraine must take an active part in the political and military preparations for the revolution.

By the hard work of each and everyone individually on the preparation of the Ukrainian National Revolution, we will bring closer and hasten the time of a nationwide uprising, the time of long-awaited liberation and victory.

Our strength lies in our truth, in our progressive idea, in our just program, and above all, in our freedom-loving great people.

Before us is hard work, cruel struggle, inevitable bloody sacrifices. But there is no war without sacrifice, there is no victory without struggle. Only the struggle will return to our people the centuries-old losses, only victory is the guarantee of our happy future.

Glory to Ukraine! - Glory to heroes!

Central Committee of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

Literature

Y. Pokalchuk. Bandera, Lebed and others. Kiev, 1991, No. 1
V. Kucher. OUN - UPA in the struggle for an independent Ukraine. Kyiv. 1997. lang. Ukrainian
M.Bar, A.Zalensky. War of lost hopes: Ukrainian self-styled movement in 1939 - 1945. Ukrainian historical journal. 1992. No. 6.

In the history of Ukrainian nationalist organizations, the struggle for Ukraine has always been much less than the struggle among themselves. The destruction of their own kind among Ukrainian nationalists in its scope was not inferior to bloody actions against the “enemies of the nation”, which at various times included Poles, Jews, Russians, communists and many others.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) by the beginning of World War II existed in the form of two warring groups Andrey Melnyk And Stepan Bandera. The latter headed for the physical extermination of competitors, and in the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Nazis, he acted in this direction on such a scale that the German command had to stop the bloody feuds between its minions by force.

With another fetish of Ukrainian nationalists - the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) - the same story. In fact, in the 1940s, there were two UPAs at once, and the members of these organizations hated each other no less than the “enemies of the nation.”

The army of "Ataman Bulba"

In June 1941, during the offensive of the Nazis, the nationalist underground sharply intensified in the occupied and front-line territories. Ukrainian nationalist Taras Borovets "Bulba" proclaimed the creation of the armed formation "Polessky Sich" - the Ukrainian Insurgent Army on the territory of Volhynia and Polissya. Initially, Borovets, acting under the pseudonym "ataman Taras Bulba", planned to engage in sabotage in the rear of the Soviet troops. But the rapid retreat of the Red Army forced the "ataman" to somewhat reconsider the "line of activity" - basically the "Sich" were engaged in capturing prisons and releasing prisoners, as well as robbing warehouses and attacking individual NKVD and police officers who did not have time to evacuate.

With the arrival of the Germans, Borovets-Bulba offered them assistance in the destruction of groups of Soviet soldiers remaining in the occupied territory, as well as in the fight against Soviet partisan detachments.

In addition, the "Sich" were attracted by the Germans to participate in actions to exterminate Jews, communists and persons sympathetic to the Soviet regime.

The cooperation of the UPA of Borovets-Bulba, who distanced himself from Bandera and his associates, with the Nazis continued until November 1941. At this time, the leader of the UPA offered to maintain some independence of the "Polessky Sich", promising in return to clear the entire Chernihiv region of Soviet partisans. The Germans, however, were not interested in this, and Borovets-Bulba had to curtail his legal activities, officially disbanding the detachments subordinate to him.

A subdivision of the "Polessky Sich" in the city of Olevsk, autumn 1941. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Masters of "economic shares"

Offended by the "ungratefulness" of the Germans, the "ataman" went into the forest and from there began to actively campaign for joining the Ukrainian Insurgent Army - a force fighting for "a free Ukraine without German invaders and Bolsheviks."

At the same time, the units of Borovets-Bulba did not conduct any active operations either against their neighbors in the forests, Soviet partisans, or against the Germans. The only operations of the UPA of Borovets-Bulba in 1942 were "economic actions" - the seizure of convoys with food, weapons and ammunition.

The leader explained to his subordinates that at the present time they needed to accumulate strength for the upcoming battles. At the same time, Borovets-Bulba managed to negotiate cooperation with both the Soviet partisans and the Germans. He willingly promised neutrality to everyone, and when it came to active actions, he answered evasively.

Borovets vs. Bandera

This continued until the spring of 1943, until representatives of Stepan Bandera reached the UPA of Borovets-Bulba. The head of the UPA was offered the terms of the merger, more like a takeover.

Taras Borovets-Bulba, who, after the first months of his activity under the Nazis, even had his hands stained with blood, nevertheless treated Bandera's activities with undisguised disgust. He was especially disgusted by Bandera's idea of ​​the mass extermination of the civilian Polish population, which just at that time began to be embodied in the Volyn massacre. The “ataman Taras Bulba” also knew about the sad fate of the OUN members Andrei Melnik, who were exterminated.

Therefore, refusing to unite Bandera, he hastened to inform the Germans that he was starting an active fight against the Soviet partisans. It was important for Borovets-Bulba to prove himself useful to the occupiers.

The clashes that began with the Soviet partisans turned into serious losses for the UPA. In addition, those ordinary fighters who joined the UPA in the hope of fighting the Nazis simply deserted from the detachments of the ataman.

Not succeeding in attacks on combat units of partisans, Borovets-Bulba gave the order to brutally crack down on civilians who help them.

The wife of the leader of the first UPA was executed by the “security service”

Such actions led to a drop in the popularity of the UPA among ordinary citizens.

In the spring of 1943, Bandera, together with like-minded people, created his own Ukrainian Insurgent Army, after which two UPAs simultaneously began to operate in Ukraine at once.

In July 1943, Borovets-Bulba abandoned the "brand" by renaming its formation to the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army. The “ataman” himself claimed that the Volyn massacre was the cause, after which the three letters “UPA” were soiled once and for all.

Taras Bulba-Borovets, September 2, 1941. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

In October 1943, in the face of the offensive of the Soviet troops, the Nazi command launched an operation to clean up the rear from all partisans, Soviet and nationalist. Borovets-Bulba issues a decree on the transition to new forms of struggle for the UNRA - in fact, on the dissolution of its formations.

By this time, Bandera's detachments began large-scale actions against the fighters of Borovets-Bulba. Those who refused to join the ranks of the Bandera UPA were destroyed.

When Borovets-Bulba went to the next negotiations with the German command, hoping to receive offers of cooperation and protection from Bandera, the camp of his detachment was attacked by Bandera formations. Many associates of "ataman Taras Bulba" were killed. An even more terrible fate fell wife of Borovets-Bulba Anna Borovets- she was handed over to the Bandera "security service". The woman was subjected to prolonged torture and then killed.

Borovets-Bulba himself survived both his wife and the war, and for many more years he was engaged in active political activity in the ranks of the Ukrainian emigration. The creator of the first UPA died in New York in 1981.

Slogans and reality

The official date of creation of the second, "Bandera" UPA in Ukraine is October 14, 1942, when field commander Sergei Kachinsky(pseudonym "Ostap") formed the first department of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

The main goal of creating the UPA was to unite disparate armed groups of nationalists under the leadership of the OUN Stepan Bandera. Dissenters were disposed of in the harshest way, the ranks of fighters were expanded with the help of forced mobilization.

The growing dissatisfaction of the Ukrainian population with the occupation regime forced the nationalists to at least verbally declare their intention to wage an armed struggle against the Nazis. At the same time, the leaders of the OUN-UPA tried not to mention their participation in punitive actions under the leadership of the Germans, about the Nachtigall and Roland battalions, about the extermination of the civilian population of Belarus by the so-called “Ukrainian Legion”, suspected of sympathizing with the Bolsheviks.

It is clear that the complete absence of operations against the Nazis caused questions among ordinary UPA fighters. In response, they were explained that active actions against the German troops in the current conditions could be a help to Stalin, which could not be allowed.

Propaganda poster of the Ukrainian movement during World War II. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

As a result, the slogan "struggle on two fronts" remained just that. All the same, proposals to start operations against the Germans, put forward by individual nationalist commanders, were rejected by the III Conference of the OUN in February 1943 and the Great Assembly of the OUN in August 1943.

Virtual exploits and real crimes

In fact, the struggle of the UPA with the Germans was reduced to the robbery of warehouses and carts, as well as control over settlements and roads, which the Nazis themselves did not consider strategically significant.

The data of the German archives testify that the Nazi army did not suffer losses in manpower from the actions of the UPA.

This puts modern Ukrainian historians in a difficult position: President Petro Poroshenko broadcasts about the contribution of the UPA to the victory over fascism, and it is impossible to support this with actual material. Therefore, at the expense of the UPA, they are trying to record either operations carried out by Soviet partisans, or those that, in principle, did not exist. So, for example, in May 1943, he died in a car accident near Potsdam. SA Chief of Staff SA Obergruppenführer Viktor Lutze. Information about his death was widely circulated in the German press, the funeral was held at the state level. However, later the death of Lutze was unexpectedly recorded by Ukrainian nationalists at their own expense, without, however, providing any evidence.

If the UPA was not engaged in the fight against the Germans, then Bandera actively fought against the Soviet partisans. At the same time, the UPA detachments in these cases coordinated their actions with the Nazis, forgetting for a while about their supposedly hostile attitude towards them.

After the liberation of Ukraine by units of the Red Army, the UPA began to actively commit sabotage in the rear of the Soviet units. About 2,000 Soviet soldiers and officers died from the actions of Bandera in 1944 alone.

Parade of Ukrainian nationalists in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) in honor of the visit of the Governor-General of Poland, Reichsleiter Hans Frank, October 1941. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"Don't be afraid that people will curse us for cruelty"

But most of all, the UPA succeeded in punitive actions against the civilian population. The Volyn massacre perpetrated by Bandera, which claimed tens of thousands of lives of women, the elderly and children, whose entire fault was in Polish origin, made even some of the representatives of the Ukrainian nationalist movement shudder.

Commander-in-Chief of the UPA Roman Shukhevych he explained the bloody methods of struggle to his subordinates in this way: “There is no need to be afraid that people will curse us for cruelty. Let half of the 40 million Ukrainian population remain - there is nothing terrible in this.

According to data published in 2002 by the Institute of the History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in 1944-1953, as a result of the actions of the UPA, 30,676 Soviet citizens died, including military personnel - 6476, government officials - 2732, party workers - 251, Komsomol workers - 207, collective farmers - 15,669, workers - 676, representatives of the intelligentsia - 1931, children, old people, housewives - 860. This information, which a number of historians consider far from complete, is clear evidence of what the UPA actually did and what "successes" it reached.

Killed as a result of the actions of the UPA-OUN (b) residents of the village of Lipniki (now defunct) near the city of Berezno, now the Rivne region, 1943. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

The leaders of the nationalists by actions of intimidation tried to maintain their influence on the Ukrainian population. Tired of the war, people wanted to work peacefully, restore what was destroyed, they were not interested in the plans of Bandera and Shukhevych. Fermentation was also noted among the fighters of the UPA itself. Those who wanted to lay down their arms were handed over to the “security service” - a structure that outdid the Gestapo in its cruelty. They dealt not only with apostates, but also with their families.

Despite everything, the Soviet power structures managed to slowly but surely reduce the activities of the UPA to zero. This was helped by both military actions and amnesties announced several times for ordinary members of the organization. By 1949, the activities of the UPA combat structures were reduced to a minimum. On March 5, 1950, during a special operation, Roman Shukhevych was destroyed. The last one was arrested in 1954 chief commander of the UPA Vasily Kuk, whose activities by that time were tightly controlled by the Soviet special services.

Thus ended the history of the UPA - an organization that did nothing useful in the fight against the Nazi invaders, but shed rivers of innocent blood of Jews, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians.