Today, the network got instructions for the Ukrainian media by May 9 - how to cover the events of the Second World War, and the recently finally rehabilitated OUN-UPA.

The main messages - Ukraine was liberated from the Nazis not by the Soviet Army, but by the Ukrainian people, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Bandera) contributed a lot to this. In addition, it is recommended to focus on the number of Russians who fought in the ROA (Vlasovites), and on Russia's deliberate underestimation of the role of the Ukrainian people in the victory in World War II (that's right - World War II, the Second World War cannot be used).

Copies

I won’t publish everything, I think the essence is already clear ... Plus, the Ukrainian authorities recommend proceeding from the fact that “May 9 is not a Victory Day, but above all a lesson for Ukraine, Europe and the whole world,” and also call for equalizing Putin’s Russia and Hitler’s mode.

In principle, nothing new - Kiev continues to impose a mutilated version of history on Ukrainians and promote Russophobia. Actually, for this, it was necessary to glorify the chronic Russophobes of Bandera, who allegedly fought simultaneously against two totalitarian regimes (Soviet and Nazi) for an independent Ukraine. But it is very difficult to combine the incompatible, 6 million Ukrainians who fought against the Nazis in the ranks of the SA, and 300 thousand Galician nationalists who fought with the Germans against the Soviet Union, i.e. AGAINST HIS PEOPLE. Therefore, one has to lie so much and ignore historical facts.

Let me remind you that the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists have been proven in trials, as well as their direct connection with the Nazis (there is a huge amount of photo and video evidence of this, see below). In contrast, the German archives did not record A SINGLE FACT of serious clashes between Bandera and the Nazis, except for minor skirmishes, which the Germans themselves described as rare and not worthy of attention.

In 1941, Galicia greeted the Germans with flowers, bread and salt, and solemn parades, Ukrainian nationalists were promised an independent Ukraine, so they not only welcomed the Nazis, but also actively joined the police and regular military formations. On the very first day of the creation of the SS Galicia, more than 20 thousand Ukrainians voluntarily enrolled in it, during the week another 40 thousand applications were sold.

Photo chronicle: Galicia meets the Nazis, and SS volunteers Galicia

A little about the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism and the slogans that are chanted today

Taken almost one in one of the Nazi….

And how these slogans were used by the "fighters against Nazism" of that time

In addition to the SS division Galicia, there were other formations of Ukrainian nationalists, who until the age of 43 unequivocally fought as part of or in direct interaction with the Germans:

Nachtigall Battalion(German "Nachtigal" - "Nightingale")

The unit was formed mainly from members and supporters of the OUN (b) and trained by the military intelligence and counterintelligence agencies of Nazi Germany, the Abwehr, for operations on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. Which he headed. It was Nachtigal, together with the German troops, who took part in the invasion of the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, acting as part of the Brandenburg regiment. On the night of June 29-30, 1941, the battalion was the first to enter Lvov.

Now Ukrainian propaganda is trying to portray Shukhevych as such

In the form of a UPA warrior and Ukrainian symbols. But really it was

Battalion Roland(German "Roland")

It was formed in 1941 with the sanction of the head of German military intelligence V. Canaris for training and use as part of the Brandenburg-800 special reconnaissance and sabotage formation during the German attack on the USSR. Subordinated to the 2nd department of the Abwehr Directorate (Amt Abwehr II) (special operations) under the High Command of the Wehrmacht.

Unlike Nachtigall, its personnel were mostly represented by Ukrainian emigrants of the first wave. In addition, up to 15% were Ukrainian students from Vienna and Graz. The former officer of the Polish army, Major E. Pobigushchiy, was appointed commander of the battalion. All other officers and even instructors were Ukrainians, while the German command was represented by a communications group consisting of 3 officers and 8 non-commissioned officers. The training of the battalion took place in the Zaubersdorf castle, 9 km from the city of Wiener Neustadt. In early June 1941, the battalion departed for Southern Bukovina, and then moved to the Yass region, and from there through Chisinau and Dubossary to Odessa, acting as part of the 6th Wehrmacht Army on the territory of first Western and then Eastern Ukraine in June −July 1941.

In October 1941, the Nachtigal and Roland were relocated to Frankfurt an der Oder, sent for retraining for use as parts of the security police.

But soon sobering up came - the Ukrainian state, which Bandera proclaimed on June 30, 1941 in Lvov, lasted only 17 days, after which Bandera was arrested, and Hitler essentially declared Ukraine his colony, in which nationalists were assigned only police functions.
At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, part of the Galician nationalists (OUN b, followers of Bandera) “bucked up”. Refusing to follow the orders of the Germans. Nominally, the reasons were the deception with independent Ukraine (a year and a half later), and the terror that the Germans staged on the civilian population, incl. and in Galicia. They drove to Germany, took away food and livestock, not really understanding where the owner was fighting - in the Red Army or in the SS ... But the main reason was that the Germans were losing the war, there was no longer any hope not only for an independent Ukraine, but even for some privileges in the Nazi ...
Refusing to carry out the direct orders of the Reich, the OUN-UPA, from the point of view of the Germans, became gangs of Ukrainian nationalists (that is what they were called in the reports), but there was no reason to destroy them, like the OUN-UPA, there was no reason to start a war against the Nazis , they would thereby take the side of the Union, which by that time was already winning. And in Soviet Ukraine, nothing but camps awaited them.

Actually, the UPA itself appeared only in February 1943. Help

February 17-23, 1943 in the village. Ternobezhye, on the initiative of Roman Shukhevych, the III OUN Conference was held, at which a decision was made to intensify activities and start an armed uprising.

The majority of the conference members supported Shukhevych (although M. Lebed objected), in whose opinion the main struggle should not be directed against the Germans, and against Soviet partisans and Poles - in the direction already carried out by D. Klyachkivsky in Volyn.

At the end of March 1943, supporters and members of the OUN who served in the German paramilitary and police forces were instructed to go into the forests along with weapons. According to the order intercepted by the Soviet partisans, the actual beginning of "the formation of the Ukrainian national army at the expense of policemen, Cossacks and local Ukrainians of the Bandera and Bulbov direction" fell on the second decade of March 1943.

The ranks of the future UPA in the period from March 15 to April 4, 1943 were replenished from 4 to 6 thousand members of the "Ukrainian" police, whose personnel in 1941-42 were actively involved in the destruction of Jews and Soviet citizens

From that moment on, the nationalists of the UPA allegedly ceased to obey the Germans, and then fought against them and against the Soviet regime. Although, as I wrote above, there is no evidence of large-scale hostilities of the UPA against the Germans, some minor skirmishes (release of relatives of those driven to work, protection of their own homes, property, attack on food warehouses / carts) cannot be considered as such, this forced measures of self-survival.
Even in the collections of documents “UPA in the light of German documents” (book 1, Toronto 1983, book 3, Toronto 1991), compiled by the descendants of nationalists who emigrated to Canada (and therefore hardly impartial) - there are very few examples of clashes between the UPA and the Nazis, and most of them are like this

Negotiations with one of the gangs of nationalists not far from Rovno brought the following results: the gang will continue to fight against the Soviet bandits and the regular units of the Red Army. She refuses to take part in battles on the side of the Wehrmacht, as well as to hand over her weapons... In recent weeks, the actions of Ukrainian gangs have been directed not so much against the Wehrmacht as against the German administration. Ukrainian gangs still oppose Polish, Soviet gangs and Polish settlements.

Actually, the UPA did not fight against the regular Soviet Army either. By this time they were living the dream of the mutual destruction of the Soviets and the Reich. Meanwhile, they themselves were concerned about their own survival and continued the work that they had begun under the leadership of the Nazis - the genocide of the civilian population, primarily supporters of the Soviet Power, and the ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews, including together with the Nazis. Here are a few episodes:

Tragedy of Janova Valley

On the night of April 22-23, 1943 (on the eve of Easter), detachments of the 1st UPA Group under the command of I. Litvinchuk ("Oak") entered the village. Janovaya Dolina and began to set fire to all the buildings. Some of the inhabitants died in the fire, those who tried to get out were killed.

The German garrison stationed in the village - a company of the Lithuanian auxiliary police under German command - was in the village during the attack, but did not leave its location. The Nationalists did not attack the garrison. The police did not try to oppose the nationalists, and opened fire only when the nationalists approached his location.

As a result of the action, from 500 to 800 people died, including women and children. Many were burned alive

The tragedy of Guta Penyatskaya

As of the beginning of 1944, there were about 1000 inhabitants in the village of Guta Penyatskaya. The settlement of Guta Penyatskaya supported the Polish and Soviet partisans in their actions to disorganize the German rear.
On February 28, 1944, the village was surrounded by the 2nd police battalion of the 4th regiment of the SS Volunteer Division "Galicia" with the support of the local UPA and was completely burned - only the skeletons of stone buildings remained - the church and the school. Of the more than a thousand inhabitants of Guta Penyatskaya, no more than 50 people survived. More than 500 residents were burned alive in the church and their own homes.

Tragedy Podkamenya

On March 12, 1944, a unit of the SS division "Galicia" entered the town of Podkamen under the pretext of searching for weapons and partisans. On the eve of the Polish self-defense of the town, an attack by a UPA detachment was repelled.
The soldiers of the SS "Galicia" who entered the territory of the monastery began to kill all the Poles who had taken refuge on its territory. Others, searching the place, demanded identity cards from the people they found. Whoever had it indicated in the "Ausweiss" that he was a Pole - they killed him. Those who could prove the opposite were left alive ... During the action, more than 250 people were killed by the military of the 4th regiment of the SS Volunteer Division "Galicia" with the participation of UPA units ...

—————-

There are many such examples, and all of them confirm the cooperation of the UPA with the Nazis, including with the SS Galicia, which continues to fight as part of the Wehrmacht.
And by the way, SS Galichna, which Ukrainian propaganda very rarely mentions, was also staffed to a large extent from Galician nationalists, incl. and members of the OUN. The division was created in March 1943, and what is called, at the urgent request of the patriotic public, I quote:
At the beginning of March 1943, the newspapers of the Galicia district published the "Manifesto for the combat-ready youth of Galicia" by the governor of the Galicia district Otto Wächter, which noted the devoted service "for the good of the Reich" of the Galician Ukrainians and their repeated requests to the Führer to participate in the armed struggle - and the Fuhrer, taking into account all the merits of the Galician Ukrainians, allowed the formation of the SS Rifle Division "Galicia»

I wrote above that in the very first week after the publication of the manifesto, 60 thousand volunteers applied to the division, and in total - about 80 thousand. It should be added that the SS Galicia was involved in punitive operations not only in Ukraine, but also in Slovakia and Yugoslavia. More information about their "exploits".

Separately, in the activities of the Galician nationalists, one can single out the genocide that they staged for the Poles. According to various sources, from 30 to 60 thousand people were killed, mostly women, children of the elderly (Poland insists on the figure of 100 thousand). Now Kiev is trying to justify the "Volyn Massacre" by the fact that the Poles also killed ethnic Ukrainians. This is true, but on their part it was a retaliatory measure, in the hope of thereby pacifying Bandera and stopping the massacre in the territory of Galicia, and the number of victims is completely incomparable.

Volyn Tragedy (Massacre)

There are many similar facts of UPA crimes (), and it is pointless to reject them. According to individual photos, modern followers of Bandera give rebuttals (they were not taken there, or they did not die at the hands of Bandera), but they refute only a few, but thousands of documents.
Attempts to attribute all this to the lies of Soviet propaganda are also untenable - the facts are confirmed by Polish, German, Israeli historians.

And finally, a little video, for those who have the time and desire to understand the topic thoroughly.

Chronicle. SS Division Galicia. Kolomia. Hutsuls

Followers of Bandera, OUN UPA, SS Division Galicia (from 8.30 minutes photo and video chronicle)

OUN-UPA, Facts of History Today and the Past!

German State. channel: Bandera collaborated with the Nazis and was involved in the extermination of Jews

VOLYN without a statute of limitations - a film about the crimes of the OUN-UPA

POLICEMANS (2014) BANDEROVTS. UPA Army. It's hard to watch, but useful. 16+

PS
Galician nationalists unequivocally fought on the side of Nazi Germany, as long as they believed that Ukraine would be given to them for this, while they were used mainly to perform police functions and in punitive operations AGAINST CIVIL POPULATION, including AGAINST UKRAINIANS.
From the fact that they wanted to get Ukraine, it does not follow that they fought for freedom for the Ukrainian people, even 2-3 years before these events they were citizens of Poland, and before that for hundreds of years they were part of Austria-Hungary, which suited many of them.
It is terrible to imagine what would happen if Germany won that war and kept its promise to give power over Ukraine to Bandera, and what fate would await the families of those 6 million Ukrainians who went to fight in the Red Army, what would await Russians, Poles, Jews living in Odessa , Kharkov, Donetsk…. However, it is not difficult to imagine this, looking at the photos published above, and remembering Babi Yar in Kiev, where from 70 to 200 thousand racially incorrect citizens were shot with the active participation of nationalists.

On this terrible frame - Kiev, September 1941. Babi Yar. The mother, a second before death, presses the child to her. The man in SS uniform who would kill her and the baby in a second or two was not German. He is Ukrainian, more precisely, a native of Western Ukraine, from Zhytomyr. He served in the division "Galicia", and since 1943 he participated in the work of the Einsatz groups.
Where do these details come from? Almost from himself. This photograph was confiscated by partisans along with documents and an army dog ​​tag. They seized it when they searched his body.

Bandera hoped to get Ukraine for themselves from the hands of the Nazis, but when they were denied this, they still considered them their allies.
In addition, by the middle of 1944, the Nazis were forced out of Western Ukraine - the Bandera people were no longer physically able to fight against them.
In fairness, it should be noted that the hatred of Bandera towards the Poles and the Soviet government did not appear out of nowhere - this was preceded by the Polish-Ukrainian war, the forced Polonization of Galician Ukrainians, then the deportation of 200-300 thousand nationalists and their families, accompanied by bacchanalia of the NKVDs. All this can to some extent explain why the Galicians met the Nazis as liberators, but this cannot serve as an excuse for the inhuman reprisals against women, old people and children.
And of course, Ukrainian nationalists did not fight against Nazism, or even more stupidly, against totalitarian regimes. Some of them fought for their own, racially pure Ukrainian Reich, others for the German...

For writing the article, only sources confirming the information with documentary evidence were used: Wikipedia, materials from the book of the Polish historian Alexander Korman "UPA Genocide", the Canadian collection "UPA in the light of German documents".

In recent decades, especially with the collapse of the Soviet Union, both in the West and in a number of states formed in the post-Soviet space, everything possible has been done to rehabilitate war criminals. The authorities of the Baltic countries and Ukraine were especially successful in this, encouraging the perpetuation of the memory of the SS legionnaires and collaborators of other stripes who fought on the side of Nazi Germany.

With the coming to power in Kiev of the Nazi-oligarchic regime, the rehabilitation of war criminals reached new heights there. Monuments are erected to the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) S. Bandera and the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) R. Shukhevych and their henchmen, streets and squares are named after them, and young people are educated by their example. On April 9 last year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law recognizing OUN-UPA militants as fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century and granted them the right to social guarantees.

Attempts by the junta to pass off punishers and murderers as fighters "for national independence" are accompanied by the humiliation of fellow citizens who fought in the Red Army and other formations on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, the destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators. Under these actions, the legislative base has already been laid down - the infamous law of Ukraine "On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist totalitarian regimes and the prohibition of their propaganda." The authorities of the “independent”, so striving for Europe, are not even embarrassed by the fact that, according to the December 2015 assessment of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, this law does not comply with European legislative standards.

Who is being protected by the ideological structures of the new Kiev regime in the person of the so-called Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and other similar bodies of “national forgetfulness”?

In April 1943, by decision of the German military authorities, the 14th SS division "Galicia" was created, staffed mainly by ethnic Ukrainians. She began her bloody path with fighting in the Carpathians against the partisans. After the "Galicia" in the summer of 1944 was thoroughly battered by the Red Army near Brody, destroying 7 out of 12 thousand people of its composition, the SS command moved the division to Slovakia, then to the Balkans, where it continued to fight against the Yugoslav partisans and Soviet troops .

And if you look at the OUN and its armed formation of the UPA? Despite the fact that Ukrainian nationalists happened to clash with the Wehrmacht, their appearance during the Great Patriotic War was determined by close cooperation with the German Nazi regime and a fierce struggle against the Red Army and Soviet power, launched from the first days of the war. What is the only instruction issued by the leadership of the OUN (b) in the spring of 1941, which directly stated: “Muscovites, Poles, Jews are national minorities hostile to us,” which must either be assimilated, or isolated, or destroyed. The instruction proclaimed terror as the main method of implementing such a national policy.

The arrival in Lviv on June 30, 1941, together with the German units of the OUN marching group led by J. Stetsko, was marked by mass pogroms, during which, according to various sources, from 4 to 7 thousand people died. Among the punishers were servicemen of the Nachtigal battalion, formed by the Abwehr to act as part of the Brandenburg-800 sabotage unit, led by Shukhevych. The bloody trace of the Banderaites is also clear in the infamous Babi Yar near Kiev, which became in 1941-1943. the place of executions of at least 150 thousand civilians and prisoners of war.

On the territory occupied by the Germans, Bandera destroyed Poles, Jews, Belarusians, Gypsies, Russians. Ukrainians, suspected of sympathy for the Soviet regime, were not spared either. With the creation of the UPA in 1942, ethnic cleansing acquired a massive, systematic character. And today these sadists and murderers are passed off as "heroes" of the "national liberation movement".

Part of the blame for the current rampant lawyers of collaborators and the tolerant attitude of Ukrainian society must be taken by historians, including Russian ones. For too long, the criminal activities of the OUN-UPA were covered without proper systematicity and thoroughness, and only a few, the most bloody pages of their history were made public. However, the all-out offensive of the Ukronazis must be countered by an equally decisive counter-offensive with the weapons of truth.

In this regard, we consider it important to publish in 2015 by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation a collection of documents “The Liberation of Ukraine”, which tells about the true liberators of Ukraine from the German occupiers, and about those who are trying to pretend to be “liberators”. A significant section is devoted to the actions of the latter, which contains documents containing new and irrefutable facts of cooperation between the OUN-UPA and the Wehrmacht and the organizers of the Nazi occupation regime, the Ukrainian nationalists conducting an armed struggle against the Red Army and carrying out the most severe repressions against the civilian population.

Thus, the message of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army dated January 19, 1942 refutes the theses of OUN-UPA lawyers that the latter fought for "independent Ukraine" equally with the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. What kind of independence from the Germans could there be if the German command - just six months after the start of the war - began to create a "Ukrainian army". In Novograd-Volynsky, Zhytomyr region, a special school was completed from the captured commanders of the Red Army. The occupying authorities also formed punitive detachments from persons of Ukrainian nationality, including deserters and prisoners of war. Such detachments were tasked with fighting the growing partisan movement in the rear of the German troops, "catching and destroying persons undesirable by the German authorities."

Cursing before the bearers of the German "new order", the Bandera went to any provocation, often putting on the Red Army uniform and posing as Soviet military units. Entering the confidence of the people, identifying partisans, underground workers, party and Komsomol activists, the punishers then mercilessly dealt with them. One of these atrocities was recorded in an act signed on April 11, 1944 by members of a special commission of the 1st division of the 206th guards light artillery regiment and several surviving residents of the village of Nova-Brikula, Strusovsky district, Ternopil region. Here, at the hands of Bandera, dressed in Red Army uniforms, 115 local residents were killed in one day.

According to the memorandum of the head of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement T.A. Strokach to the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal G.K. Zhukov dated May 10, 1944, one can judge how widely the Bandera movement in Volyn bred under the auspices of the Nazis. Parts of the Wehrmacht, the German secret services coordinated with the OUN joint actions against the advancing Red Army, supplied them with weapons, ammunition, and food. As follows from the order of the regional conductor of the OUN in the northwestern territories, D. Klyachkivsky (Klim Savur), intercepted by partisans, all the efforts of the nationalists were directed against the Red Army and Soviet partisans.

After the active army left the territory of Ukraine, starting to liberate Eastern Europe, the OUN-UPA stepped up terror against the civilian population. Attacks on small garrisons, villages, individual military personnel and party and Soviet activists became more frequent. The philosophy of the killers is vividly conveyed by Shukhevych's call to his militants: “Do not intimidate, but exterminate! We should not be afraid that people will curse us for cruelty. Let half of the 40 million Ukrainian population remain - there is nothing terrible in this.” As you can see, the fanatics of "Ukrainian integral nationalism" used weapons not only against "Muscovites, Poles and Jews", but also against their fellow tribesmen, without looking at who was hit by a bullet or an ax - an old man, a woman or a baby.

Such a case is mentioned, for example, in the report of the head of the political department of the Kiev military district, Colonel Lukashuk, to the head of the GlavPU of the Red Army dated February 6, 1945, which provides details of a raid by a gang of 200 OUN-UPA militants on the regional center of Gorodnitsy, Zhytomyr region. Bandera exterminated many inhabitants, including infants, and left ashes behind them.

The political regime that has now established itself in Kiev does its best to hush up such facts, seeks not only to whitewash, but also to glorify the punishers from among the Ukrainian nationalists. The publication of documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which was discussed above, is an important link in the chain of publications that should be undertaken in order to make the crimes of the OUN-UPA against their own and other peoples become obvious even to the most stubborn people of little faith.

The problem of the OUN-UPA is one of the debatable topics of Ukrainian society, the point of view throughout the years of independence fluctuates between positive (fighters for independence, Heroes of Ukraine) and negative (German collaborators, traitors to Ukraine). Their assessment is often based on propaganda clichés from both sides. The issue of officially recognizing the UPA as a belligerent in World War II and providing veterans with benefits at the state level (several western regions made this decision at the regional level) still remains unresolved. The author does not set himself the goal of highlighting the UP problem as much as possible, which is almost impossible for an ordinary article, but he hopes that the material will allow the reader to make an approximate picture of one of the pages of the Ukrainian one.

general characteristics

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA-OUN-B) is a partisan army of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of the Bandera Movement. Chief Commander of the UPA in 1943-1950. was Roman Shukhevych, from 1950 to 1954. - Vasily Cook.

Name. The abbreviation UPA stands for "Ukrainian Insurgent Army", although the wording is much more accurate as follows - Ukrainian Insurgent Army of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of the Bandera Movement. There were several divisions with the name UPA. Initially, this term was carried by the renamed (formerly "Polesskaya Sich") military partisan structure of Vasily Borovets (aka Taras Bulba, Bulba-Borovets), the embryo of which, under the guise of a local police force, which was de jure under the control of the Germans, was created by August 1941 Borovets was not associated with the OUN and was subordinate to the government of the UNR in exile. After the Nazi authorities disbanded the self-defense units, Bulba went underground. The armed formations of the OUN-B also receive the name "Ukrainian Insurgent Army", as a result, until July 1943, the two organizations bear the same name. Not wanting to associate himself with the latter's terror against the Poles, Bulba renamed the UPA-PS into the UNRA. In 1943, the Bulbovites were surrounded by the OUN and defeated them, which is logical, because the scattered peasant detachments could not resist the rigid, clearly structured OUN.

period of existence. The creation of the UPA was preceded by the activities of its underground predecessors UVO and OUN in 1920-1940. October 14, 1942 is considered the official date for the creation of the OUN UPA, although many historians consider it propaganda and postpone the founding period for about six months ahead. Officially, the activities of headquarters and subunits were terminated on September 3, 1949, however, the anti-Soviet nationalist underground in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR functioned until the end of 1953, separate small groups - until the beginning of 1956.

Territory of military operations. The UPA-OUN detachments operated in the Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, Poland, Romania, Kuban, but achieved some results only in the territories that now make up Western Ukraine. Particularly active since the spring of 1943, incl. Galicia - from the end of 1943, Kholmshchyna - from the autumn of 1943), Volyn - from the end of March 1943), Northern Bukovina - from the summer of 1944).

Structure. A common myth is that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army is an ordinary gang that was engaged only in robbery and terrorist acts. This is not true. The UPA was divided into four General Military Districts: UPA-North (Volyn and Polissya), UPA-West (Galicia, Bukovina, Transcarpathia and regions beyond the former Curzon Line), UPA-South (Kamenets-Podolsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa, the southern part of the Kiev regions ), UPA-Vostok practically did not exist. The UPA was a partisan army that had captured weapons (mainly German and Soviet), ammunition (including special uniforms in some departments), discipline, military tactics, the Security Service (OUN SB), agents, intelligence, counterintelligence and etc.

Composition. The UPA was formed from many social strata of society. Peasants were present there (they made up the largest stratum in the UPA, more than 60%), workers, and the intelligentsia. Basically, the rebel army consisted of the poor and middle peasants, the third group - the rich - was almost absent. In addition to the Ukrainians, who were the vast majority, there were Russians, Jews and other national minorities. The attitude towards them was extremely cautious, therefore, at the slightest suspicion, they were liquidated by the Security Council of the OUN.

Number. The number of the UPA-OUN is estimated differently by various sources. For Russian and Polish, an underestimation is typical (up to 10-20 thousand), for nationalist Ukrainians - an exaggeration (from 200 to 500 thousand). The most optimal figure is the result of the commission of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1997-2004) - from 20 to 100 thousand people.

UPA and other armed formations

UPA and German troops

The surviving documents of the UPA contain references to small combat clashes with the Germans, but there is no information about battles with large Wehrmacht forces. The final decision to speak out against the German occupiers was made by the OUN-B at the III Conference on February 17-21, 1943. By the second half of 1943, the OUN-B and UPA armed detachments took control of a significant part of the rural territories of the Volyn and Podolia districts of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The losses of the Wehrmacht from the upovtsy are estimated at a maximum of 15 thousand people.

The clashes between the Nazis and Bandera are confirmed by Soviet partisans: in his diary, S.V. Rudnev wrote on June 24, 1943: “Nationalists are our enemies, but they beat the Germans. Here and maneuver, and think. In one of the reports of the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, Erich Koch, it is said: “The performances of the national Ukrainian gangs in the Kremenets-Dubno-Kostopol-Rivne regions are especially dangerous. On the night of March 20-21, national-Ukrainian gangs seized all the district agricultural points in the Kremenets region and completely destroyed one service point. At the same time, 12 German business executives, foresters, soldiers and policemen died. Although the forces of the police and the Wehrmacht were immediately placed at disposal, only 2 districts have been recaptured to date ... ".

It should be noted that the main opponent of the OUN-UPA was the Soviet Union. By the end of 1943, the OUN-B set a course for the maximum curtailment of offensive operations against the Germans and began to accumulate strength for the fight against the USSR. More accurately, the results of the German-UPOV confrontation are reflected in one of the conclusions of the commission of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: “The anti-German front of the OUN and UPA, which arose in early 1943 and lasted until mid-1944, played an extremely important role in the Ukrainian resistance movement during the years of the Second world war. The armed uprising against Nazi Germany, which categorically denied the possibility of the existence of an independent Ukraine, allowed the OUN-B to rally thousands of Ukrainian patriots in the ranks of the UPA and unite them around the idea of ​​fighting for a Ukrainian independent conciliar state. However, the struggle of the OUN and UPA on the anti-German front did not acquire priority in the strategy of the Ukrainian movement and was of a temporary nature, because Moscow imperialism was recognized as the main enemy of Ukrainian independence. This basic principle reduced the fighting of the rebel army against the Germans to forms of "self-defense of the people" and interpreted the Nazis as temporary occupiers of Ukraine. The armed actions of the UPA on the anti-German front were of no strategic importance and did not affect the course of the struggle between Germany and the Soviet Union, but only limited the activities of the German occupation administration regarding the economic exploitation of the territories of Volyn-Polesye, where the material base of the Ukrainian liberation movement was being created. At the same time, the resistance of the OUN and UPA to German policy in the northwestern region of Ukraine to a certain extent limited the Nazis' ability to fight the Soviet partisan movement in Volyn-Polesie and in the adjacent areas of Right-Bank Ukraine. In general, the actions of the OUN and UPA on the anti-German front did not play a significant role in the liberation of the territory of Ukraine from the German invaders.

UPA and Soviet partisans

Relations between the UPA and Soviet partisans occupy a special place in military history. The Soviet stage of the organized partisan war dates back to September 5, 1942 - order No. 00189 "On the tasks of the partisan movement", signed by I. Stalin. The first vague and inaccurate reports about the form of popular resistance on the territory of Western Ukrainian regions began to arrive at the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement from the end of 1942. Over time, information from Soviet intelligence about the creation of the so-called. "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" came to Moscow.

The initial stage of the neighborhood of partisans and upovtsy can be called a policy of mutual neutrality. But after the ethnic cleansing against the Poles, hostilities started between them. Mutual losses are estimated at 5-10 thousand people. Both sides used scorched earth tactics. On August 18, 1944, the 1st Ukrainian partisan division named after V.I. S.A. Kovpak, which then numbered over 3 thousand people. The compound was previously subordinate to the UShPD, from 18.08.44 it was placed at the disposal of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR.

UPA and Red Army

The first minor clashes between the Red Army and the UPA began in the Left-Bank Ukraine. In the western lands, the number and intensity of conflicts increased dramatically.

The facts of transitions of Ukrainian Red Army soldiers to the UPA, armed clashes between spacecraft fighters and NKVD units due to the Upov problem, direct meetings of rebels and Red Army soldiers were recorded. The counter and propaganda activities of the UPA-OUN - leaflets, newspapers, brochures, disinformation - had a huge impact on the Red Army. distribution of underground literature, mass placement of slogans and appeals on the walls of houses, fences, and other structures.

And yet, the flames of the Upov-Red Army conflict were inevitable for many reasons. The military actions of the UPA and the spacecraft were initially partly caused by confusion in the conditions of hostilities, partly by the orders of the commanders of the rebels and the Red Army. The active struggle of the Red Army against the rebel movement began after the death of General N. Vatutin, the constant destruction of the military infrastructure by the rebels, the disruption of the mobilization of the population (by the way, the method of forced mobilization was used by almost all parties represented during WWII).

But soon the Soviet government changed tactics. There were several reasons for this: firstly, the psychological impact of the upovtsy on the Red Army soldiers, which contributed to the moral decay of the latter; secondly, the inefficiency of using the soldiers of the Red Army against the nationalist movement; thirdly, the underestimation of the capabilities and forces of the OUN-UPA. Then the NKVD troops went into action.

UPA and NVKD troops

The main opponents of the rebels in Western Ukraine in 1944-1949. were the Internal and Border Troops of the NKVD-MVD of the USSR, the counterintelligence structure SMERSH, the NKVD-MVD and the NKGB-MGB of the Ukrainian SSR. Unlike the Red Army, they are more disciplined, better armed and prepared. Various methods of struggle were used against the UPA: raids, blockades, special groups, and destruction battalions. The details of the terror by the Soviet punitive organs are depicted in the documents of the rebels and party reports. During 1945, in the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, the prosecutor's office recorded/revealed 1,109 violations of "socialist legality" by 274 NKVD-NKGB employees. Among them - 77 murders, 75 arsons and destruction of property, 378 robberies, 213 beatings, 46 illegal arrests. In 1946, according to the statistics of party organs, 1,602 cases of "violation of Soviet laws" were recorded. In the "Information on the most characteristic cases of violation of Soviet legality by employees of the UMGB of the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR" dated July 1, 1946, one can find information about "illegal methods of interrogation" (torture), falsification of charges by the Chekists (whole anti-Soviet organizations were invented), unreasonably long terms of pre-trial detention, insults, beatings, robberies of suspects, witnesses.

The OUN terror was in no way inferior to the Soviet one: “The archives of the Security Service of Ukraine and regional departments contain thousands of criminal cases of past years about the terrorist actions of specific individuals, which reveal the cruel methods of torture and reprisal of OUN-UPA militants, who not only killed, but also tortured their victims: they cut off their hands, feet, heads, hung them and strangled them with ropes / “strangleholds” / or barbed wire, stabbed them with knives and threw them half-dead and alive into wells, under the ice of rivers and fell asleep in pits, burned and so on ".

It is curious that the archives captured cases when violators were judged by their own associates for exceeding military powers and committing crimes. This applies to both the Security Council of the OUN and the UPA, and the NKVD-RKKA. The same can be said about the facts of dressing up in the form of the enemy/terror of the local population in order to compromise. The number of losses by the NKVD in 1943-1945. is about 10 thousand people, from the side of the rebels - about 15 thousand.

Cooperation

Cooperation between the OUN-UPA and the Third Reich is a proven fact. This is confirmed by both German/Soviet documents and OUN documents. It is enough to look at the report of SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dr. Vitiska zid dated 02/05/1944, sent to the command in Berlin and Krakow, the radiogram of the district leader Nering from Kamenka-Strumilova to the governor of Galicia dated 04/02/1944, the report dated 04/04/1944 "Cooperation with the UPA in the area of ​​Rava-Russkaya” or the testimony of 1946 at the preliminary investigation and in court of the referent of the II department of the group “South” Lazarek Yu.F. to make sure that the actions of the joint struggle of the Wehrmacht and the UPA are coordinated in some cases against the Red Army and Soviet partisans, mutual neutrality or the supply of ammunition from the Germans to the upovtsy.

Similar agreements were concluded with representatives of the military authorities of Romania and Hungary, Germany's allies. After the defeat of fascist Germany, the leaders of the OUN established contacts with the special services of Great Britain and the United States.

In the so-called. The “problem of collaborationism” needs to be emphasized on one essential detail: to be able to clearly distinguish between the tough leadership, the totalitarian OUN, members who were the top of the Bandera UPA, and the popular rebels. This issue requires a special additional investigation, because it is not clear whether cooperation with the German authorities was one-sided or, on the contrary, mutually beneficial. The same can be said about the crimes of the upovtsy.

UPA and civilians

UPA and the Soviet population

In the flames of war, civilians have always suffered. The Ukrainian SSR was no exception. Its western regions, annexed to the Soviet Union in 1939, experienced all the "charms" of the Stalinist regime - deportations, forced km - deportations, a thorough investigation. arny OUN, which were the top Bandera UPA, from the popular post-collectivization, repression, the planting of Soviet ideology. In less than two years, this influenced the local population so much that already in 1941 the Germans were greeted as liberators with bread and salt. About three years later, the totalitarian regime returned to Western Ukrainian lands. The answer was not long in coming.

For 1945–1953 on the territory of the western regions of Ukraine, the rebels committed 14,424 sabotage and terrorist acts. For 10 years (1945-1955) they killed 17 thousand Soviet citizens. In 1948–1955 329 chairmen of village councils, 231 collective farm chairmen, 436 workers of district party committees, employees of district organizations and activists, 50 priests were killed. In total, the UPA fighters destroyed from 30 to 40 thousand people. .

The terrorist activities of the OUN did not justify the goals, therefore, after 1946, the scale of its terror, like the Soviet one, began to decline .. OUN accomplices were treated differently: in wartime they were shot, sent to the front, to the eastern regions of the Ukrainian SSR, to the Urals, in peacetime - they were limited to deportations or a prison term. According to official Soviet statistics, in 1944-1952. in the western regions of Ukraine, almost half a million people fell under repression in various forms of punitive structures, incl. more than 130 thousand people were arrested, 200 thousand people were deported outside the Ukrainian SSR. On the other hand, the underground activity of the OUN-UPA for almost 15 years confirms the thesis of popular support on the territory of Western Ukraine, which is confirmed by modern social studies.

UPA and the Polish population

Ukrainian-Polish relations have always been distinguished by complexity and inconsistency. In the 20th century, they reached a new level and took on the appearance of an ordinary meat grinder. The policy of the Polish official circles was extremely simple: Western Ukrainian lands should be under the control of the new Commonwealth. Ukrainian nationalists thought differently. As a result of the clash of official points of view, the civilian population was drawn into the conflict. The OUN-B launched large-scale actions against the Poles in March 1943. In world history, the bloody tragedy was called the Volyn Massacre. The uncompromising positions of the Polish government and the leadership of the OUN in the territorial issue led to the death of at least 70-80 thousand Poles and 10-20 thousand Ukrainians: in 1943-1944. UPA detachments are responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population in Western Volyn, Eastern Galicia, in the Kholm region; Army Regional - for terror against the Ukrainian.

UPA and the Jewish population

The resolutions of the II Great Congress of the OUN-B recorded the negative attitude of the organization towards the Jews: “The Jews in the USSR are the most devoted support of the Bolshevik regime and the vanguard of Moscow imperialism in Ukraine. The anti-Jewish mood of the Ukrainian masses is used by the Moscow-Bolshevik government to divert their attention from the real culprit of the misfortunes and to direct them, in the hour of the uprising, to pogroms of the Jews. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists fights against the Jews as a support of the Moscow-Bolshevik regime, at the same time explaining to the masses that Moscow is the main enemy. In May 1941, the OUN-B developed an instruction "Struggle and activities of the OUN during the war." It indicated that national minorities are divided into: a) friendly to us, that is, members of all enslaved peoples; b) hostile to us, Muscovites, Poles, Jews. It is noteworthy that the details of the second paragraph stated: “Isolate the Jews, remove them from government institutions in order to avoid sabotage, especially Muscovites and Poles. If there was an irresistible necessity to leave a Jew in the economic apparatus, put our policeman over him and liquidate him for the slightest offense. The leaders of certain areas of life can only be Ukrainians, and not strangers-enemies. Assimilation of Jews is excluded.

By February 1943, the UPA was created under the leadership of the OUN-B. Later, the first military conference was held, and a decision was made to focus on the UK and the USA. The anti-Jewish program of the OUN-B was softened: Jews living on Ukrainian territory must be deported, while at the same time, captured political officers and Jewish military personnel should be destroyed. In the spring of 1943, the Jews, along with the Poles, came under attack from the UPA-OUN and the Security Council of the OUN. The anti-Jewish course of the OUN leadership was finally curtailed in 1944. The exact number of victims is unknown, according to the Israeli researcher Aron Weiss, about 28 thousand Jews were killed by the OUN in Western Ukraine.

UPA and modern Ukraine

Problem Solving History

Since the mid-1990s, the issue of giving a special status to OUN-UPA veterans has been raised in Ukraine. For a long time, no significant changes occurred. In September 1997, a government commission was established under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to study the activities of the OUN-UPA. On July 10, 2002, a decision was made, with the help of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, to create a working group of historians in order to conduct a scientific study of the activities of the UPA and, based on the data obtained, determine their official status. Viktor Yushchenko on January 29, 2010 by his decree recognized the members of the UPA as fighters for the independence of Ukraine.

public thought

44% of respondents negatively assess the armed struggle of the OUN and UPA against the Soviet regime, 20% of respondents - positively, 14% - neutrally, 18% - found it difficult to answer, 4% - did not hear about such an event (April-May 2011, Research & Branding group).

23% of respondents support the idea of ​​recognizing the OUN-UPA as participants in the struggle for the state independence of Ukraine, 51% of respondents do not support it, 26% have not decided on this issue (September-October 2012, the Sociological group "Rating").

conclusions

The Second World War is the bloodiest in the history of mankind. It acquired the character of total, the massacre was with everyone and against everyone. Archival materials coldly testify to both the crimes and the heroism of the OUN-UPA. The latter are also responsible for thousands of innocent victims among the peaceful Polish, Soviet and Jewish population. On the other hand, the upovtsy fought against the German invaders, Soviet troops (including the Red Army, partisans, the NKVD-MGB), the Home Army, etc. The OUN terror was not inferior in size to the Soviet one, it was condemned by the Bulbovites and Melnikovites, and the principle of collective responsibility was applied by all sides without exception.

The mythologization of the UPA-OUN is one of the main problems of the current stage of the study of military history. Supporters of the absolute glorification of the upovtsy argue that the latter fought almost a real battle with the Wehrmacht, did not cooperate with the Nazi regime, did not kill civilians, which is not true. In this regard, the topic of “whitening” the pages of the UPA-OUN, the spread of disinformation, whether it is quotes from Charles de Gaulle and Che Guevara, the death of Viktor Lutze, the post-war cleaning of archives or exaggeration / embellishment of the scale of activity, is relevant. A picture is created that during WWII there were only two enemies - the Third Reich and the OUN-UPA.

Opponents of the glorification of the OUN-UPA are stepping on the same rake as the adherents. The idealization of the Soviet Union automatically jeopardizes everything that does not fit into this framework, and causes little-founded criticism. At the same time, they forget about the crimes of the Soviet regime, which in the first half of its existence was a cruel totalitarian machine, repeat the myths about Roman Shukhevych, whom Hitler allegedly awarded with two Nazi crosses, the Ukrainian trace in Khatyn, that the upovtsy of the Germans did not kill the OUN-UPA condemned Nuremberg.

The problem of the UPA-OUN is one of the most difficult in Ukrainian society. In view of the fact that there is direct and indirect evidence of military clashes between the OUN-UPA and the Red Army, UPA-UNRA, the Home Army, etc., against the peaceful Polish, Soviet (including Ukrainian), Jewish population, it is necessary:

1. Create an independent highly professional commission to investigate the activities of the OUN-UPA. The commission level should be at least at the level of the CIS. It should include historians, military historians, sociologists, half of whom are Ukrainians (50%), the rest are experts from other countries (Poland, Belarus, Russia, Germany, Moldova, the USA; in other words, the CIS and EU countries + those who directly or indirectly involved in this problem).

2. The duties of the commission will include: collecting, processing information, screening out false data, polling the population, participating in the process of living participants in the OUN-UPA, KA, AK, Wehrmacht and their descendants, including a possible lie detector test, the use of archival materials from Ukraine and others powers, summarizing. Each stage of the commission's work is covered in the media, informatization of the population should be carried out, cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine and the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine should be carried out (in the case of identifying those who committed crimes against humanity), public opinion should be taken into account (in the latter case, as long as it does not contradict truth of the process).

3. Statistics, figures and facts, a limited number, a certain region of hostilities, low results in the struggle of the OUN-UPA allow us to assert at the moment their maximum regional heroic status. It will be specified and corrected by the commission. Regional status means additional payments to pensions for veterans of the OUN-UPA from the regional / state budgets, however, the issue of “subsidizing” is possible only after the conclusions of the commission and the end of the investigation. Actions of memory and their activities should be held at the regional / all-Ukrainian levels, taking into account the opinion of the local population. Individual members of the OUN-UPA can go beyond the regional level, equal in status to veterans of the Soviet army and receive all-Ukrainian veteran status, subject to confirmation by the commission (based on facts and irrefutable evidence) of their heroic activity during World War II.

The analytical material can be ended with the thesis of the authors of the collection “The NKVD-MVD of the USSR in the fight against banditry and the armed nationalist underground in Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and the Baltic states (1939-1956)”, to which the author of the article joins: “The authors of this publication do not take on responsibility to judge the participants in the brutal struggle of the 1940s-1950s, to determine the right and the wrong. We respect the right of any nation - large and small - to self-determination and the right of any person to have his own point of view on the national question. The only thing that cannot be justified is violence, and from this point of view we condemn both the repressions of the central government and the terror of the nationalists.”

Sources

Sergei Tkachenko, "The Rebel Army. Fighting Tactics.
Collection of Ukrainian and Polish historians for the bags of the IX-X international scientific seminars - Warsaw, 5-11 leaf fall, 2001.
OUN i UPA, 2005, Rozd. 4.
Dovidka about the activities of the OUN-UPA. Working group of spivrobitnikov of the Security Service of Ukraine. Date 30 April 1993
A. I. Kokurin, N. I. Vladimirtsev, “The NKVD-MVD of the USSR in the fight against banditry and the armed nationalist underground in Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and the Baltic States (1939-1956)
OUN in 1941 rotation. Documents. In 2 hours. Part 1.

In July, the Volhynia massacre is traditionally remembered in Poland, because the 76th anniversary of the Bloody Week falls on July - the apogee of the genocide of the Poles, when on July 11, 1943 gangs of Ukrainian nationalists attacked 99 Polish villages and farms at the same time. The village of Guruw was attacked first, out of 480 Poles only seventy survived. It was the most tragic week in the history of the Volyn Poles.

Since 2009, July 11 in Poland has been the National Day of Remembrance for the victims of the genocide of Ukrainian nationalists over citizens of the Second Rzeczpospolita. This year, mourning events under the auspices of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (PINP) were held in Warsaw, Krakow, Lublin, Wroclaw and other cities of Poland.

Shortly before this date, in Warsaw, with the participation of the deputy director of the PINP, Jan Baster, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the site of the death of Bronisław Peracki, Minister of the Interior of the Second Polish Republic, who was killed in 1934 by Ukrainian nationalists.

Dozens of witnesses responded to the call. Employees of the PINP and the police have already started questioning them.

Polish historians point out that between 60,000 and 130,000 Poles died during the Volyn Massacre. The difference in the number of victims is explained both by the incomplete data of the researchers of these events, and by the fact that initially the Volyn massacre was called the mass executions of Poles in Volyn. But recently, Warsaw has been considering the bloody events in Volhynia in a complex way with the same events in Eastern Lesser Poland (approximately the territory of modern Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil regions and partly the eastern provinces of Poland), because the Poles were slaughtered there too. Therefore, the former phrase "Volyn massacre" is now expanded to the wording "massacre in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland".

The chronological framework of events also moved apart. Now we are talking not only about the events of 1943, but about the period from 1939 to 1947, that is, until the Vistula operation to resettle the Ukrainian population of eastern Poland to its western provinces in order to deprive the OUN-UPA* of a rear base.

Polish historians approached the study of the genocide of the Poles quite meticulously. They established that until the autumn of 1942 there were only single killings of ethnic Poles. On November 13, 1942, the first massacre was committed in the village of Oburki in the Lutsk region, killing about 50 people. By the end of the winter of 1943, the spiral of mass violence spun to a maximum - on February 9, 173 people were killed in the Polish settlement of Parosl.

Since then, the number of victims of such massacres has increasingly gone into the hundreds. On April 23, OUN-UPA militants set a "record" - in the village of Yanova Dolina, 600 Poles were executed at once. Until July 1943, 23 Polish settlements were attacked by Ukrainian nationalists, the total number of dead Poles was about 15 thousand.

Since July, a real bloody nightmare has begun. In the village of Sondova, 580 people were killed, in Ozheshyn - 270, in Zagai - more than 300. The Poles were caught by surprise by cunning. The day before, OUN-UPA leaflets appeared in Polish villages in Polish and Ukrainian with a call to reach out to each other and fight against common enemies - Germany and the Soviet Union. It was pointed out that the proof of the hostility of the Polish population to the Ukrainian idea would be the abandonment of their places of residence. The Poles believed.

The motto of the OUN-UPA was "Kill all the Poles to the seventh knee, even those who no longer speak Polish." The call is ridiculous because, for example, the Metropolitan of Lvov of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrey Sheptytsky, one of the initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian SS division “Galicia” and the “spiritual father” of the UPA, was a Pole by origin.

A special place in Polish patriotism is occupied by the village of Przebrazh, 20 km from Lutsk. This is one of the few Polish settlements that the OUN-UPA gangs could not capture. The first attack on Przebrazh took place on July 5, 1943, the second on July 31, and the third on August 30. Prior to this, gangs of Ukrainian nationalists around Przebrazh burned down all Polish farms and villages, killing 550 people.

Pshebrazh turned into the center of the Polish resistance, everyone who sought salvation from the OUN-UPA fled here. Its population has grown to nearly 20,000. This made it possible to form self-defense units and conduct raids in the rear of the OUN-UPA. Pshebrazh held out from the summer of 1943 until January 1944, when, under the pressure of the Red Army, Ukrainian nationalists and their Nazi masters fled to the west.

OUN-UPA militants often planned attacks on Polish villages on Sundays, knowing that the Poles would go to the church. They were killed in churches. The Polish Catholic Church keeps a record of the priests who died during the massacre: 120 priests were killed in Eastern Lesser Poland and 20 in Volhynia. They are conditionally called martyrs, because they are not officially beatified, but they died at the hands of the Ukrainian Uniates (most of the OUN-UPA gangs consisted of Uniates) because of their loyalty to the Catholic Church. Professor of the Pontifical University of John Paul II, priest Jozef Maretsky, in his interviews, speaks in favor of classifying the Catholic priests who fell at the hands of the OUN-UPA as saints.

Official Warsaw has a dual policy towards Ukrainian nationalism. On the one hand, the conviction and criminal-administrative prosecution for publicly displaying the symbols of the Ukrainian nationalist organizations of the OUN-UPA, the SS division "Galicia", etc. Poland. Thus, the branch of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland in Przemysl was not only allowed to take over the building, but also to name one of the streets of the city in honor of the Uniate collaborator Iosafat Kotsylovsky.

The logic in the actions of the Polish authorities is such that they do not benefit from the final death of Ukrainian nationalism. Warsaw hopes to use it in political games against Russia and therefore keeps it alive.

In parallel, Warsaw is accumulating a factual base for condemning the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism, trying to get legal levers of pressure on this political movement. Only under such conditions will Ukrainian nationalism, with its external polonophobia, be completely dependent on Warsaw.

Poland wants to control the development of the Ukrainian nationalist ideology, its political route and ultimate goals. To do this, she needs evidence of the criminality of this ideology, which will make it possible to inflict a moral and legal defeat on it, if necessary.

The situation is tied into a tight, insoluble knot: Poland honors the memory of those who fell at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, but Poland supports Ukrainian nationalists; Poland calls on Kiev to condemn the crimes of the OUN-UPA, but Poland does not bring the procedure of condemning the ideology of the OUN-UPA to its logical conclusion.

This means that historical battles, scandals and disputes will be eternal companions of Polish-Ukrainian relations. Ukrainian nationalism will try to get out of the control of its Polish guardians, and the latter, in turn, will try to prevent this, recalling the atrocities committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland.

For the Polish ethnic consciousness, these regions are “sprout crosses”, the eastern border of the former Commonwealth and Polish land. Their history and culture are a source of inescapable nostalgia for the Poles and an integral part of the Polish national spirit. Poland is not going to leave here either culturally, politically or ideologically.

Bitter truth. Crime OUN-UPA (Confession of a Ukrainian) Polishchuk Viktor Varfolomeevich

Evidence of UPA crimes

If we were to describe all the crimes of the UPA against the Polish and Ukrainian peoples, in respect of which there is evidence, it would be necessary to publish a separate book, citing the facts themselves without comment, on several hundred pages of small printed text. I myself have collected more than a hundred, signed by people, with addresses, references. But for now, about them - first personal evidence:

In the summer of 1943, my maternal aunt Anastasia Vitkovskaya went with a Ukrainian neighbor in the afternoon to the village of Tarakanov, located three kilometers from the city of Dubno. They spoke Polish because my aunt, an illiterate woman, originally from the Lublin region, could not learn Ukrainian. They went to change something for bread, because the aunt has six children. Neither she nor Uncle Anton Vitkovsky, also a completely illiterate person, never interfered in any kind of politics, but had not a single idea about it. And she, as well as a Ukrainian neighbor, was killed by Bandera from the UPA or the Bush Self-Defense Departments just because they spoke Polish. Killed brutally, with axes, and thrown into a roadside ditch. This was told to me by the second aunt - Sabina, who was married to Ukrainian Vasily Zagorovsky.

My wife's parents lived before the war in Polissya. Her father is Czech and to have is Polish. The family spoke Polish. When, at the beginning of 1943, the massacres of Poles began in Southern Polissya, the whole family fled to Kremenchuzhchina to their father's relatives in the village of Ugorsk, near Derman. One day, a familiar Ukrainian told his wife's father that the UPA was preparing to destroy his family. They fled to Kremenets. Someone heard the conversation of this young Ukrainian with his wife's father. Suspecting him of "treason", they hung him in the middle of the village and attached the inscription on his chest: So it will be with all traitors. The Hanged Man was not allowed to film for several days.

Two facts that took place in different places and at different times are united by one thing: the authorship of the OUN-UPA, the causelessness of the killings.

My father had a brother, Yarokhtey, who lived in the village. Linden, Lubnensky district. For the fact that he openly branded the UPA, he was shot in the mouth. Uncle Yarokhtey was an ordinary, illiterate peasant.

It is not possible, due to lack of space in one book, to cite the facts of single and mass muzzlings on Poles and Ukrainians committed by the OUN-UPA, so I will limit myself to only a few of them.

A person very close to me, M.S., said: On March 24, 1944, on a frosty night, Bandera attacked our house, set fire to all the buildings. We lived in the village of Polyanovitsy (Tsitsivka), Zborovsky district, Ternopil region, in which there were only Poles, but not military colonists. The colonists were taken out by the Bolsheviks in February 1940 to Siberia, and Ukrainians from Przemysl arrived in their place. My father is a Pole, he married a Ukrainian. Before the war, we lived in harmony with Ukrainians from nearby villages, like our entire village. We heard about muzzling in Volyn, but at first we did not allow the thought that we could be killed. Somewhere in February 1944, Bandera - we did not distinguish who was from the UPA or from another group - everyone was called Bandera, because they themselves sang the "leader" Bandera, put forward a ransom demand in front of our village. The peasants collected the money and gave it to Bandera. But it did not help. On the mentioned night, members of the male family, that is, father, younger brother and I, like other nights, spent the night in a storehouse under the household houses. And my mother (Ukrainian) with my two sisters and my father's sister, who married a Ukrainian from near Kharkov, spent the night in the house. Around midnight, we smelled smoke in the shelter and guessed that the UPA had set fire to the houses. I was the first to jump out of the shelter, lifting the lid. Opening the lid, I burned my hand, then, running through the fire, I burned my face. They shot at me, who was running away, but did not hit. I hid in the dark. The father also tried to get out of the shelter, but he could not, burned down. In the smoke shelter, my younger brother was strangled. The mother, who was running away from the burning house, was wounded by a shot, but she ran away. A seven-year-old sister also ran away, although she was wounded in the knee by a hunting weapon. The father's sister also ran away, who was wounded by a shot in the arm, because of this, the arm had to be amputated. The second, 13-year-old sister, while running away, ran into a Banderite who pierced her chest with a bayonet and she died on the spot.

On the same night, the Banderaites burned and killed our neighbors - Beloskursky and Baranovsky. That same night, they burned and killed others from our small village, but I don’t remember their names.

After that, we went to the village of Zarud'e, where our family, Ukrainian by mother's side, was hiding us.

T.G. from Glukholazy, Poland, writes: We lived in the Polish village of Chaikov, Serny county. In June or July 1943, Bandera on horseback came from the Ukrainian villages before dinner, from the village of Khinoch. They surrounded the houses, set them on fire, and those who ran away from them were killed with axes and bayonets. So six families were muzzled, and their houses were burned. They killed from the Romanovsky family, Mandrich, Yakimovich, Grodovsky and two more. The UPA did not fight the Germans. Before the war, there was no enmity between Ukrainians and Poles.

E.B. from the USA: we lived in the village of Radokhovka, commune Klevan. In March 1943, at midnight, the Upovites set fire to the house of their neighbor Yancharek. We did not sleep at home, only in a shelter not far from the house, and one person from the family was always on guard. Therefore, we saw figures coming from the side of the Ukrainian Radokhovka, straight ahead, not expensive. They set fire to Yancharek's house, and those who ran out of it were shot at. Only son Jan was saved, the rest died: Jakub Janczarek, his wife, his mother, son Janusz, daughter Lyodzia, second daughter with a baby. Bandera's victims were thrown into a well. After this event, we fled to Klevan.

My mother was killed in May of the same year - she was going to the village, and she was shot, her head was also broken. Before the war with the Ukrainians, we lived in harmony.

M.P. from the USA: Bandera attacked the village of Dubovitsa on April 6, 1943 at 11 o'clock. Jozef Moskal's parents were told to take out valuables from the house, then they pushed them back into the house and set it on fire. Oshkroba was shot near the mill. Oshkroba's wife was hiding in the basement with her daughter and grandchildren, a grenade was thrown there. G. Pavlovskaya spent the night with the Ukrainians, with Ilko Humenny, they dragged her out of there together with her small children, beat her so that she could tell where her husband was. They placed him with Anufry Balanda, who was beaten for helping the Poles. There were many Ukrainians who helped the Poles - Ivan Chmil, who informed about the intentions of Bandera, Yusko Fedyshyn, priest Sofron Ivanchyshyn. And the priest's son, Nikolai, renounced the church and joined the Bandera people. Volodya Kukhar hid me and my brother, and Daniil Splavinsky hid my father. Ilko Humenny hid G. Pavlovskaya with her children and Stefania Reitz. Józef Ortel with his wife and children were thrown into the fire, into a burning house on Virkhna. All died. One person jumped out of the fire, one Ukrainian brought him to the hospital in Kalush, but he was never rescued. Four people from the Svezhevsky family were walking from Voynilov to Kalush, all of them were killed by Bandera. There were 400 houses in Dubovice and only 5% of Poles. 18 people were killed during the attack. Many Ukrainians helped the Poles. When the Germans began to retreat, the young Ukrainians converged and consulted - what to do with the Poles? Mikhail Kumtsov said that it is easier to kill a Pole than a sparrow.

Z.Kh. from Poland, the city of Walch: The village of Nikolaevka, the parish of Korets, in Volyn. The Bandera attack was on 04/29/1943 at dawn. Bandera, who were returning from Kobylnia, attacked the Polish families of the Brukhlevskys and Zagadlovs. Bandera entered our house and began to muzzle, stabbing with bayonets. They brought straw and set it on fire. I was also pierced with a bayonet, and I lost consciousness, falling on my aunt. When the flame got close to me, I woke up, jumped out the window. Bandera was no more. My groan was heard by a neighbor, Ukrainian Spyridon, he brought me to another Ukrainian - Bezukha, who on horseback brought me to Korets to the hospital. As a result of the attack, 14 people died, here is their list: last names, first names, how old, among them was a pregnant 20-year-old woman. This person is Z.Kh. - attached to the story photocopies of death records issued by the local steamer.

G.K. from the USA: on July 14, 1943, in Kolodna, Banderists muzzled 300 people. They drove them, ordered them to lie down, they say, they will look for weapons. And they started shooting at those who were lying down. A clear witness is Antek Polyulya, who hid in his mother's sister's barn. Bandera from Kolodna: Andrei Shpak, Semyon Koval, Volodya Snichishin; from Oleshkov - Pavel Romanchuk. I don't know any other names. The priest incited to muttering, during the procession he said: We will hallow the knives so that we can cut the cockle out of wheat.

V.V. from Great Britain says that on 07/12/1943 in the village of Zagai, Gorokhov district, Bandera was killed - and here is a list of 165 surnames, names, how old, among them are babies, small children, pregnant women, old people. He says that living together with Ukrainians before the war was good, the enmity began when Hitler began to promise a free Ukraine.

GD from Poland: On Tuesday, July 14, 1943, in the village of Silets, Volodymyr Volynsky uyezd, Ukrainians killed two senior people - Jozef Witkowski and his wife Stefania. They were shot dead in their own house, which was then set on fire. Their adult children fled to Vladimir-Volynsky the day before, and the old people did not want to leave their homes. At noon on the same day, two old Mikhalovichs and their 7-year-old granddaughter, the old spouses of the Gronovichs and the wife of a priest named Zofia were killed with axes. Ivan Shostachuk took part in the murders, who before the war was a corporal in the Polish army and then changed his religion to Roman Catholic. His younger brother Vladislav, an Orthodox, warned the Morelevsky family (father and four daughters) and the Mikhalkovich family (father and two daughters), and therefore they were saved. There was a Ukrainian in the gang - Yukhno, who killed the Poles, and his father saved the Stychinsky family. Before the war, relations with the Ukrainians were good, they began to deteriorate in early 1943, when agitators began to arrive from the Lviv and Stanislav regions, who rebelled among the Ukrainian youth, promising a free Ukraine. Not everyone succumbed to the incitement, in particular, the elderly did not succumb. Primary school teacher Maya Sokolova, the wife of the head of the school, who was sent to Silets from the Soviet Union, a Russian woman, together with her husband, mother and one-year-old son Slava, were drowned in a well. Some of the young people ran away from the village, and the old people were killed. From the Morelovsky family, their daughter Irena, who married Jozef Popovshek and lived with her family near Lutsk, was killed. The Bandera people muzzled their parents - Apollonia and Stanislav, daughter-in-law Irena (19 years old) and son Jozef (20 years old). All but Irena were killed under the forest. Irena was taken to the house by the leaders of the gang, kept in the basement, raped, and then thrown into the well. Irena was pregnant. The Bandera people were not allowed to leave the village, on the contrary - in one case, the Ukrainian Nedzelsky did not allow the village to be left to Morelovsky. Mixed families were also killed.

I. from Canada: On our village of Lozov, Ternopil region, which is above the Gnizdechnaya River, Bandera attacked on the night of December 28, 1944. About 800 people were muzzled. I made a list of those killed whom I knew well, there are 104 people in this list. Maryan Stotsky, his sister Maryana, who were then children, had mutilated faces. At about 23.00 hours, they surrounded the village from three sides, and then went on the offensive. The first group, after firing a rocket, knocked out windows and broke down doors, the second group of Bandera killed, and the third robbed, after which they prepared to set fire to houses. Someone managed to ring the bell from the church and a Soviet armored train arrived. The gang began to run away, the Soviets chased after it, but the Bandera people seemed to have disappeared into the darkness. 2 km to the north of us was the village of Shlyakhetsky Kurniki, and to the south the village of Shlyakhtintsy.

V.M. from Canada: Grabina village, Oleski commune, Vladimir-Volyn region. On August 29, 1943, on Sunday, the news came that the Bandera people were muzzling. My father ordered me to hide in the barn, and he also hid himself. When they entered our yard, my mother was there, who was immediately shot with a pistol. The father saw this and could not stand it, he came out, saying: What do you need, because I didn’t do anything bad to you!? Bandera in response hit him with an ax in the head. The father fell, then the bandit shot him again. Mother was killed immediately, and sister Kazimira on the third day. There was me and my sister, who had previously been taken to Germany to work.

K.I. from the UK: Germanovka, Borshchiv district. The attack took place in September 1943 at dawn. I was attacked by close neighbors - Kostetsky, Golovasty and Zaplitny. They only beat me up and robbed me. February 14, 1944 was the wedding of my cousin, not far from me, on our street. The young man worked at the post office, which is why they invited the chief, and when he left, the Bandera people shot him dead. Shooting began, grenades were thrown. All the guests at the wedding were killed, the house was burned down. The musicians were killed, there were six of them, the orchestra was called "Shelest", among them there were several Ukrainians, they were also killed. There were also several Ukrainians among the guests, they were also killed. 26 people were killed. One Ukrainian, a neighbor, allowed me to spend the night in their house, but one day, coming from the church, he said that he could no longer hide me, because the priest, that is, their priests, said: “Brothers and sisters, the time has come when we can repay Poles, Jews and Communists. And my neighbor worked for the Bolsheviks at the state farm, so he was considered a communist. This priest's name was Voloshin. There was one Polish-Ukrainian family, she, like all Poles, was killed. Before the war, the Ukrainians lived well, enmity set in when they began to organize the UPA. At the end of November 1944, a piece of paper was attached to the gate, on which it was written that in three days I would get out of the village, because they would kill and burn me. I left everything and ran away.

E.P. from Poland sent an extract from the parafial book of the village Mosty Bolshie, Zhovkva county, in which it is indicated that Vladislav Klodnoy was killed on September 6, 1943; on Palm (Catholic - V.P.) Sunday they were killed with axes ... sixteen surnames and names are indicated, and three people: Kazimir Vititsky, sexton, his wife and child were drowned in an ice hole.

And so on and so forth. I repeat: it is not possible to publish all the reports. I did not have the opportunity to get such reports from Ukraine, in particular, from Volyn and Galicia about Ukrainians muzzled by Bandera. When I applied to Ukraine, they did not answer my letters or kept silent about the essence of the matter. I can’t understand - either they are still afraid of Bandera, or they are already afraid of them again. If I lived in Ukraine, I would get such reports. I consider it necessary, while some witnesses of these crimes are still alive, to create a common, Polish-Ukrainian, and maybe Polish-Ukrainian-Jewish commission or committee in order to receive reports from direct witnesses of muzzling. In order to be able to combine such data with those that already exist and print at least a small circulation, a document so that such a book is in scientific institutions in Poland and Ukraine, in libraries. Those who live in Poland and Ukraine should take care of this.

But A.L. from Poland sent lists of families in which people died at the hands of the UPA. The lists are very accurate, they indicate the names of family members, the number of family members, the number of those killed, including children under 15 years old. List from the village of Ostrovki, Lyuboml uyezd. It was about this village that the "Gazeta" reported. The list includes 439 people killed, including 191 children. The list from the village of Kuty includes 106 people killed, including 47 children, from the village of Yankovitsy - 39 people killed, including 13 children. The lists were compiled by two former residents of the village of Ostrówki in 1981 from memory. The lists include only those muzzled about whom the compilers of the lists had no doubts and knew them personally. Let us recall that the Polish "Gazeta" in Toronto pointed out that 1,700 Poles were "executed" by the UPA in these villages. No, they were not shot, they were killed, sometimes only with shots. Because "to shoot" is "to put to death" on the basis of a sentence or legal order. This means that they shoot the one whom the court has sentenced to death or another body has issued an order for the execution of a specific person. Another infliction of death with a firearm is not a firing squad, it is an ordinary murder. Then a person is not shot, but shot.

When it comes to the three villages mentioned above, the method of killing was different. Yu. Turovsky and V. Semashko write about this: August 30, 1943 Yankovtsy, Polish village, gm. Berezhtsy, Lyuboml district, and residents of farms adjacent to Gushcha and Opalina, were attacked by UPA departments and residents of the Ukrainian villages of Rivne and Prekurka, hm. thick. They muzzled with axes, pitchforks, sticks and the like, and those who ran away were killed with firearms. They also muzzled the Ukrainian Nina Shlapak, who was pregnant. Most people died in the northern part of the village. In the southern part, the majority escaped, its inhabitants were able to escape to Rimachev. Of the total number of residents of the village in the amount of 762 people, 79 were muzzled, including 18 children.

August 30, 1943 Kuty, Polish village, gm. Berezhtsy, Lyuboml district, at dawn was surrounded by UPA "shooters" and Ukrainian peasants, mainly from the village of Lesnyaki, who committed a massacre of the Poles living there. They killed everyone, not letting women, children, old people through. They killed in houses, in yards, in utility rooms with axes, pitchforks, sticks, and the like, and they shot at those who were running away. Whole families were thrown into wells, covered with earth. Pavel Pronchuk, a Pole who jumped out of the shelter to protect his mother, was seized, laid on a bench, his arms and legs were cut off and left to die longer. The Ukrainian family of Vladimir Krasovsky with two children was brutally muzzled there. Of the total number of residents of the village of Kuty in the amount of 282 people, 138 were killed, including 63 children.

Will Ostrovetskaya... (on the same day - V.P.) Of the total number of inhabitants of the village in the amount of 806 people, 529 were killed, including 220 children.

There is also a description of muzzling in the village of Ostruvki, out of 604 inhabitants, 437 were killed, including 146 children.

The book of Yu. Turovsky and Vl. Semashko on 166 pages of thick and small print indicates the names of villages, the number of inhabitants, the number of muzzled, the way of muzzling, the number of killed children, including Ukrainians. This is an amazing lecture! The authors at the same time each time refer to the sources of information. They didn't come up with what they wrote. The description of the crimes of the UPA is in the form of a calendar, beginning in September 1939 and ending in July 1945. The authors are noted for their objectivity, repeatedly describe the assistance provided to the Poles by the Ukrainians, write about the murders of Ukrainians. They estimate that 60-70 thousand Poles died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists in Volhynia in 1939-1945, which was about 20% of the then Polish population of that region.

Against the background of the book by Yu. Turovsky and Vl. Semashko's reflections are as follows: In the West, for a number of years, a general diaspora action, managed by the MKSU, has been held in defense of Ivan Demyanuk, for which Ukrainian society has spent many millions of dollars to date. The reason for this is supposedly "defaming the Ukrainian people" due to the fact that during the trial of Ivan Demyanuk in Israel it was indicated that he was a Ukrainian, and that the prosecutor, as well as the court, repeatedly referred to the facts of the crimes of other Ukrainians. The involvement of the society controlled by Ukrainian nationalists in this case can be explained by paragraph 2 of the "Decalogue": Do not allow anyone to soil (stain - V.P.) either the glory or the honor of Your Nation. If on this occasion the nationalist Ukrainian diaspora has become so financially and politically biased, then why does it, in the person of the MKSU - the World Congress of Free Ukrainians - not prosecute Oleksandr Korman for his false statements about the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists, why does not prosecute the authors - priest Vaclav Shetelnitsky, Bishop Vincent Urban for their assertions that the OUN-UPA brutally muzzled tens of thousands of Polish civilians? Now there are all the possibilities of such prosecution before the court in Poland, where there are many Ukrainian lawyers. At the same time, it is possible to bring the publishing house to responsibility, to seek a court order to stop the distribution of books. And all - for "defaming the Ukrainian people." Because, according to Ukrainian nationalists, the OUN-UPA has never committed the crime of murder on the peaceful Poles of Volyn, Galicia. And if the named authors disseminate other statements, then - they need to be brought to court!

But somehow the Ukrainian nationalists do nothing in this direction. And the authors of the books, I think, would be glad to appear before the court, to prove to them the truth about what they wrote. And the court, having established the facts of the murder of the Poles committed by the OUN-UPA, would simultaneously confirm the guilt of the OUN-UPA. This is what Ukrainian nationalists are afraid of.

That is why the Ukrainian nationalists are silent. People say: The pussy knows whose fat she ate! They won't do anything to get to the point of litigation. Because it would be a forum where those who seek the disclosure of the truth could publicly compare their evidence with the statements of the OUN regarding the UPA's genocide on the Poles. I repeat: there are no procedural obstacles to such a process. Poland is now an independent state. And if Western lawyers think, they will find a way to bring the authors to trial in the West.

The named book by Yu. Turovsky and Vl. Semashko should be purchased by former members of the UPA. Maybe after reading it, their conscience will respond? Maybe someone will remember those terrible years, that "heroism", that shed blood of the defenseless. The book contains the names of the localities, the names of the victims, and in some cases also the names of the perpetrators.

Since 1946, I have been convinced that the UPA, Bandera and other nationalists killed Poles and Ukrainians who were unfavorable to them. They killed brutally. Subsequently, I also learned about how they killed Ukrainians who were sent by the Soviet authorities to Western Ukraine, often against their will. OUN-UPA also killed them. Until now, Polish authors, Soviet authors, including Ukrainian ones, have written about these terrible murders, about genocide. However, the latter wrote under strict censorship. And they were not too interested in the cases of the murders of the Poles. They weren't very trustworthy. They did not believe the Poles - because they are Poles. They did not believe the communists - because they are communists. But how not to believe when there is so much evidence of living witnesses? Moreover, after the expiration of time, they declare that they do not feel hatred, do not want punishment. They only want to tell the truth. They do not consider Ukrainians as enemies. They know that crimes are on the conscience of the OUN-UPA.

Although the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism, like German National Socialism, is far from Christian ideals, however, Ukrainian nationalists willingly refer to God, to the Ukrainian, in particular, the Greek Catholic Church, which is subordinate to the Pope of Rome, therefore, is related not only in Christ with the Roman Catholic Church, including the Polish one. Therefore, we honor - this is how the Catholic priest Vaclav Shetelnitsky writes about the crimes of the OUN-UPA. Only excerpts from his book, published in 1992, will be included here. If you don't trust him anymore, then who do you trust?

... in 1943 and at the beginning of 1944 there were very often (in the Terebovel parish - V.P.) the funeral of the victims of the murders committed by Bandera. In particular, the population was shocked by the mugs committed in the late evening of 11/24/1943 on 11 Poles, residents of the village of Plebanovka, 2 km from Terebovl ...

A Jew was hiding in the houses of the brick factory in Plebanovka. Somehow, the Ukrainian police found out about this, and they turned to the local Pole Yan Yukhnevich, trying to get him to take the Jew out of the shelter. When Yukhnevich entered the territory of the brick factory, a policeman shot him there.

Bandera drove up in two trucks with the lights out on the street. Zofia Chrzanowska and lingered near the white figure ... went to the village on foot. After some time, a cry was heard from Plebanovka. The Pole Polishevsky, a resident of Terebovlya, saw and heard this. That night, he, along with a Ukrainian, guarded the railway. He warned him: If you want to live, then remember - you have not seen or heard anything.

The attackers dispersed in groups around the village, entered some houses and muzzled the inhabitants there. They then killed with axes and knives: Jan Gliva, Jan Krukovsky ... (further list - V.P.) ... On the day of the funeral, vicars from Terebovlya arrived there: priest Piotr Lewandowski and the author of this report, who read prayers over the bodies of the dead. Before us was a stunning picture of human remains, cut with knives, chopped with axes, with severed legs and arms.

In 1944–1945 in the village of Mogilnitsa, the nationalists muzzled such Poles: (here is a list of surnames and names - V.P.), a total of 53 people. At the same time, in the village of Romanovka, which belonged to the parochy in Mogilnitsa, Poles were muzzled (list - V.P.), a total of 16 people.

A few kilometers from Terebovlya is the village of Bavorov, in which priests Karol Protsyk as a paroh, and priest Ludwik Rutyna as a vicar were pastors... for the fact that they took part in the funeral of the Poles, muzzled by members of this organization. The execution of the sentence took place on November 2, 2943 .... Around 18.00, a group of murderers broke into the estate (plebaniy) in Bavorovo. The organist was shot dead on the spot, and priest Protsik was dragged out of the room. Priest Rutina escaped through the window, a grenade was thrown behind him, but it did not explode. Priest Protsik started screaming, they pierced him with a bayonet, tied him up and took him to the forest ... His body was not found.

From the author's report, it appears that on January 21, 1945, the Banderists killed priest Wojciech Rogowski from the parish in the square near Kopychynets. On February 10, 1945, priest Jan Valnichka was buried in a brutally mutilated manner - before the murder they mocked him, forced him to dance before his death. They killed him with a shot in the mouth. He was from the parish in Kotsyubintsy.

On Easter 1944, priest Kazimir Bialovons, a parokha from Gleschava, spent the night in the church. At night, Bandera attacked the village. The priest with several people hid in the basement, but the attackers opened the shelter, threw several grenades into it, and then they threw lit straw on the dying people. When the Bandera retreated, the priest, who was saved from the fragments of grenades by a rough featherbed, left the shelter.

The author gives several descriptions of muzzling committed on the Poles. He describes that on March 19, 1989 in Wroclaw, in the Church of Christ the King, a memorial service was held for the Poles of the village of Verbovets who were killed on the night of March 19, 1944. After the memorial service, Anthony Gomulkevich, a witness of the events, spoke, who, among other things, said:

Already 45 years have passed since those tragic events in our village near Budzanov, between Terebovl, Chertkovo and Buchach. Since ancient times, our cohabitation with Ukrainians has developed normally, as usual between neighbors. We visited each other, helped in various jobs, and mixed Polish-Ukrainian families were on the agenda.

Meanwhile, already in the first days of July 1941, the Ukrainian police, who were called "Schutzmanns", took away the first Pole from the village under the pretext of interrogation. Verbovets twenty-seven-year-old Maciej Beletsky. He was bullied and died from beatings. Then, during the attacks on the neighboring village of Mogilnitsa, Leon Sonetsky, Stanislav Gotz, as well as the Malinovsky, Mazurov, Yanitsky families and others were muzzled ...

In the neighboring village of Lyaskovtsy, having muzzled the Jews, the Schutzmanns and Bandera reached the Polish population. On the basis of the verdict of the chief of the gang in Lyaskovtsy, Nikolai Poperechny, Bronislav Grushetsky, Michal Grushetsky, Nikolai Friedrich, Piotr Ovsyansky, Vladislav Ovsyansky and Kazimir Snezhek were martyred in the parish house of the Greek Catholic parish. This brutal crime involved stripping each of them, tying them up with barbed wire, and beating them to death. Even before they died, they drove nails into their heads, chopped off their arms and legs with an ax or cut off their arms and legs with a saw and pierced their stomachs with a bayonet ... they walked and mumbled at the expense of "Independent" ...

March 18, 1944 ... comes 23.00. From Lyaskovets, in the direction of Verbovets, they fired a rocket ... They guessed that it would start soon ... And so they set fire to the first buildings of Polish residents, first from three sides, and after midnight the entire part of the Polish Verbovets was engulfed in fire. In the gardens swarming from Bandera. Houses were doused with gasoline and set on fire with torches and grenades. People ran away. In the open space, the Polish population became a victim of Bandera. Those who hid were suffocated by the smoke. In the morning the shooting died down. Survivors began to come from the fields. They later spoke about the death of their loved ones.

At the hands of vengeful criminals died:

- Bartosiewicz Grzegorz and Anthony

- Basilkevich Gelena

- Bulyak Aloisi, Stefan and Andrzej with a small child

- Bula Jan and Wawrzyniec

- Bull Franciszek, Grzegorz and Jozef

- Gypsy Anna with two children

- Grican Aloisi, Andrzej, Anthony, Apolonia, Jozef and Michal

- Gotz Maria

- Kinal Jozef, Katarzyna and Maria

- Kubachkowski - Maria, Tadeusz and Anna

- Oleinik Yan

- Penkovsky Stanislav and Maria

- Polloliak Stefan

- Rutko Aloisi, Maria and Rosalia

- Skubitskaya Mikhalin

- Snezhek Malgorzata with three children

- Smigel Michal and Apolonia...

We have gathered today at the Church of Christ the King in Wroclaw to take part in a memorial service on the forty-fifth anniversary of the burning of the Polish part of our Verbovtsy and the murder of our mothers, parents, brothers, sisters, friends and acquaintances by Ukrainian nationalists. We came here without hatred for the perpetrators of the crime, we just want to remind, in particular, the younger generation of that red tragic night 45 years ago.

We, Poles from the Ternopil land, do not know how to take revenge. Even now, after the tragedy, there was not a single case of revenge on the part of the Poles who survived.

Now, after the tragedy, from March 18 to March 19, 1944, armed Germans arrived at the scene of the crime in the burnt Verbovtsy in armored vehicles. We directed machine gun fire towards the Ukrainian population and asked the barely alive Vincent Sadlyak, who is present among us today, whether to shoot at the Ukrainians? He said no, don't shoot. Let this fact be an answer to those who at home and abroad in various newspapers every time more and more often write about the Ukrainians of Podolia and Volhynia allegedly muzzled by the Poles ...

Parochial parish in Verbovtsy, priest Eugeniyush Butra, escaped only because he was warned by a local Greek Catholic paroch. He managed to leave for Budzanov.

In the eyes of the Poles - OUN, UPA, Bandera - are synonymous. It is known, however, who is at stake.

And Vladimir Mazur, deputy chairman of the OUN-b Wire, at a big veche in honor of the UPA in Kiev on Sophia Square on August 9, 1992, said:

In the twentieth century, the UPA, more than any other Ukrainian institution or formation, contributed to the education of the Ukrainian people of national consciousness, national dignity and national pride ... The UPA and the OUN declared to the whole world with their images that the Ukrainian nation lives, and it is the only one master in his native Earth - the Motherland with the right given to her by God to her own national state.

And not a word about the murders of Poles.

The historian Miroslav Prokop, the main figure of the OUN-s, is also silent about the killings of Poles, who published a study of p.n. "Ukrainian Anti-Nazi Underground 1941–1944".

Also prof. Yaroslav Pelensky in an interview with the magazine "Contact" (a Polish magazine in Paris) talks about the OUN, its genealogy, various details of the period of occupation, but ... says nothing about the killings of Poles. Does he not know about them?

In the book about Vatslav Shetelnytsky, places, dates, surnames are indicated. There are also similar data in the reports that I collected from Poles from Poland and other countries. If what is written here is a lie, then let the OUN refute it even through lawsuits. One of these cases has already been matched in place. We are talking about those 1,700 victims near Lyuboml. The Ukrainian Toronto newspaper "Ukraine and the World" also wrote about him.

No mention of the killings of Poles in Volhynia and Galicia in a number of other publications in 1992 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the UPA. They were also not mentioned during the scientific conference about the UPA b.s. "Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the national liberation struggle in Ukraine in 1940-1950", a report on which was submitted by its participant Stepan Semenyuk.

Instead, prof. Piotr Potichny from Canada talks about "mutual Polish-Ukrainian bloodshed".

Lev Shankovsky, a nationalist historian, in his work "History of the Ukrainian Army" writes that the UPA used only actions of retribution against the Polish population, and then only in the first half of 1944 in Galicia. And so the UPA fought in Volyn only with A.K., that is, with the Polish underground armed organization.

Both sides - Poles and Ukrainians - mutually blame themselves. This is linked to the question: Who started it and why? But more on that in a separate section.

Here, instead, in support of the evidence of the killings of the Polish civilian population in Volhynia, I will refer to absolutely objective sources: to Czech authors, former residents of Volhynia. Czechs settled in Volhynia in the second half of the 19th century after the suppression of the January (in 1863) Polish uprising against tsarism. From those Poles who supported the rebels, from large landowners in Volhynia, the tsarist government took away the estates that became the property of the tsar's treasury. It was from the royal treasury that the Czechs bought land by agreement of the Russian tsar and the Austrian tsar. The Ukrainians have something to thank those Czechs for, from them they adopted many methods of cultivating the land, growing grain and industrial crops. Not far from the village of Lipy, Lubnensky district, there is the village of Mirogoshcha, half of which was Czech Mirogoshcha, and half - Russian Mirogoshcha. It was from those Czechs that the local Ukrainians, including my grandfather, learned to grow hops, because they gave birth very well on the Volyn black soil. The peasants began to get rich.

A Czech I know, but not from Mirogoshcha, where the Poles did not live, they also did not live in the villages nearby Mirogoshcha, a respectable man, a colonel (my wife’s father is a Czech by birth, so we often went to Czechoslovakia after the war) to my question is - Is it true that the Ukrainians killed the Poles in Volhynia? - answered: Killed! If you do not delve into this issue, it looked like all Ukrainians killed. But it's not. There were many who disapproved of the killings. But mostly they were silent, because the terror of the OUN-UPA ruled. Many Ukrainians paid with their lives for resisting the OUN-UPA. UPa, Sat. The OUN terrorized the Ukrainian population of Volhynia.

This Czech pointed to a number of facts of Ukrainian assistance to the Poles in the form of a warning about a planned attack. He also pointed to Vasily from the Valley of the Cossacks, which is near Boremlya, who, even under the Bolsheviks, said: The Germans will come - there will be a free Ukraine. And as the Bandera people began to muzzle the Poles, the same Vasily said: So we will not build Ukraine. People heard it. Two days later, his body was found in a well with a wire around his neck, and his 24–25-year-old wife was also found there.

The same Czech told about one case with S. B. OUN - Security Services. One of its chiefs himself shot 18 Bandera because they fought badly in a fight with the Germans in order to take away their weapons, and also to seize their livestock. And the Orthodox priest said: We will fight for a free Ukraine in every possible way. It was already when the Poles were being killed.

The Czechs did not quarrel with the Ukrainians, and the Bandera people basically did not hurt them.

The book "Volyn Czechs", written by Józef Foitik and four other authors, fell into my hands, the subject of which is the history of the settlement of the Czechs in Volyn, their life, way of life, and the like. And only on the pages of the book, the authors, when describing the years in the German occupation, write:

The Ukrainian police at first willingly served the Germans, but when the occupiers did not satisfy their desires, they fled into the forest (p. 13)... The Ukrainians were very happy about the arrival of the Germans, greeted them, helped them like police. It was the same in Russian Novoselki... In 1942, the Ukrainians began to resist the Germans, the Ukrainian police subsequently went into the forest, they became partisans, that is, Bandera (p. 42)... When the Russians withdrew, Bandera arose - it was the same fascism, only in the nationalist Ukrainian form (p. 43)… On the feast of Peter and Paul, June 29, 1943, a gang of unknown people with axes passed through the village. The next day we learned that at night they attacked the Polish colony of Zagai and brutally killed all its inhabitants (p. 50) ... In the village of Rachin ... in 1943, Ukrainian nationalists killed a Polish citizen Golyakovskaya (p. 63) ... In 1942 Bandera began to kill Polish citizens of Volyn (p. 67) ... In the summer of 1943, Bandera attacked Senkevichevka, burned the church, hospital and houses, after which they fled into the forest (p. 76) ... Bandera burned Polish villages: Marusya, Vydumka, Maryanovka and part of Skurchi. In the morning they attacked the dairy, burned the houses of the Pole Kilyan. They burned down the houses of the Pole Krupinski, and when he ran away, they shot him (p. 83)... In addition to the Nazi occupier, the Banderaites, who stole everything they came for (c. 89)... Volyn was flooded with blood and fire - at night, the Bandera attacked the Polish villages, and during the day the Germans burned and killed the Ukrainians. In Senkevichevka, Bandera burned a church, a hospital, a mill and many other houses. The Poles fled to Nevchi or Lutsk.

The named book was published in Czech in Czecho-Slovakia, it does not contain the year and place of publication. It does not contain a single mention of any actions of the Poles against the Ukrainians.

The Poles tried to quickly Polonize the inhabitants of Volhynia. When the Red Army retreated in June 1941... the Ukrainians slaughtered each other for political reasons. In Boyarka, the chairman of the village council, Pasechnik, and his 14-year-old son were killed with a pitchfork in a forest near Moskovshchina. Several Ukrainians were shot dead by their own ... Together with the Germans, Ukrainian nationalists returned home, who had previously fled to Poland occupied by the Germans, where they underwent special training at a school in Krakow. In Krasnaya Gora, they staged something like a people's trial of Soviet activists from 1939-1941. The enmity leaked out with such force that the mother did not protect the son or daughter, the son of the father, the brother of the brother.

On page 45 : Somewhere in a week (in July 1941 - Vii.) the Gestapo came for the front-line army and with it Ukrainian nationalists trained at a school in Krakow: one of them was a platoon commander (platoon commander - V.P.) of the Polish Army Dmitry Novosad from Krasnaya Gora ... Together with the Germans, they disarmed the police (called up by the Pole Anton Yakubovsky, the burgomaster appointed by front-line units in Mlynov near Dubna - V.P.), put them on a car, took them to a forest called Khvoroshcha and shot there. Young guys from the Polish community of Ludwikowka were also taken into the cars, supposedly to work in Germany, and they were shot in the Khvoroshcha forest. Without any court. In Mlyniv, a number of Polish intellectuals were shot dead - 40 Poles and 20 Jews. This is how the Ukrainian police "shutsmans" began to operate under the command of Dmitry Novosad ... During 1941-1942, the Ukrainian police, together with the Gestapo, staged several smaller-scale pogroms in the vicinity.

Page 47: During the winter of 1942 until 1943, it came to single, then mass murders of Poles, before Easter they threw the slogan: "Remove Poles and Jews from Ukraine", that is, drive them out or kill them ... Bandera extremists said: Blood is needed up to the knees for a free Ukraine to come ! Somewhere at the end of 1942 or at the beginning of 1943... in Turetska Gora, unknown people killed Ukrainian Mykola Dombrovsky. He was not a communist, but he was an intelligent, logical thinker, a good friend of the Czechs. He valiantly proclaimed views that did not coincide with the official ideology of the Bandera underground. He was neither the first nor the last. Bandera terror strangled the voices of reason ... Bandera focused on arson and the murder of entire Polish families, later entire villages. The spring of 1943 passed in continuous fires. Polish villages and colonies were on fire at night. During the day, columns of smoke came from the fires of Ukrainian villages. The Poles, expelled from their villages to the cities, entered the service of the Germans, the police, and took revenge on the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians fled into the forest. Several Ukrainians were shot dead... Bandera killed several Czechs in the vicinity, mostly Catholics or from families mixed with Poles, no one was killed in Czech Dorogostai... Polish departments attacked the families of prominent Ukrainian nationalists at night... In the winter of 1943, on the road from Uzhyntsev, Bandera attacked a cart in the evening with Polish women from Karolinka, who went to Maslenka to spend the night at the Poloshchanskys, thinking that it was safer there. They shot Yuzef Poloshchansky's wife and another woman. In addition, in the Polish estate of Lebendzyanka, Bandera shot the wife and daughter of Jozef Olshak from Maslenka when they were visiting their relatives. At the end of 1943, they attacked the Pole miller Stets, whose wife was Ukrainian, killed her and her five-year-old daughter ... In the winter of 1942 in Mlynov. There was a massacre of the Jews. They went to their death like a flock of sheep, without resisting. Many fled, hiding with the Poles, Czechs and, in some cases, with the Ukrainians. The occupiers and the Ukrainian police threatened death for harboring Jews, hunted them in the forests and villages. In the courtyard of Volodymyr Vostroy from Frankov, a 14-year-old Jewish boy was attacked, who was driven all the way to Karolinka and mercilessly shot dead. In the "Grafchyna" forest not far from Frankiv, 14 Jews who were hiding in a bunker were shot dead, among them Josef Grinberg from Mlynov. Four children aged 12-14 were shot dead in the Czech forest near Frankiv.

The head of the Mlyniv policemen - "shutsmans", Dmitry Novosad became a bunch - an ensign, he boasted: I exterminated all the Polish intelligentsia in Mlyniv! He personally shot 869 Jews! I promised myself that I would shoot a thousand of them!

It was written by a Czech. As you can see - absolutely objectively.

But in the Czech magazine "Respekt", which is published in Czechoslovakia, Pavel Janko writes in the article "Experienced trouble, experienced grief":

At that time, the murders of Polish families and entire villages began. If the wife of a Ukrainian was a Pole, he killed her or her neighbors killed her, and he was proclaimed a traitor. Every evening, as soon as it got dark, a glow could be seen from all sides, and shooting could be heard. We knew that there were Poles who were being killed. When we got there the next day, everyone was killed - men, women, old people, children. All valuable property was taken away. Many people were thrown into wells. Many Poles went to the Germans, created detachments of pursuers and raided Ukrainian villages, who were caught, shot dead. The fleeing Poles were shot like rabbits. They did not shoot, however, at small children, as the Ukrainians did. They made such raids because the Ukrainians provoked it..

A Czech woman from Czecho-Slovakia writes to me: We didn’t have Poles (in Mirogosh, near Dubno), so we didn’t kill anyone, we only visited five Czech families, ordered the barns to be opened, took away half of what was in them. Our father (Orthodox - V.P.) Fyodor Shumovsky and his son, also a priest, asked in sermons not to harm people. And her brother, a doctor from Czecho-Slovakia, writes to me that Orthodox priests in Mirogoshche or in Zavala could allow this, but not in Derman, in a village that was captured by Bandera. Instead, he writes, the majority of Greek Catholic priests from Galicia were associated with the OUN, later with the UPA.

This is how the image of events in Western Ukraine during the German occupation gradually emerges. Not all, as it seemed, Ukrainians muzzled, not all priests called for murder, not all hallowed axes.

Not all Ukrainians OUN-UPA was able to terrorize. Isn't the most expressive proof of this is the memoir of Alexandra Glovinskaya, originally from Gorokhovshchina in Volhynia, published in the Polish "Politics". Here is his translation:

The myth of war crimes of the Red Army in Germany In the USSR it was customary to deny that the Red Army had committed numerous war crimes in Germany and other liberated countries of Europe. In Soviet historiography, it was emphasized that Soviet soldiers in every possible way

3 Cambodia: in a land of unthinkable crimes "We have an obligation to present the party's history as clean and unblemished." Pol Pot The relationship between Mao Zedong and Pol Pot is beyond doubt. True, we are faced here with a paradox that is difficult to analyze and, even more so, to understand. His name