Archive Reveals OUN-UPA fought in Southern and Eastern Ukraine

By Oksana Klymonchuk

Ukraine’s Security Services (SBU ) continues to declassify materials found in KGB archives about the nationalist movement in Ukraine.

A public forum, dedicated to the activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in South and Eastern Ukraine, took place in Kyiv on March 13. The following {edited] excerpts are from the more interesting speeches.

Dr. Volodymyr Serhiychuk, professor and historian, stated that the first program document of OUN, created in Vienna in 1929, outlines the main task of the organization – to restore the Ukrainian independent state. OUN was interested in not only Halychyna or Volyn [traditionally pro-Ukrainian western regions], but was preparing to spread its ideas in the south and east of Ukraine.

When the border between [East and West] Ukraine was wiped out in 1939, OUN received an opportunity to develop its activities in the East. As early as in 1940, the NKVD (KGB) began to arrest OUN commissars, who appeared in Eastern Ukraine. In particular, according to the documents from the Sumy Oblast archive, OUN regional leader Ivan Klymiv (“Legenda”) trained staff for an underground OUN network.

“In line with guerilla reports, which I discovered in the Zhytomyr Oblast archive, there is evidence that in 1942, Nazis arrested a large group of OUN members in Zhytomyr. The fascists confiscated documents from them, indicating that OUN planned to expand into Eastern Ukraine. Also, OUN had planned that academician Bohomolets would become President of a united Ukraine.” said Serhiychuk.

OUN activities in the years of Nazi occupation were carried out mainly by two wings – Banderivtsi [following Stepan Bandera] and Melnykivtsi [under Andrij Melnyk]. Both of them took on the task of restoring Ukrainian statehood, but used different ways to achieve that goal. For instance, Banderivtsi managed to declare an act restoring the Ukrainian state in Lviv on June 30, 1941. They planned that as soon as Ukraine was liberated from Bolshevik occupation, Ukrainian political rule will be established. According to existing documents, Ukrainian authority was declared in 12 Oblasts of the UkrSSR [Soviet Ukraine]. Ukrainian nationalists aimed to go east, to involve all Ukrainian ethnic lands, including Kuban and Crimea. However, German fascists were opposed to restoring the Ukrainian state, and pressed Banderivtsi to recall the statehood act. The latter refused, and were interned to Berlin.

From September 15, 1941, German fascists decided to strictly punish the OUN underground network, and wiped out Oblast councils, namely those under Ukrainian rule. All participants of pro-Ukrainian organizations, especially those connected with Banderivtsi, suffered repression – they were shot or taken to concentration camps. Some leading figures, such as Vasyl Kuk, were removed and taken to Poland. The Banderivtsi wing of OUN switched to operate underground, openly opposed to the German occupation.

The most interesting evidence about OUN activities in Eastern Ukraine can be found in the documents of their biggest enemy, the punitive NKVD squads during Soviet rule. One such document, signed on November 30, 1943, by Colonel Demidov, Donetsk (then Stalinskiy) Oblast NKVD Director, indicates the precise number of Ukrainian nationalist underground members: “Significant formations of OUN were created in districts of the Stalinskaya Oblast. It was established that in the city of Mariupol, the OUN numbered up to 300 members, in Kramatorsk – 120, in Slavyansk – 80, in Krasnoarmeysk – over 50, in Makeyevka – 60, in Maryinka – 80, Olginka – 30 people. OUN is comprised mainly of the intelligentsia – teachers, doctors, and also youth”.

The Ukrainian nationalist movement during Nazi occupation was widespread in all regions of Ukraine. For instance, in the second quarter of 1944, NKVD arrested 711 nationalists in Dnipropetrovsk, in the third quarter – 744. The same happened in Odessa, Mykolayiv, Kirovohrad regions and in Crimea.

OUN activities were not interrupted after the Soviet Red Army came to Ukrainian territory. There is evidence that the Ukrainian nationalist movement developed at Donbas region mines in 1949. Roman Shukhevych, OUN leader and Chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1948-49, paid special attention to expanding OUN activities in Eastern Ukraine. A special program, called “Orlyk”, was created, stipulating that a significant number of western Ukrainian nationalists were to go to eastern regions, where they could hide until it was time to act.

Oleksander Ishchuk, SBU State Archive scientific department deputy chief stated: “Recently I have found in SBU archives a letter of Roman Shukhevych to Olga Hilkiv, who was his messenger. Several days before his death, he wrote about the significance of developing the nationalist movement in Eastern Ukraine.” The SBU archives have, probably, the biggest collection of materials about OUN activities in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Ishchuk describes the types of documents connected with OUN, which are kept in the SBU archive: original source materials about OUN, photos made by OUN members and by KGB employees; and thousands of criminal cases, brought against OUN members. “I want to show you a unique document, which indicates the self-sacrifice not only of OUN members, but also the heroism of the larger population. From Khmelnytska Oblast, a peasant woman, Pavliuk by surname, hid Kamyanets-Podilski OUN Chief Skyba. She was arrested by KGB in 1951 and interrogated to reveal the chief’s whereabouts, but she refused and was tortured… Pavliuk was released, and told: “If you give up Skyba, you will survive! If not, we will arrest you”. After that, she, and all her family committed suicide, and left a unique note: “Glory to Ukraine! Ukrainians, do not judge me [for taking] my life. I did not want to endure the NKVD tortures ... We died and we are proud of our death. Glory to heroes! We were pressed to betray the Motherland and give up the [OUN] leaders, but we took an oath, and we kept this oath till the end of our lives. Glory to Ukraine! For you, Ukraine, we will not hesitate to drink poison, [so as] to not betray you”.

At the end of the note, there is an important postscript: “Maybe, it will happen [someday] that someone will remember our names in a free Ukraine.”