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Related Materials
The Peter J. Potichnyj Collection on Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Ukraine has been officially opened and is available for use by interested scholars. Carol Moore, Director of the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto, and Robert E. Johnson, Director of the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Toronto, officially opened the PJP Collection on 18 March 1997 at the Petro Jacyk Slavic and East European Resource Centre of Robarts Library, University of Toronto.
The PJP Collection, as its name implies, contains two large groups of documents: those representing the Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Ukraine and covers the period 1941-1954.
The Insurgency documents fall into six groups, depending on their origin, and relate directly to the Ukrainian Liberation Movement. Most of them are on paper, but some are on film and a large number of these documents are immediately accessible to scholars. A very rough count estimates this group as containing over 100,000 pages of documents.
A group of 16 microfilm reels that contain documents from the Polish Ministry of Public Security (Ministerstwo Bezpiecenstwa Publicznego) and cover the period 1945-1948, the underground activities on the Ukrainian ethnographic territories in Poland. This collection is often called the Onyshkevych Papers because they were used in the military trial against him and because each document carries his signature. (Myroslav Onyshkevych was the military commander of the UPA -- Ukrainian Insurgent Army -- Military Okruha Nr. 6 "Sian".) These are underground documents and only two microfilm reels belong to the Counter-Insurgency category. Call Number: DK/508/.79/P482/1990 MICR mfm reel. 1-16.
A group of documents from the Archive of Misiia UPA in Germany. These documents cover the period 1943-1951 and were brought by couriers from Ukraine. They were in possession of Dr. Lev Rebet, a noted Ukrainian revolutionary, who was assassinated by a Soviet agent. A list of these documents is available but due to their fragile nature they cannot be made available at this time.
The third group of documents are contained in 28 volumes of the "Litopys UPA" (Chronicle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army), Old Series, edited by P.J. Potichnyj and Ie. Shtendera (Toronto: Litopys, 1976-1997). These volumes contain underground documents that were deposited in the Archive of the ZP UHVR (Foreign Representation of the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council) of New York City. Each volume has an Introduction and summaries of documents in English as well as an index. A New Series of the "Litopys UPA", which is based on the rich archival holdings in Ukraine has appeared in a volume that was published in Kiev in 1995 through the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Chief Archival Directorate of the Cabinet of the Ministers of Ukraine, is also part of the PJP Collection. The "Litopys UPA" is currently being prepared for the Internet and can be reached at the following address: http://www.infoukes.com/upa/.
The fourth group contains the published and as yet unpublished materials of the "Litopys UPA", such as memoir materials, which contain very interesting, personal accounts of the underground struggle. These papers are currently being processed and will be available to scholars in the near future.
The fifth group of documents contain archival holdings of the two veteran organizations of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army of USA and Canada. Of special interest are the papers of Wolodymyr Makar, who played a visible role in the anti-German resistance, and especially his wide correspondence with various Ukrainian political figures. These materials are in the process of being classified and will be available to scholars sometime in the near future.
The sixth item is immediately and completely accessible. This is a microfilm of the Toronto newspaper Homin Ukrainy, and includes some 50 reels. It contains much that is of direct value to the collection, such as the special page "Voiats'ka Vatra", edited by the late Wolodymyr Makar.
The Counter-Insurgency materials are made up of three parts.
The first group of materials cover the years 1941-1945 and pertains to the counter-insurgency activities of the German occupational forces. These documents, some 100 reels of microfilm, come mostly from the National Archives of the United States in Washington, D.C., and represent a portion of documents that were seized by the Allies at the end of World War II. These documents can be used almost immediately. They contain not only counter-insurgency material, but also some underground material in German translation. Here one will also find a wealth of material on the activities of the notorious Einsatzgruppen against the Jews and Ukrainians. Some material from this collection have already been published in three volumes under the title: The UPA in Light of German Documents in the "Litopys" series (volumes 6, 7 and 21). There are also a number of paper documents that come from various German archives, mostly from Koblenz, but they still need to be catalogued.
The second group of the Counter-Insurgency documents come directly from Soviet archives. This collection of over 150,000 pages of documents, on 428 reels of film cover the activities of the NKVD-NKGB, and the MVD-MGB internal forces of the Ukrainian Okrug against the Ukrainian Liberation Movement during the years 1944-1954. After Ukraine proclaimed independence in August 1990, this archive was removed to Moscow. At the insistence of the Ukrainian Government, a microfilm copy of the archive was returned to Kiev. A second complete copy of this invaluable archive is now a part of the PJP Collection.
This collection contains detailed operational information on the activities of Soviet internal forces against the Ukrainian underground. It will give researchers an opportunity to learn not only how the Soviet security apparatus actually functioned in the seven oblasti of Western Ukraine, but also many other details about the underground itself, including its tactics, its successes and failures, its leading personalities, its heros and traitors, etc. For example, in these documents there are over 400 detailed drawings of underground hideouts and bunkers. Based on this information, a book is being prepared under the title Architecture of Resistance: Hideouts and Bunkers of the Ukrainian Underground in KGB Documents. Call number: DK/508/.79/P48/1994 MICR mfm reel. 1-60, 70-437.
A third group contains Soviet paper documents which come from the Tsentral'nyi Derzhvnyi Arkhiv Hromads'kykh Orhanizastsii Ukrainy (State Archive of Community Organizations of Ukraine) in Kiev, the former Central Party Archive. These are largely political decisions pertaining to the underground, reports by the Obkom First Secretaries, orders from the top, speeches by N.S. Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders, summaries of Soviet and underground casualties, the deportation of the civilian population, etc. A list of these documents is currently being prepared.
The PJP Collection is a unique archival holding of great value that brings together both sides of the story, or Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Ukraine, 1941-1954. I invite all interested scholars to take advantage of this historic collection.
Boxes 1- 23, 25-35, 126-129, 131-136, 150-155,159-161, 163-166: Private papers, notes, publications, book reviews, university matters, memoirs. (Box 30,students),(Box 31 -32, 39 Papers on EE), (Box 33 various papers in Sociology), (Box 35, various publications from Soviet journals).
Box 34, newspaper clippings on UPA in Western Europe.
Box 35A: Restricted box. To be opened in the year 2035.
Boxes 24, 36-70 (69-70 China): Correspondence.
Boxes 71-76: Soviet archival materials (Osobaia papka Stalina, TsDAHOU, Lviv, Rivne, Drohobych).
Boxes 77-79, 137: Polish archival materials.
Boxes 80-82, 92: Arkhiv Misii UPA (AMUPA).
Boxes 83-91, 93-96, 108-111, 116-121, 123-125: Arkhiv Litopysu UPA (ALUPA).
Boxes 97-107: Arkhiv Ob’iednannia Kolyshnikh Voiakiv UPA SShA i Kanady ( Archive OKV UPA).
Boxes 112-115, 122: Arkhiv Tovarystva Kolyshnikh Voiakiv UPA im. Gen. Tarasa Chuprynky v SShA i Kanadi (Archive TKV UPA).
Box 130: German archival materials.
Box 138-141, 144-146: Newspaper clippings "Ukraine Today".
Box 142: Short reports on Ukraine from Foreign Broadcast Information System.
Box 143, 157: Reports by various international press agencies on Ukraine.
Box 147: Memoirs of underground activists.
Box 148: Correspondence of OUN(B) with the Central Leadership in Ukraine.
Box 149: Photos from underground and of Ukr. Lib. Mov. Activists, and Dutch POWs.
Box 156: Informal Newspapers from 1989-90.
Box 162: Stamp Collection PPU ( Pidpil’na Poshta Ukrainy-Donated by Mr. S. Golash).
1. German documents (1941-1945). 100 reels. (D/802/U4P47/1959 mfm)
2. Soviet documents (1944-1954). 428 reels. (DK/508.79/P48/1994 mfm)
3. Ukrainian underground documents from Polish archives (1945-1948). 16 reels. (DK/508/.79/P482/1990 mfm)
4. "Homin Ukrainy" (Echo of Ukraine). 50 reels. (AN/H654 mfm)
1. "Litopys UPA". Volumes 1-25, 27-28 (old series). (DK/508/.79/L56 pjrc). Vol. 1 (new series).
2. Various publications on the Ukrainian underground (Soviet, German, Polish, Czech, Slovak).
1. Interviews with Dutch officers liberated by the UPA from the German POW camp. (Box 124).
2. Interview with Mrs. Natalka Osmak, daughter of Kyrylo Osmak, President of UHVR. (Box 124)
3. "Mizh Slavoiu i Smertiu". Montage on the UPA donated by Dr. M. Ripeckyj. (Master copy and 2d videocassette). (Box 124).
4. Copies of pictures from the underground, most of them from the AMUPA collection. (Box 124).
5. A large collection of underground photographs and slides from the late O. Papinko collection. (Box 123).
6. Records of UPA songs by V. Kardash. (Box 109).
7. Magnetic tape (18 reels) of Radio Programme in Winnipeg. (Box 99).
8. Tape recordings of various conferences. (Box 158).
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