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SERIES 1
VOLUME 14
This second book on the Peremyshl Battalion of the UPA contains
documents and materials relating to the history of the UPA company
"Udarnyky" 6, 96a, commanded by Second Lieutenant Iaroslav Kotsiolok
("Sukhyi," "Krylach"). Some relate as well to the company "Udarnyky"
4, 94a, commanded by Volodymyr Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka"), which for
quite some time acted in concert with Kotsiolok's company. Thus this
volume also serves to complete our first volume about the Peremyshl
UPA battalion. In this volume we have included the following
materials: 1) "Krylach: journal, July 23 - November 1, 1944"; 2)
"Journal of Second Lieutenant Iaroslav Kotsiolok ("Krylach", commander
of the company "Udarnyky" 6, 96a [from January I to June 13, 19471)";
3) "Journal of the UPA company of 'Krylach' (Iaroslav Kotsiolok),
"Udarnyky" 6, 96a, led by company's Warrant Officer, 'Orest' (from
April 7 to June 20, 1947)"; 4) "Journal of the UPA detachment of
'Burlaka' (Volodymyr Shchyhelskyi), commanded by Shchyhelskyi (from
August 1 to September 1, 1947)"; 5) Reports of the companies
"Udarnyky" 4 and "Udarnyky" 6; 6) Lists of soldiers from the UPA
company "Udarnyky" 6 who fell on the field of battle and 7) Orders of
the day of the UPA company "Udarnyky" 6.
As can be seen from the above, the underground materials published in this volume do not cover the whole period of activity of the UPA company "Udarnyky" 6, but rather only part of its history. Ia. Kotsiolok's journal from 1944 relates to the period of the UPA's beginnings in the Peremyshl county and to the history of the UPA battalion "Lemkivshchyna-Zakhid" commanded by First Lieutenant Vasyl Mizernyi ("Ren"); it speaks of the Carpathian raid of the UPA detachment commanded by V. Mizernyi. However, the UPA company "Udarnyky" 6 came into being in 1945, originating with the local Self-defense Unit (Samooboronnyi kushchevyi viddil - SKV) which was made up mainly of UPA soldiers from companies which had taken part in the Carpathian raid and then, in winter, were disbanded. The first commander of this company was Lt. "Baron", who came to the UPA from the "Halychyna" Division after the battle at Brody. He was killed on October 21, 1945, in the village of Kuzmyna. After his death, command of the company was taken over by "Iar", also formerly a lieutenant in the "Halychyna" Division, [1] who until then was an instructor with the NCO School of the 6th Military District "Sian". He commanded the company until the summer of 1946. Subsequently he served in the company "Udarnyky" 6 (commanded by "Bir") and with it left for the Ukrainian SSR on June 28, 1947. On July 23, 1946, command of the company "Udarnyky" 6 was taken over by Second Lieutenant Iaroslav Kotsiolok. [2] No detailed documentation about the activities of the company "Udarnyky" 6 during the years 1945-46 could be found in archives, apart from biographies of the fallen in battle, which we are including in this volume. All other materials published here relate to the activities of the company in 1947.
The Journal of Iaroslav Kotsiolok ("Krylach") from 1944
We are reprinting "Krylach - Journal, July 23 - November 1, 1944" from the original, which is found in the Archives of the Foreign Representation of the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council (ZP UHVR) under the number K3-1. The Journal was written in a small notebook, 11 by 7 centimeters in size containing 82 graph-lined pages. It was very difficult to decipher, for the author's notes were written in a tiny hand, usually with non-erasable pencil. The journal was damaged and suffered from dampness while in many places the non-erasable pencil ran and smudged the writing. Along the edges of the notebook some words were blotted out and others were so pale they were impossible to make out. However, Petro Potichnyj was able to decipher the journal in the laboratory of McMaster University in Hamilton. Only a few words or phrases have remained indecipherable. They have been identified with square brackets or footnotes.
In this Journal, the author writes laconically. Often, he only mentions people or events, probably in order to remember them, having intended to write in greater detail later. Because of his terse style, we deemed it necessary' to supply rather full notes, in order to give the reader additional information about the most important persons and events discussed. To do this, we relied mainly upon information given us by Modest Ripetskyi, who was at the time only a student of medicine but because of the shortage of doctors, he filled the functions of battalion physician in the battalion "Lemkivshchyna-Zakhid".
The journal begins on July 23, when the author joined the UPA, entering the company of "Lys", which had come into existence during the spring of 1944 in the Peremyshl county. "Lys" was commander of the company for only a brief time and we have no detailed information about him. His company was poorly trained, for only a small portion of the soldiers had ever served in any armed force, mainly in the Polish army or the Ukrainian auxiliary police. The author entered the company just as the front was nearing Peremyshl. A large detachment of Soviet partisans was beginning operations in the area and so the UPA company was forced right from the start to make manoeuvres in order to avoid a confrontation with the Soviets.
In his entry for July 26, 1944, the author mentions an inspection of the company by "Kulia", or "Udarnyk", commander of the UPA's Peremyshl Military Region (Viis'kova Okruha - VO), who held a briefing with the officers of the company. The author does not mention what decisions were taken during this briefing but since he was, at the time, only a private, he may not have known. It appears that the company was given the order to move to the Lemko region, in order to escape the Soviet partisans and to be able to undergo military training in the Lemko forests, for after the briefing the company headed southward. Along the way, the company met some Slovak units, which were readying a line of defense. Local UPA units had made mutual agreements of non-aggression with the Slovaks, and the author supplies some information on this matter.
On August 5, 1944, the company commanded by "Lys" reached the village
of Huchvytsia. There they met a company of new recruits commanded by
Vasyl Shyshkanynets ("Bir"). The officers of these companies decided
to organize their men into a battalion. V. Shchyhelskyi became
commander of the battalion, while V. Shyshkanynets ("Bir"), "Sirko"
and "Puhach"
[3]
were named company commanders. The author was named a
platoon leader in the company of "Puhach". On August 6, the battalion
engaged in a first skirmish with Soviet
On August 7, a new reorganization took place of UPA units gathered near the village of Zhernytsia. The author mentions only First Lieutenant Vasyl Mizernyi ("Ren") and says that he himself was named platoon leader of the first platoon in the second company commanded by V. Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka"). From other sources we know that at that time First Lieutenant V. Mizernyi had escaped from the German prison Montelupich in Krakow. Together with the newly-organized UPA company in the Lemko region, commanded by "Ievhen", he had come to the village of Zhernytsia, where he met with other UPA companies. There was begun a reorganization of the companies into a battalion, later known as "Lemkivhchyna-Zakhid", which had the following commanding officers: V. Mizernyi ("Ren") - battalion commander, Vasyl Shyshkanynets ("Bir") - adjutant, "Didyk" - intendant, Modest Ripetskyi ("Horyslav") - physician, "Puhach" - commander of the Military Police. "Ievhen", V. Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka") and "Bulba" [4] were appointed company commanders.
Further, the author writes about the battalion's movements, small skirmishes and everyday events. On August 18, the detachment arrived on the mountain Bukove Berdo, not far from the main ridge of the Carpathians, on the boundary between the Turka and Lisko counties. The front had stabilized, so battalion commander V. Mizernyi decided to erect a permanent camp at that site and to put the battalion through training. The training period ended on September 24, 1944, when the battalion began its Carpathian raid with an aim to cross the front. About the period spent on Bukove Berdo the author writes briefly, noting down, in order to remember, what he did or what took place on each day, and information about his platoon's forays from the camp on various assignments. Among the more important entries are the following: on August 25-27 and in September, meetings with his aunt, Lesia (T.L.); on August 28, the reorganization of the battalion; on August 31, the celebration by the battalion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the taking of Kiev by Ukrainian troops; on September 6, the departure of company commander "Bulba" with other officers on assignment to commander "Dzvinchuk" of the UPA's Drohobych VO [5]; on September 9 and 13, other meetings with his relative, and with a company of Eastern Ukrainians led by Petro Mykolenko ("Baida"); on September 12, a skirmish between his platoon and Soviet partisans.
For the detachment's Carpathian raid, the author's platoon set out by a special route alongside the front. It saw some battle action in Rozluch, and, probably near the village of Butelka, rejoined the detachment (the entry for this day contains many illegible words). The author notes only briefly the circumstances of the raid and the difficulties encountered, such as rain, the exhaustion of the soldiers, taking down camps and getting rid of "superfluous items", getting past Soviet outposts, meeting artillery fire from the Hungarian army (Journal entries from September 25-29) and the like. On September 30, the detachment crossed the front line and headed along the mountain ridge, past the village of Rozhanka, Skole county, towards the east, deeper behind Soviet lines.
On October 1, the detachment was divided into two battalions. First Lieutenant V. Mlzernyi ("Ren") headed east, into the Stanyslaviv oblast, taking the companies commanded by Svistel ("Veselyi"), "Nechai", V Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka ') and P. Mykolenko ( "Baida " ). The second battalion, commanded by Ievhen, took in the companies commanded by M. Duda ("Hromenko"). M Dudko ("Osyp"), "Karmeliuk", "Voron" (previously the company of "Ievhen") and "Krisovyi" (previously the company of "Bulba"). Company commander Bulba left with a platoon of his countrymen for his native parts, somewhere in the Zolochiv area, and two platoons from the Chornyi Lis headed for their territory in order to unite with their company. "Ievhen's" battalion set out northward, in order to carry out some temporary operations in the Drohobych province, then return to the Peremyshl region when the area was once more behind Soviet lines. The company commanded by "Karmeliuk" was to remain in the Sambir region. The author wanted to return to the Peremyshl region and was transferred as platoon leader to the company of "Krisovyi". The next part of the journal relates to the raid carried out by the battalion commanded by "Ievhen".
The author provides only a brief description of the battalion's unsuccessful attack on Soviet garrisons in Skole during the night of October 7-8 and of the battle with NKVD troops that took place the following day. In his platoon eight soldiers were missing in action and five were wounded. Also wounded was the author's relative, "Lesia", and on October 13 she was sent to the hospital in Turka. After that, the author speaks only of his own company commanded by "Krisovyi", and of the company commanded by "Osyp". Under way, they were rejoined by batallion commander "Ievhen". The unit moved through the villages of Bahnovate, Radych, Iasinka Maslova, Zhdanna, Nedilna Panchivka, Rozsokhy and Rudanka, and on October 18, made camp in the woods near the village of Lopushanka, close to the newly-created border between the Ukrainian SSR and the Polish People's Republic. There were many enemy troops in the area, so all movement had to take place at night, following roundabout routes. Rarely did the unit enter any village. The soldiers were debilitated by forced marches, lack of food and bad weather rain and autumn cold. However, there were no serious encounters with the enemy. Only at Lopushanka did they have any significant skirmish with the Soviets. The author briefly describes this encounter, and mentions that there were some wounded. The company commander M. Dudko ("Osyp") was also killed there. It turned that there were Soviet troops in other villages as well and they tried to encircle the UPA unit. "Krisovyi's" company broke out of the encirclement and set up quarters near the village of Kvasynyna, near the border with Poland. When company commander "Krisovyi" left with one platoon for the village of Mikhova, most likely to get food supplies, the Soviets again attacked the company. The author retreated with the rest of the unit (79 soldiers) towards the border, crossed it and, at 22:00 hours on October 19, 1944, after a 15-hour march, reached Iamna Horishnia, far from the border on the Polish side.
On October 20, the author met with the commander of the Peremyshl VO,
"Udarnyk" ("Kulia", "Mushka"), and submitted a report. He writes about
other meetings, manoeuvres of the unit, minor encounters with the
enemy, arrests of villagers and other events that took place in the
Peremyshl region. On October 28, he met with his wife, Iryna. In the
entry for October 31, the author briefly speaks of the
"demobilization" of some UPA soldiers, and in the entry for November
1, about "a field assignment". At that time, he was named military
officer for the Peremyshl county.
In the final pages of the notebook are various notes made by the author, the most important being 1) information about the author's functions in the UPA from July 22, 1944 to July 23, 1946, when he became the commander of the company "Udarnyky" 6; 2) three songs - "I'm leaving you today", "Song about a kozak" and "A kozak was preparing to go to battle"; and 3) lists of transported ammunition, soldiers, passwords and the like. Among these notes is also the entry "23.11.1944 + 'Udarnyk'", which probably sign)fies the date of the death of "Udarnyk". [6]
Journal of Second Lieutenant Iaroslav Kotsiolok, commander of the company "Udarnyky" 6.
This journal is really the author's personal diary, for the company's warrant officer kept the official chronicle of the company. Kotsiolok's journal encompasses the period from January 1 to June 15, 1947. The author's entries stop at June 12 (he was killed the following day), and later entries - from June 12 to 15 - were made by Second Lieutenant V. Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka"). We were not able to locate the original of the journal. We are thus publishing here the typescript copy of the journal made sometime in 1948-49 by Bohdan Huk ("Skala"), now deceased. At that time, the Brotherhood of Former UPA Soldiers was preparing the journal for publication. Many of the key phrases in the journal, and names of people and places, were written in numerical code. Although we have succeeded in deciphering the code, we have not been able to decipher everything. Words that have been decoded are given in square rackets; those that have not are written with the initial letter, followed by three dots, all in quotation marks - for example, "N...".
Although this journal is a personal one, the author speaks very little about personal matters. He makes only a few mentions of such things as meetings with his wife, the deterioration of his health (he had tuberculosis), personal conflicts and the like. Generally, the journal focuses on the life of the company members and the events that took place around them. The author describes these things in much greater detail than he had in his earlier journal from 1944 and provides quite a lot of information about a number of different matters. The style in which he writes is concise and business-like. Most significant is the fact that the journal was written by the commander of the company who had a lot of information and was able to describe the life of the unit from his point of view.
The journal speaks of the most difficult period in the activity of the units of the Peremyshl UPA battalion. During the winter of 1947, the Polish government sent large numbers of police and Polish Army troops into the Peremyshl region. They garrisoned villages and carried out extensive raids in the terrain including the forest areas. The UPA units limited their actions to those of defense, in order to survive the difficult winter period. They did their best to avoid encounters, manoeuvering among enemy troops. The author notes these daily manoeuvres in his journal although he rarely explains the reasons for decisions made by him. As a result of these manoeuvres, the author's company, "Udarnyky" 6, had only a few minor skirmishes with Polish Communist troops during that winter; only in one of them, an encounter that took place near the village of Iurkova on March 4, 1947, did it suffer any significant losses (nine men killed and five wounded). During the winter and right through the spring the author's company acted jointly with the company "Udarnyky" 4, commanded by V. Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka"). With the spring came even more difficult times. In April 1947, Polish Communist government sent four divisions, together with airforce and other support units, against the Peremyshl UPA battalion. It also resettled the whole of the Ukrainian population from the territory of the activity (this was the so-called "Akcja Wisla" - "Action Vistula"). In spite of the fact that the enemy had blockaded the area and was constantly carrying out raids into the forests, the companies commanded by Ia. Kotsiolok and V. Shchyhelskyi managed to avoid confrontation with the Polish Army divisions for two months. Only on June 4 did the Poles discover the location of the UPA units and from that time onwards, the companies were forced to undergo daily battles and to break out of repeated Polish encirclements, until they crossed over the Czechoslovak border on June 22, 1947. It was in one of these battles that the author was killed, on June 13, 1947. In spite of his poor health and his state of exhaustion, the author wrote daily descriptions of the life of his company
During the period covered in the journal, the companies commanded by the author and V. Shchyhelskyi usually camped together. For that reason, one might expect that Kotsiolok's journal would to a large extent duplicate the information contained in the journal kept by "Burkun", the Warrant Officer of the "Burlaka" company, [7] for after all, both men were writing about the same time and events. In fact, however, there are few duplications. Even if they write of the same events, the authors rather complement each other, each providing different information about a given subject. In general, Ia. Kotsiolok's narrative focuses on his own unit and on matters which are barely mentioned, or not mentioned at all, in the journal of Warrant Officer "Burkun ". Thus, for example, Kotsiolok's journal tells us a good deal about the planning of the raid of the Peremyshl battalion into Western Europe. In the entry for May 8 he writes that as yet, no final decision had been made about the raid. The decision was supposed to come from Myroslav Onyshkevych ("Orest"), commander of the UPA's 6 VO "Sian", Zakerzon Region. On May 29, he gives more information about certain details of the plan and states again that no decision had come, but he also mentions that a courier from the north had been killed. In the entry for May 30 he writes of a conference at which the question of the raid was decided.
The Journal Kept by "Orest", Warrant Officer for the Company "Udarnyky" 6
This journal, which begins on April 7 and ends on June 20, 1947, is the official chronicle of the company. The entry for April 7 was made by the brother of the company commander, Yuriy Kotsiolok ("Bihun"), who served for a brief period as Warrant Officer of the company. After that, the journal was kept by Warrant Officer "Orest". The journal has survived in two separate typed copies. One of them we found in the ZP UHVR Archives, while the second was made by B. Huk. The original must have been unclear, for both the copies contain some errors: passages which were not deciphered, incorrectly interpreted words, phrases, names of places or people, and the like. The version we are publishing here is based on the copy in the ZP UHVR Archives, to which we have made some corrections on the basis of B. Huk's typescript.
The entries in this journal are brief and it is not as rich in information as the journals of company commander Ia. Kotsiolok and Warrant Officer "Burkun". However, it does provide us with additional data and gives information about some matters which are not discussed by the authors of the earlier journals. For that reason, "Orest's" journal complements the earlier chronicles and can be a useful source of information for anyone researching the history of the Peremyshl battalion of the UPA.
The Journal of the UPA Unit Commanded by "Burlaka" (Volodymyr Shchyhelskyi)
This journal could have been published in the previous volume,
Volume 13, of
In volume 13 of Litopys UPA, we stated that the journals of V. Shchyhelskyi would span the period from June 15 to September 1, 1947. However, a comparison of the first journal - from June 15 to August 1, 1947 - with the journal kept by Warrant Officer "Burkun" showed that these were copies of the same journal. There is no doubt that the author of this document was, in fact, Warrant Officer "Burkun", for the originals of his journals from that time have survived. It turns out that Bohdan Huk, who had copied the June 15 - August 1 journal, mistakenly attributed it to V. Shchyhelskyi. Thus we are publishing in this volume only the second Shchyhelskyi journal, which covers the period August 1 to September 1, 1947. We have not been able to locate the original of Shchyhelskyi's journals, and thus are publishing the typed copy made by B. Huk in 1948-49.
The journal is written in a business-like tone; nevertheless it shows the author to be a man of some talent. The author provides a good picture of the unit's day-to-day existence, supplying a variety of facts and describing interesting events. He also writes of the beauty of the mountains in Slovakia and similar matters. The journal also contains some personal remarks, reflecting the author's concern about the soldiers under his command and about his wife and son.
Described in the journal is the most difficult period experienced by the unit on Czechoslovak territory. In the Krivan Mountains in Slovakia, Shchyhelskyi's unit was encircled by about 10,000 Czechoslovak troops. The Vah River and the mountainous terrain were assets to the enemy. It was not possible for the UPA unit to break through this encirclement. The author describes this situation, the manoeuvres made by his unit, the skirmishes that frequently took place with the Czechoslovak army, and the plans and attempts made by the UPA to break through the enemy circle. On August 16, the author divided his unit into seven small groups, each of which was to break through separately and continue further into Western Europe. Some of these groups came back together, only to be broken up again in skirmishes with the Czechoslovak army. The last entry made by the author was a brief one, dated September 1, 1947. On that day he was captured by the Czechoslovaks. Later, he was handed over to the Polish People's Republic and sentenced to death in Rzeszow.
Documents
We are publishing in this volume three reports of the companies
"Udarnyky" 4, commanded by V. Shchyhelskyi ("Burlaka"), and "Udarnyky"
6, commanded by Ia. Kotsiolok ("Krylach"). The first report - of the
company "Udarnyky" 4 - deals with the company's battle actions from
January 16 to February 28, 1946. We found it in the archive of Mr. Ivan
Eliashevskyi, now deceased, in Toronto. It was probably a part of a
report of the company which Eliashevskyi obtained for publication in
the newspaper of which he was editor. The second report published here
describes the battle waged by the companies "Udarnyky" 6 and
"Udarnyky" 4 against the Polish Army near the village of Iurkova on
March 4, 1947. The report is not signed, but the contents reveal that
it was written by company commander "Krylach", for it describes in
detail the role played in the battle by the company "Udarnyky" 6. This
report, together with an incomplete report of the company "Udarnyky" 6
for the month of March, 1947, we have taken from the journal
Another group of documents published here is the "lists of those fallen on the field of glory". The company prepared such lists along with its monthly reports, on the basis of "soldiers' personal lists". Some of the information contained in these lists was to be written in code[9], and "lists" from previous months were to be preserved in the company archive. However, the documents reprinted in this volume seem to provide information about all the fallen soldiers of the company from its inception until about May, 1947 (36 soldiers altogether). The data provided are not complete; some information about the lives of individual soldiers, including even the dates of the battles in which they fell, is missing. From this we can conclude that with the death of the company's previous Warrant Officer, "Obarianyk", the company archive was lost [10], and the new Warrant Officer had to prepare anew the evidential lists of the fallen, gathering information f rom the comrades-at-arms, relatives and fellow-villagers of the fallen soldiers. These were the lists that found their way to archives abroad.
The smallest group of documents published here is the daily orders issued by company commander Ia. Kotsiolok ("Krylach"), usually dealing with appointments of duty officers and soldiers responsible for maintaining order in the company and its temporary encampments. Also dealt with in the orders are various personal matters. The originals of these daily orders are preserved in the Archives of the ZP UHVR.
For the information contained in the footnotes to this volume, we
turned to the biographical materials relating to the Peremyshl UPA
battalion, that had been gathered by the editorial committee
established for the publication of these volumes of
The journals and other materials are reprinted in full, with no omissions or alterations in the text. In most cases, shortened names, pseudonyms and other references are provided in full; passages originally written in code are deciphered and any remaining shortened forms are standardized to make them consistent. More complete information about individual documents is provided in footnotes. In all cases printing errors and spelling mistakes are corrected, as are the most glaring grammatical faults.
On behalf of the editors of
Ievhen Shtendera
Petro J. Potichnyj
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