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SERIES 1
VOLUME 34
INTRODUCTION
The Peremyshl and Lemkivshchyna regions made up the OUN Peremyshl okruha,
which was formed from the Peremyshl oblast, created shortly after the Soviet
retreat in 1941. During the underground's structural reorganization of 1944, the
okruha's territorial organization remained unchanged, except that the povit was
replaced by the raion and nadraion.3 In spring 1945, the Peremyshl okruha became
the First OUN Okruha of the Zakerzon krai.
The First Okruha consisted of
three nadraions: the "Kholodnyi Iar" nadraion, which included the Peremyshl
region and had five raions, one of which was inactive; the "Beskyd" nadraion,
which had eight raions (until September 1946); and the "Verkhovyna" nadraion,
which had two raions. The latter was formed in autumn 1946 from the seventh and
eighth raions of the "Beskyd" nadraion and it existed only briefly, for less
than 11 months. The table below shows the organizational structure of the
Zakerzon krai in 1947.
Later in this volume, we provide detailed
information on the nadraions, their personnel and their functions. We also
provide the organizational structure of the "Beskyd" nadraion, based on
available information, and the underground codenames for individual raions,
kushchs (village groups) and villages that were developed by the organizational
section head, "Ostap".4 This is interesting because there were attempts to give
codenames to all localities, although it was never done for the entire
Lemkivshchyna region. However, the codenames do not appear to have been widely
used. For example, they are not found in most of the materials published in this
volume. It is, however possible, that the codenames were used in reports and
other materials which have not yet been discovered, so we are publishing them in
case they may be useful to some future researcher.
The materials
published in this volume come from various sources and their content completes
that of Vol. 33 of Litopys UPA - "UPA 26 Military District "Lemko":
Lemkivshchyna and Peremyshl Region." Some of the documents were obtained from
the ZCh OUN, the ZP UHVR archive and the private collection of Stepan Golash
("Mar"). Copies of all documents signed by Myroslav Onyshkevych, with the
notation "znaleziono u mnie," were obtained from the Archive of Poland's
Security Department and are part of the Peter J. Potichnyj Collection on
Ukrainian Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency housed at the University of Toronto.
For each of these documents, we indicate the box or microfilm number in the
collection. Most of the photographs in the book came from the private collection
of Dr. Modest Ripeckyi, while the rest were obtained from other individuals.
The documents in this volume are organized by territory - Lemkivshchyna
region and Peremyshl region. The first group also includes information
pertaining to the Western Lemkivshchyna region. The part of the volume covering
the Peremyshl region also contains some reports relating to the part of the
Peremyshl povit that entered into the Second OUN Okruha "Baturyn". The third and
shortest part of the volume consists of instructions from the Zakerzon krai
leader, Iaroslav Starukh ("Stiah", "Stoiar", "Iarlan", "h") and other materials.
The instructions relate to various underground matters, such as refraining from
the selection of disgraceful pseudonyms, using explosives, documenting the
liberation struggle, security problems, seeding operations, etc. Also published
here is the "OUN Appeal to Deportees" and a Pastoral Letter from the bishops of
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church imprisoned in Siberia.
The materials
provide a very interesting overview of the difficult conditions in which the
Ukrainian population of this territory lived in 1945-1947. Constant terror,
persecution, plunder and killings, not only by Polish civilian bands, but also
the Polish nationalist underground and especially, the country's communist
authorities, made life for Ukrainians almost unbearable. However, they fought
for their right to live on their ancestral lands and were not ready to abandon
them voluntarily. Only through brutality and force was it possible to remove
them from their land. Those responsible for this situation were the communist
dictators in Moscow and Warsaw. The Ukrainian underground, which conducted the
liberation struggle, made every possible effort to defend the Ukrainian
population. The reports published here document the tragedy experienced by the
Ukrainian people and the heroic battle waged in their defense.
The
materials collected in this volume give an extensive, although incomplete,
picture of the organization and activity of the underground network on this
territory. The territory's clear organizational and administrative structure,
the staffing of positions of leadership, the accountability and reporting
relationships, the accurate and regular reports and the well-developed courier
service all show that the underground was relatively well organized and fully
able to perform the work of providing rear support to the armed UPA units
operating in this underground okruha. The Instructions of the Zakerzon krai
leader, Iaroslav Starukh, demon strate the care with which the underground
leadership monitored events in the field and the attention they gave to the
reports from all their organizational units.
Two types of reports are
presented in this volume: "Visti z terenu" (News from the Field), which provided
general information on events occurring within the territory, and "Informatyvni
zvity" (Information Reports) or "Politychni zvity" (Political Reports), which
served an organizational purpose and provided an analytical look at situations
and events. In some raions, especially at the beginning of 1945, the raion level
general reports were called "Perehliad podii" (Overview of Events), while the
others were called "Orhaniza tsiini zvity" (Organizational Reports). In addition
to these reports, every raion and nadraion leader was obliged to provide
detailed reports about particularly significant event, such as Polish Army (WP)
actions, terrorist actions against Ukrainians, or punitive actions by the UPA.
These special reports are published in this volume under the title "Pol's'ki
aktsii" (Polish Actions).
Unfortunately, we were not able to find
reports from the kushch level. Only two brief reports are given here for
informational purposes. As we see from their content, the quality of these
reports depended on the educational level of the reporter, which was usually not
high.
The SB section heads also provided reports, but these, especially
if they were not operational reports, were not disseminated outside the section.
This volume provides two such general reports, "News from the Field - "Kholodnyi
Iar nadraion", written by nadraion SB section head "Potap", and "The Destruction
of the Hospital on Khreshchata", by nadraion SB section head "Horyslav - Olen".
Other materials published here include the Pastoral Letter written in
1945 by Ukrainian Catholic bishops in Siberia, which was widely disseminated in
the Zakerzon krai.
Input of these materials on the computer was done by
Ivan Lyko, for which we thank him. He also made corrections to the text, which
are indicated in the notes, and prepared the summary for translation into
English. Dr. Modest Ripeckyj provided us with his collection of photographs from
the "Beskyd" nadraion and his group's raid to West Germany. We thank him, as
well as the members of the editorial board, Dr. Bohdan Kruk and Iryna Kaminska,
for additions and corrections to the text. We also thank Mykola Kulyk for
administrative assistance.
Petro J. Potichnyj
Ivan Lyko
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