чищені терену», тобто остаточній ліквідації відділів УПА, виловлю-ванню селян, що уникли депортації. Депортація супроводжувала-The activity of the Ukrainian national liberation movement was strongly opposed by the occupa-ся масовими репресіями, а для покарань підпільників та цивільних
tional regimes. Actions by the German punitive structures and the occupational administration при оперативній групі «Вісла» у травні почав діяти військово-against the Ukrainian underground in 1943—1944 were a logical continuation of the 1941—1942
польовий суд. Засуджених відправляли до концтабору «Явожно»
repressions against Ukrainian nationalists. In October 1942, the Germans clashed for the fi rst (всього 364 особи, з них 173 страчено). Після завершення акції по-time with organized Ukrainian military units which operated primarily in Volyn. Up to March 1943, ляки створили оперативну групу «Татри», яка зайнялася виключ-German anti-insurgent policy had no systematic character. However after the number of attacks но веденням бойових дій проти знесилених залишків повстанських
on the German administration began occurring more frequently and acts of sabotage directed відділів та підпілля.
towards the destruction of transportation network increased with lightning speed, after the in-Протягом акції «Вісла» було виселено 140575 українців, зазнали
surgents began to interfere with the delivery of food supplies and interfere with deportations тяжких, непоправних втрат повстанці. Частина боєздатних відділів
of Ukrainians for forced labor to Germany and after they prevented the formation of additional УПА прорвалися із боями через кордон на територію УРСР, де про-Ukrainian auxiliary police groups — the German invaders began thinking over the necessity of con-довжували діяти. Інші рейдом відійшли в американську зону окупа-ducting a well-planned operation against the Ukrainian national underground. The fi nal event that ції Німеччини. Тому після загибелі провідника ОУН Закерзонського
launched a large-scale anti-insurgent operation occurred when Viktor Lutze, Obergrupenfuhrer краю Ярослава Старуха — ‘Стяга’ у жовтні 1947 р. командир ВО
SA (assault troops of the Nazi party) was killed in an ambush by UPA. In the summer of 1943 in
«Сян» Мирослав Онишкевич віддав наказ про демобілізацію вцілі-Volyn under the command of the Police General Obergrupenfuhrer SS von dem Bach-Zalewski, лих відділів УПА, звільняючи їх від присяги. Таким чином тут було
the invaders carried out an extensive operation against the UPA using 10,000 soldiers and police-припинено діяльність масового збройного руху. Хоча й після цього
men, 50 tanks and 27 planes. The Germans conducted 75 large-scale battles against UPA in which тут діяла підпільна мережа ОУН, яка утримувала та обслуговувала
they killed 1,237 Ukrainian soldiers and offi cers, about 5,000 civilians and lost more than 3,000
зв’язкові лінії підпілля на території УРСР із західним світом.
soldiers and offi cers. However, these operations did not yield the desired effect. On the contrary, Антиповстанська боротьба в 1940—50-х рр., що провадила-they stimulated a more rapid expansion of the UPA and the spreading of their ideas among the ся проти визвольного руху Третім Райхом, Радянським Союзом та
population. The Ukrainian underground in Galicia confronted the well-organized German opposi-Польщею, набула запеклого, антигуманного характеру. Вона су-tion only by the end of summer and autumn 1943 when units of the UNS carried out a number of проводжувалася страшними стражданнями населення, репресіями
operations against the Nazi occupational administration and police units. German attacks were та злочинами, нехтуванням елементарних норм міжнародного пра-primary directed towards UNS training camps in the Carpathians. The largest German operations ва. Окупаційні режими не гребували у ліквідації опору найпідступ-were conducted in the mountains near Stanislav. However, unfamiliarity with the territory, diffi cult нішими методами, які в цілому характерні для всіх окупантів.
natural conditions and lack of anti-insurgent experience doomed the German punitive actions to Злочинна політика й дії, здійснені нацистами та комуністами, failure. Final attempts to suppress the Ukrainian liberation movement in Galicia and seize control призвели до ліквідації збройного руху опору, але вони не могли
over the situation were made in October—December 1943, but they also were unsuccessful.
знищити ідеї боротьби за незалежність і свободу українського на-From the beginning of 1944, the Soviets also waged an active war against the UPA. From 1942 to роду.
1944 its fi rst manifestation was the activity of the Red partisans. Soviet units received orders to destroy the UPA and to create their own agent network within the nationalist underground so to destroy it from the inside. Beginning in 1944, the Soviet regime launched a large-scale assault Вояки УПА із сотні команди-against the Ukrainian underground in several directions: propaganda among the population; mil-ра ‘Скуби’. Коломийщина.
itary-operational actions against the members and supporters of OUN-UPA; repressions against members of the insurgent movement and their families. Soviet anti-insurgent propaganda was concentrated on discrediting and dividing the national liberation movement. Soviet propaganda emphasized their thesis on the treason and crimes of «Ukrainian-German nationalists « and their collaboration with «fascist invaders».
Military-operational actions and repressions against civilians played a key role in the destruction of the Ukrainian underground. From 1944 through the 1950’s, the Soviet military leadership developed organizational principles of waging war against the Ukrainian underground. At fi rst, frontal parts of the Red Army were directed against the UPA and against members and supporters of the underground — units of SMERSH (counter-intelligence units of the Red Army). However, as the front moved west these functions were transferred initially to the rear parts of the Red Army and later on to NKVD forces.
In 1944—1945 the NKVD carried out 26,693 operations against the Ukrainian underground. According to NKVD data, these actions resulted in the deaths of 22,474 Ukrainian soldiers and the capture of 62,142. During this time, in order to destroy the Ukrainian underground as quickly as possible, the notorious NKVD special groups (spetshrupy) were formed. They were initially made up of Soviet partisans but with time recruited Ukrainian resistance members. In August 1944 for the organization of these special groups, the Sydir Kovpak partisan division was placed under NKVD authority. The ultimate goal of these spetshrupy was to discredit and disorganize the OUN
and the UPA. Posing as Ukrainian insurgents, members of these spetshrupy used violence against the population of Western Ukraine. In June 1945, 156 spetshrupy numbering 1783 people operated in western regions of the Ukrainian SSR.
Also in 1944—1945, Soviet punitive bodies used «extermination battalions» (strybky) and an agent network in their war against the Ukrainian resistance. The formation of the latter was the primary task of NKVD. For gathering information, the NKVD recruited secret collaborators in each population point. At the same time, the agent network developed within the Ukrainian underground. The 308
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NKVD tried to place their agents at all leading levels of the OUN and the UPA. By the end of commander of military district «Sian» Myroslav Onyshkevych — ‘Orest’ gave the order to 1945, the agent network was well-developed and played a key role in the next stage of the disband the last remaining units of the insurgent army.
war against the Ukrainian national liberation movement from 1946 through the 1950’s.
The war against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nation-In mid-1945, the OUN and the UPA changed their tactics and started operating in small alists carried out in the 1940’s and 1950’s by totalitarian regimes was well-planned and armed groups-bojivkas, and the Soviet punitive system reacted accordingly. Next the extremely brutal. Opponents of the Ukrainian national liberation movement tried to use all NKVD and the MGB (Ministry of State Security) began their military-chekist operations.
possible means to destroy the aspirations of Ukrainians to gain independence, and this. All From December 1945 to February 1946, during the so-called «Great Blockade», they car-possible repressions and forceful methods were used against the Ukrainian underground.
ried out 15,562 such operations. As a result over 4,200 Ukrainian insurgents were killed The main principles of the anti-insurgent war of the Third Reich, the USSR, Poland and and more than 9,400 people were arrested. 130 armed formations of the Ukrainian un-Czechoslovakia were: collective responsibility towards the entire population of Western derground ceased to exist. However, future massive punitive operations did not have the Ukraine; priority of violence and cruelty; skilled agent activity; concentration on destroy-expected results. The Ukrainian liberation movement adjusted to the new conditions, and ing the Ukrainian political elite. However, the crimes committed by Nazi and communist in 1947 completely moved into underground activities. All actions carried out by the NKVD, regimes against Ukrainians and their aspirations to independence did not prevent realiza-the MGB (Ministry of State Security) and the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) were dition of the dream of millions of Ukrainian freedom fi ghters. On the contrary, they proved rected towards the complete destruction of all traces of the Ukrainian underground. Their that it was impossible to destroy an idea that was sacred for the entire nation.
ultimate objective was the liquidation or arrest of the Ukrainian liberation movement leaders. On March 5 1950, during a special MVD operation, the UPA Supreme Commander, General Roman Shukhevych was killed and on May 24 1954 his successor General Vasyl Kuk was taken prisoner. In the following years, Soviet authorities carried out fi nal operations towards destroying the Ukrainian underground.
From 1944 to 1953, the Soviets killed 153,000 and arrested 134,000 members and supporters of the Ukrainian underground. At the same time, the totalitarian system took measures against the families of OUN and UPA members. From 1944 to 1953, 66,000 families (204,000 people) were forcefully deported from the western oblasts of the Ukrainian SSR to Siberia and to the northern USSR. So for participating or supporting the national liberation movement close to a half million people were subject to repressions.
From 1944 through the 1950’s, the war against the Ukrainian national liberation movement spread not only over the territory of Soviet-controlled Western Ukraine, but also to neighboring communist satellite-states of Poland and Czechoslovakia. The anti-insurgent war launched by communist Poland in Zakherzonnia (Ukrainian ethnographic territory annexed by Poland following Soviet-Polish treaties of 1944—1945) had somewhat of a different character. First of all, special attention was paid to the ethnic question. The OUN
and the UPA actively interfered with the deportation of the native Ukrainian population to Soviet Ukraine as was agreed to by Soviet-Polish agreements. Initially units of the Polish army were unprepared for anti-partisan activity against the UPA and as a result, all their actions were unsuccessful. However, beginning with September 1945 when the basic phase of Ukrainian deportations began, Polish authorities supported by the Soviet regime rebuilt its tactics. Specially trained divisions of the Polish army, civilian militia, Department of Internal Security and border protection troops were sent against the Ukrainian underground. The immediate goal of Polish punitive bodies was to deport Ukrainians and thus deprive the OUN and the UPA of bases for further activity in the region. During the autumn of 1945 and the summer of 1946, Polish authorities managed to forcefully deport more than 450,000 people. The deportations took place amidst constant battles with UPA units and self-defense groups. Finally, in the autumn of 1946, the Polish side caused signifi cant losses among the members of the Ukrainian movement and won. But the Ukrainian insurgents were not totally destroyed because they switched to underground methods of war-fare. At the end of 1946 the Polish leadership set as its goal to deport to the western areas of Poland those Ukrainians who had managed to avoid the previous wave of deportations.
At the same time it was decided to destroy the Ukrainian underground completely. In April 1947, the anti-insurgent operation was ready for implementation. The immediate cause for its realization was the assassination of the Polish Vice-minister of Defense, Colonel-General Karol Swierczewski in an ambush by UPA companies ‘Khrin’ and ‘Stakh’ on April, 28th, 1947. That very day Polish authorities passed the resolution to begin the operation
«Visla» headed by Major-General Stefan Mossor.
Operation «Visla» offi cially lasted from April, 28th to July, 28th, 1947. It was carried out with the assistance of USSR and Czechoslovak border troops that blocked the Polish borders, making the movement of UPA units impossible. The basic tactics of the operational groups in their war against the Ukrainian underground was the pursuit and blockade of UPA. During this operation, armies of the operative group deported 140,575 Ukrainians; killed 53 and captured 792 OUN and UPA members. In the autumn of 1947, Polish authorities managed to completely destroy the Ukrainian underground. When in October 1947, the OUN leader of Zakherzonnia, Yaroslav Starukh — ‘Stiah’ was killed in a round-up, the 310
