Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)

HMMMMMMMM......... :eatpopcorn:

 

Well, since no additional info has been added re the UPA to correct the errors in the original posing I will give it a try.

First off, I must say that unfortunately most of the documentation available on the inmternet is in Ukrainian, but there is some in English.

Here are some english language links on UPA:

This one relates to a series of books, mostly documents/ archives. I have read all 30+ and they are very informative. The content is in Ukrainian but there are summaries here

http://www.infoukes.com/upa/



The archive mentioned below is very complete. I have been to Toronto to access it

http://www.infoukes.com/upa/related/pjpc.html

http://www.infoukes.com/upa/related/poltho.html

Here is another link to Ukrainian history during WW2:

http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/

One on various military units

http://www.infoukes.com/upa/related/military.html

Soviet Counter insurgency

http://www.infoukes.com/upa/related/uf.html


Hope this helps as a starting point to learning a bit of truth about UPA. Keep in mind that the USSR has been working its propaganda machine for almost 70 years about the UPA, so there is a lot of disinformation out there.

At the same time, I will say that I am sure that a few individuals, during war did things that in hind sight we would consider wrong. That does not make an entire nation, or the UPA evil.

The Ukrainian Secret Service, or CBY, has been working to research the archives of the former Soviet Ukraine and KGB to illuminate the truth about the UPA, and a number of books and articles have been published in Ukrainian in the last few years. I am currently trying to get a hold of copies of some of these.

Regards

Toshu

 

Thanks!! At last someone provides some alternate information rather then just saying it's propaganda.

 

No Offense but I would distrust a Russian version of Wiki even more the the original one for the exact same reasons.

 

Aa a follow up to my previous post, here is a link to a news release by the Secret Service of Ukraine, discussing the history of the UPA as based on archival documentation from the Soviet era that is now available. It debunks some of the major propaganda by the Soviet/Russian

Ukrainian and World News: SBU reveals facts denying cooperation between Ukrainian Insurgent Army and fascists

Regards

Toshu

 

Dateline: History of the OUN - UPA​

​

1914 – First World War breaks out, with eastern Ukraine being part of the Tsarist Russian Empire and western Ukraine part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

1918 – On January 22, an independent Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) is established in eastern Ukraine and on November 1, an independent Western Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR) in western Ukraine

1919 – On January 22, the Act of Unification (Akt Zluky) merges the WUNR with the UNR into a unitary state; the united UNR experiences a period of independence from Soviet Russia in the east and Poland in the west

1919 – On June 26, the Treaty of Versailles recognizes the annexation of Ukrainian territories by its neighbours: Soviet Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Hungary

1920 – Ukraine loses its war for independence (1917-1920) and the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), an underground revolutionary organization, is formed in July by officers of defeated Ukrainian armies

1921 – On March 18, the Peace Treaty of Riga (Latvia) partitions most of Ukraine and Belarus between Poland and Soviet Russia

1922 – Eastern Ukraine, proclaimed by the Communist Party on December 24-25, 1917 as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR), becomes part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on December 30

1923 – Conference of Ambassadors, representing the major Entente powers, recognizes the Polish occupation of western Ukraine on March 12

1926 – Symon Petliura, head of the government of the Ukrainian National Republic, is assassinated on May 25 in Paris by Soviet agent Shalom Schwartzbard

1929 – Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), a political and revolutionary movement dedicated to the re-establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, is founded on January 28 – February 3 in Vienna; the UVO merges with the OUN; Colonel Yevhen Konovalets is elected head of the OUN

1930 – Polish leader Marshal Jozef Pilsudski orders massive repressive measures (September – November), called “the Pacification,” against the Ukrainian population in so-called “eastern Galicia” (western Ukraine); as Polish policies of repression against Ukrainians reach their critical mass, so do the revolutionary activities of the OUN, bordering on open insurgency in the 1930s, which finally erupts on the eve of WWII; “the Pacification” gains worldwide attention, and the issue is raised at the League of Nations in 1931

1932 – On July 25, Polish leader Marshal Jozef Piłsudski signs a non-aggression pact with Stalin’s Soviet Union

1933 – Soviet envoy Alexei Mailov is assassinated by the OUN on October 21 in Lviv in order to draw international attention to the Famine Genocide of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine, called the Holodomor (murder by hunger)

1934 – On January 26, Polish leader Marshal Jozef Pilsudski signs a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany

1934 – Polish Minister of Internal Affairs Bronislaw Pieracki is assassinated by the OUN on June 15 for his role in “the Pacification “

1935 – Polish leader Marshal Jozef Piłsudski dies on May 12; as a consequence, messages of condolence arrive in Poland from heads of state around the world, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito and King George V; among the foreign dignitaries attending the funeral are French Prime Minister Pierre Laval and Germany’s Air Marshal Hermann Goering; Pope Pius XI holds a special ceremony at the Vatican, a commemoration is conducted at the headquarters of the League of Nations in Geneva, and a memorial service is held in Berlin with Germany’s Fuehrer Adolf Hitler in attendance

· On the 60th anniversary of Pilsudski’s death (May 12, 1995), democratic Poland’s parliament (Sejm) adopts the following resolution: “Jozef Piłsudski will remain in our nation’s memory, for he is the founder of its independence and the victorious leader who fended off a foreign assault that threatened the whole of Europe and its civilization. Jozef Piłsudski served his country well and has entered our history forever”

1935 – Head of the OUN Col. Yevhen Konovalets presents a memorandum to the British authorities on June 4 seeking support for the Ukrainian cause; the memorandum states: “We, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, are fighting for the total independence of Ukraine. Presently, we are actively challenging all foreign occupiers of Ukrainian lands, and although we consider Russia to be the main occupier, we shall, nevertheless, also challenge any unilateral attempts of foreign invaders to solve the affairs of Eastern Europe without the participation, or against the will, of the Ukrainian people”


1935 - 1936 – Stepan Bandera, the head of the OUN’s Home Executive in Ukraine, and twenty-eight other leading OUN members stand trial in Warsaw (November 18, 1935 – January 13, 1936) and Lviv (May 25, 1936 – June 27, 1936) for their revolutionary activities

1938 – OUN leader Col. Yevhen Konovalets is assassinated on May 23 in Rotterdam by Soviet agent Pavel Sudoplatov

1938 – In the Fall, Hitler, with Hungary’s and Poland’s support, creates an international crisis over Czechoslovakia; the Munich Conference of September 30 hands over to Nazi Germany those areas of Bohemia and Moravia, settled by Germans; under pressure, the Czechoslovak government cedes the Teschen (Cieszyn) district to Poland; the southern region of Slovakia, as well as Carpathian Ukraine, are transferred to Hungary

1939 – Carpathian Ukraine declares independence on March 15; Rev. Augustyn Voloshyn becomes president; Hitler permits fascist Hungary to invade the fledgling state, securing Hungarian support for his aggression against Czechoslovakia, and signalling to Moscow that Germany will not support any Ukrainian attempt to secure independence; the OUN sends men to defend the republic; Carpathian Ukraine becomes the first state to resist Hitler’s plans to rearrange the map of Eastern Europe by force of arms

1939 – In June–July, the Committee of Poles of the Eastern Borderland (that is, western Ukraine) widely circulates an appeal - simply entitled “Poles!” - among the Polish minority of western Ukraine; the document explains that the confrontation between Poles and Ukrainians is caused by the policies of successive Polish governments; it urges the Polish community to reconcile and come to terms with the Ukrainians

· Background of this appeal: Between 1919 and 1938, some 300,000 Polish colonists are resettled from Poland to western Ukraine – many of them army veterans; Ukrainian churches, schools, community centres, libraries and businesses are closed or destroyed, and many organizations and learning institutions are banned, along with the use of the Ukrainian language in government offices; in the early 1930s over 100,000 Ukrainians are imprisoned for opposing Polish rule or for OUN membership; of the over 8,000 prisoners who die, over 730 are killed without a trial, and over 250 are executed; in 1934, 65% of the population of the Bereza Kartuzka concentration camp consists of OUN members; of a total of 330 jails in the Polish state, 187 are located in western Ukraine

1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on August 23 and start World War II with Germany attacking Poland on September 1; the Soviet Union joins Germany in its invasion of the Polish state; subsequently, Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Treaty of Friendship and Borders on September 28, dividing Europe into spheres of influence; the Polish state is partitioned, and western Ukraine is integrated into the Ukrainian SSR as part of the Soviet Union

· On the eve of World War II, estimates of OUN strength range as high as 20,000 members; the OUN is active on all occupied Ukrainian territories, as well as Europe, the Americas, and even the Far East

1940 – OUN splits into two factions; this results in a revolutionary OUN(B) led by Stepan Bandera and a more conservative OUN(M) led by Col. Andriy Melnyk

1939 -1941 – Soviet occupation of western Ukraine brings about the first reign of terror, where the number of Ukrainians killed or deported by July 1941 ranges as high as 500,000; the OUN suffers a large number of casualties in its struggle against Soviet power, but shows an astonishing ability to regenerate its potential with new cadres

1941 – As the German-Soviet war breaks out on June 22, the OUN(B) presents a memorandum on June 23 to the German government stating that the aim of the organization is to establish a sovereign Ukrainian state on all Ukrainian territories presently occupied by the Soviet Union; moreover, the OUN(B) demands that the interests of the Ukrainian people be respected, and warns that even if German troops are welcomed in Ukraine as liberators from Bolshevism, “this attitude could quickly change if Germany enters Ukraine without the intention of re-establishing an independent Ukrainian state…”

1941 – OUN(B) insurgents stage uprisings against Soviet rule, and in direct violation of Nazi plans, establish control over 187 out of 200 districts in western Ukraine, and 26 districts in eastern Ukraine; on the heels of the advancing German army, the OUN(B) sends task groups totalling 7000 members to all regions of Ukraine to promote the re-establishment of Ukrainian statehood; elements of these task groups even reach the Ukrainian-populated Kuban region in the Caucasus

1941 – Following the Soviet withdrawal from Lviv, the National Assembly of representatives of Ukrainian society, including Church leaders, is convened by the OUN(B) on June 30; the Assembly issues a proclamation declaring the re-establishment of Ukrainian statehood; leading OUN member Yaroslav Stetsko is appointed head of the provisional government pending the establishment of a central Ukrainian government in Kyiv; the Germans are taken aback by this declaration, and view the proclamation as an attempt to present the German authorities with a fait accompli ; Germany demands that the OUN(B) rescind its proclamation of statehood; OUN(B) leaders Bandera and Stetsko refuse and are arrested, taken to Berlin, and then sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp; members of the Ukrainian provisional government and OUN(B) leadership are subsequently arrested, shot, or sent to concentration camps

1941– On July 30, the head of the Polish government-in-exile, Wladyslaw Sikorski, signs an agreement of alliance with the Soviet Union in the war against Germany; both sides, however, consider the western Ukrainian territories as their own

1941-1942 – As hopes for Germany’s support of Ukrainian national aspirations are dashed, and relations between the OUN(B) and the German authorities radically deteriorate, Nazi Activity and Situation Reports from Ukraine state:

· “In the course of the proclamation of independence [ on June 30, 1941], the administrative departments (mayors, district leaders) were arbitrarily installed in many towns without the approval of German authorities. Presently, the Einsatzkommandos are constantly engaged in the dissolution of the so-called public services created by the OUN, and in the dissolution of a newly formed militia.” (Report № 1 of the Einsatsgruppen of the Security Police and the SD, Berlin, July 31, 1941)

· “The activities of the western Ukrainian Bandera group have an increasingly detrimental effect on the remaining Ukrainian regions...They present an acute danger to German interests, both at the present time and in the future. Appropriate defense measures have been taken.” (Report № 4 of the Einsatzgruppen of the Secret Police and the SD, September 1–15, 1941)

· On November 25, 1941 the Einsatzkommando C/5 issues an order to its units stating: “It has been established with certainty that the Bandera movement is preparing an uprising in the Reichskommissariat, whose ultimate objective is to create an independent Ukraine. All functionaries of the Bandera movement are to be immediately arrested and after thorough interrogation, secretly executed as marauders.” (International Military Tribunal, Proceedings, Nuremberg, 1949, vol.39, Document 014-USSR, №7, pp. 269-270)

· “Today, it has been clearly established that the Bandera movement is providing forged passports not only for its own members, but also for Jews.” (Report on Events in the USSR № 187, Berlin, March 30, 1942)

· “All comrades and members of the OUN must be more careful because mass arrests are expected. Do not allow yourself to be arrested. Try to escape. Those who have been arrested must not admit that they belong to the OUN. No one is permitted to cooperate with the Gestapo; this is a hostile act against Ukraine. German-Ukrainian events must be boycotted. Any collaboration with the occupying forces is high treason and is punishable by death.” (From a captured OUN(B) directive. Report № 20 from the Occupied Eastern Regions; Berlin, September 11, 1942)

· “The Bandera group should still be considered the most radical Ukrainian independence movement. Previously, propaganda was circulated in Western and Central Ukraine. This activity is gradually spreading to the remaining Ukrainian territories. Hostility toward the Germans is particularly prevalent among the Bandera followers. They have already stressed several times the need to throw the Germans out of the country.” (Report № 21 from the Occupied Eastern Regions; Berlin, September 18, 1942)

As the Ukrainian-Nazi conflict intensifies, thousands of OUN members are killed or sent to concentration camps

1942-1943 – OUN(B) insurgent units and other independent guerilla groups merge into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which by 1944 becomes an active combat force 40,000 strong, organized along regular military lines with a military command structure; the UPA’s area of regular operations comprises one quarter of Ukrainian ethnic territory, while its tactical units penetrate deep into eastern Ukraine, including the Ukrainian-populated Kuban region in the Caucasus; as the number of UPA non-Ukrainian personnel grows, among them Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Georgians, Tatars, Jews, Russians, and even German deserters, the more numerous of these groups are organized into separate units

· In its ten years (1942–1952) of open insurgency operations, hundreds of thousands of insurgents pass through OUN–UPA ranks as members of the regular UPA forces, the “Armed Underground,” the “Self-defense Units,” and various support structures

1943 – OUN(B)’s Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly (August 21-25) condemns “internationalist and fascist Nazi programs and political concepts,” as well as “Russian-Bolshevik communism,” and recommits itself to the struggle against both the Nazis and the Soviets

1943 – Recognizing the importance of Ukraine’s national aspirations, the OUN(B) and the UPA convene the Conference of the Oppressed Nations of Eastern Europe and Asia on November 21-22; the Conference is attended by representatives of thirteen nationalities, who resolve to support each other’s liberation struggles

1943 – One of the largest military confrontations between the UPA and the Germans takes place from July to September; the German forces are commanded by SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who would later suppress the Warsaw Uprising in 1944; to this battle the Germans commit ten battalions of motorized SS troops with heavy weapons and artillery, 10,000 German and Polish police units, two regiments of the Hungarian army, three battalions of Russian Cossacks, organized from Soviet prisoners of war, fifty tanks, twenty-seven aircraft, and five armoured trains; despite this commitment of resources by the Nazis, the operation is largely a failure

During this year, the UPA establishes its control over the countryside in the Volyn region, having to leave only the major towns in German hands; at the same time it clears much of the region of Soviet partisans and expands its power base southward and eastward

1942-1944 – In 1942, the OUN(B) declares its policy of conciliation with all forces except the Soviets and the Nazis, and states its support for the right of the Polish people to their own independent state; the Polish government-in-exile in London insists that the Ukrainian provinces of Galicia and Volyn be reincorporated into the Polish state after the war; Polish actions against the Ukrainian population begin as early as mid-1942; in February 1943 Moscow creates Polish units within the Soviet partisan movement to operate in western Ukraine against the Germans and the UPA; Polish auxiliary police in German service join the anti-Ukrainian campaign; the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa), on orders from the Polish government-in-exile, prepares the operation code-named “Storm” (Burza) in early 1944, intended to seize western Ukrainian territories, including the city of Lviv, to present the advancing Soviets with a fait accompli in the hope that the said territories would again become part of the Polish state after the war; the OUN and the UPA are left with no choice but to fight against the Poles as well; this renewed Ukrainian-Polish stand-off results in a bloody conflict with tens of thousands of casualties on both sides; this issue is finally put to rest in 2003 with the Polish and Ukrainian governments issuing statements of mutual forgiveness for the violence in that conflict and resolutions of reconciliation

1943-1944 – In their propaganda war against the Ukrainian liberation movement, the Nazis call the members of the OUN-UPA “agents of Moscow” and the OUN-UPA a “tool of Jewish Bolshevism”, while the Soviet side calls the members of the OUN-UPA “despicable German hirelings” and “Hitlerite servants;” this is additional evidence that testifies to the self-reliance of the Ukrainian liberation movement

1943 – On May 2, the UPA ambushes the convoy of Nazi General Viktor Lutze, chief of the SA (Sturmabteilung – Storm Troopers); Lutze perishes in the ensuing firefight

1944 – On March 19, the UPA ambushes and destroys the convoy of Soviet General Nikolai Vatutin, who later dies from his wounds

1944 – To provide a broad political and social base for armed resistance against both the German and Soviet occupational forces, the OUN(B) and the UPA establish the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR) on July 11-15 with representatives from most regions of Ukraine and former Ukrainian political parties; the UHVR serves as a provisional government expressing the political will of the insurgency movement; Kyrylo Osmak, a civic leader from Kyiv, is elected president of the UHVR; the commander-in-chief of the UPA General Roman Shukhevych is elected as the UHVR’s secretary-general and secretary for military affairs

1944 – In April, the single largest battle between 30,000 NKVD troops and 5,000 UPA fighters takes place at Hurby, near the city of Kremianets in the Volyn region in northwestern Ukraine

1944-1945 – In the Winter of 1944-1945, the Soviet NKVD conducts the first large-scale offensive against the UPA forces in the Carpathian region with limited results

1945 – The so-called Curzon Line is accepted as the new Polish-Soviet border at the Yalta Conference of the “Big Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) held on February 4-11; the new border is confirmed on August 16 by a treaty between the Soviet Union and Poland; as a result, approximately 19,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian ethnic territory are annexed to the post-war Polish state

1945 – World War II ends on May 8-9; Ukraine’s losses in the war unleashed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are 10,000,000 killed, of whom 4,100,000 are military, including the combat losses suffered by the OUN-UPA, and 5,900,000 are civilian; some millions more are lost through deportations, exile and displacement, raising the total demographic losses suffered by Ukraine to 13,500,000; Ukraine suffers the greatest losses of human life of all the combatant nations in WWII

1945-1946 – Trial of major war criminals (Nuremberg, November 14, 1945 – October 1, 1946) takes place before the International Military Tribunal; the Tribunal’s materials (42 volumes) never mention any criminal act committed by the OUN-UPA, or by any of the OUN-UPA’s leaders

1946 – First wave of forced deportation to the Soviet Union of Ukrainians from their ancestral territories annexed to Poland is completed: between October 1944 and June 1946, up to 500,000 Ukrainians are forcibly resettled

1946 – From January to April, Moscow launches the “Great Blockade” against the UPA in the Carpathian region of Ukraine; special NKVD troops are stationed in villages and towns in areas where the UPA forces are active; a force of another 585,000 men is deployed on search and destroy missions; the UPA is engaged in some 1,500 battles, facing heavy artillery, armour, aircraft and even bacteriological warfare; in these battles the UPA loses up to forty percent of its fighting strength[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

1947 – In the Spring and Summer, communist Poland launches the second wave of deportations codenamed “Operation Wisla” to expel the remaining Ukrainian population from the ethnic Ukrainian southeastern area of the Polish state to the northern and western parts of the country (140,000 people are expelled); reason given: “To liquidate the remaining UPA forces in southeastern Poland, and to totally deport the Ukrainian population from the area”

1947 – Several UPA units are ordered to march across Czechoslovakia to West Germany in order to bear witness before the Free World about Ukraine’s liberation struggle

1950 – Commander-in-chief of the UPA Gen. Roman Shukhevych is killed on March 5 by Soviet security forces near Lviv; he is succeeded by Col. Vasyl Kuk

1956 – In October, UPA insurgents sabotage Soviet troop movements to help Hungary’s uprising against Soviet occupation

1959 – After five failed attempts on his life, OUN(B) leader Stepan Bandera is assassinated on October 15 in Munich by Soviet KGB agent Bohdan Stashynsky, and is buried there; the cause of death remains a mystery at the time

1959-1960 – On the eve of Stepan Bandera’s assassination, the Second Chief Directorate of the KGB of the Soviet Union launches its first international campaign to besmirch the OUN–UPA and it’s leaders, as well as the West German Minister for Displaced Persons, Тheodor Oberländer, by accusing them of committing war crimes in Lviv in July 1941 – the mass murder of Jews and the murder of Polish intellectuals; the Soviet provocation fails, due to the findings of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal (1945-1946) and contemporary official investigations and lawsuits (1959-1960), which clearly establish that the said crimes were committed by the German Security Service (SD), the Security Police, and the Einsatzkommando № 5

1960 – Last known armed engagement between OUN–UPA insurgents and the Soviet KGB takes place on April 14 in the Ternopil region, western Ukraine

1961-1962 – Soviet agent Bohdan Stashynsky defects to West Germany, stands trial for murder on October 8-19, 1962, and implicates the highest authorities of the Soviet Union in the assassination of OUN(B) leader Stepan Bandera

· The main leaders of Ukraine’s struggle for independence in the 20th century met violent deaths at the hands of the Soviet Union: Symon Petliura (France – 1926), Yevhen Konovalets (Holland – 1938), Rev. Augustyn Voloshyn (Soviet prison – 1946), Gen. Roman Shukhevych (Ukraine – 1950), Stepan Bandera (West Germany – 1959), Kyrylo Osmak (Soviet prison – 1960)[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

2007-2010 – Moscow and its supporters renew their international campaign to once again attempt to delegitimize the Ukrainian liberation movement, and through relentless political, economic and psychological pressure undermine Ukraine’s statehood and sovereignty, and tarnish the image of the Ukrainian people


Center for Research on the Liberation Movement (Lviv, Ukraine) and the
International Conference in Support of Ukraine (ICSU), 2010

For further information, please contact the ICSU at luc@lucorg.com in Canada
and at askold@trypilla.net in the United States.