Glorification of monsters: the chilling crimes of the OUN-UPA. Crimes of the OUN - UPA during the Great Patriotic War Crimes of the OUN - UPA documents

In recent decades, especially with the collapse of the Soviet Union, both in the West and in a number of states that emerged in the post-Soviet space, everything possible is being done to rehabilitate war criminals. The authorities of the Baltic countries and Ukraine have been particularly successful in this, encouraging the perpetuation of the memory of SS legionnaires and collaborators of other stripes who fought on the side of Nazi Germany.

With the coming to power of the Nazi-oligarchic regime in Kyiv, the rehabilitation of war criminals there reached new heights. Monuments are erected to the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) S. Bandera and the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) R. Shukhevych and their henchmen, streets and squares are named after them, and youth are educated by their example. On April 9 last year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law recognizing OUN-UPA militants as fighters for the independence of Ukraine in the twentieth century and granted them the right to social guarantees.

The junta’s attempts to pass off the punishers and murderers as fighters “for national independence” are accompanied by the humiliation of fellow citizens who fought in the Red Army and other formations on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, and the destruction of monuments to Soviet liberating soldiers. There is already a legislative basis for these actions - the now infamous law of Ukraine “On the condemnation of communist and national socialist totalitarian regimes and the ban on their propaganda.” The “Nezalezhnaya” authorities, who are so eager to join Europe, are not even embarrassed by the fact that, according to an assessment made in December 2015 by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, this law does not comply with European legislative standards.

Who is protected by the ideological structures of the new Kyiv regime in the person of the so-called Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and other similar bodies of “national unconsciousness”?

In April 1943, by decision of the German military authorities, the 14th SS Division “Galicia” was created, staffed mainly by ethnic Ukrainians. She began her bloody journey with battles in the Carpathians against partisans. After “Galicia” was thoroughly battered by the Red Army near Brody in the summer of 1944, destroying 7 out of 12 thousand of its personnel, the SS command moved the division to Slovakia, then to the Balkans, where it continued to fight against Yugoslav partisans and Soviet troops .

And if you look at the OUN and its armed formation, the UPA? Despite the fact that Ukrainian nationalists had occasion to clash with the Wehrmacht, their appearance during the Great Patriotic War was determined by close cooperation with the German Nazi regime and the fierce struggle against the Red Army and Soviet power, launched from the first days of the war. Just look at the instructions issued by the leadership of the OUN(b) in the spring of 1941, which directly stated: “Muscovites, Poles, Jews are national minorities hostile to us,” which must either be assimilated, isolated, or destroyed. The instructions proclaimed terror as the main method of implementing such a national policy.

The arrival in Lvov on June 30, 1941, together with German units of the OUN marching group under the leadership of Y. Stetsko, was marked by mass pogroms, during which, according to various sources, from 4 to 7 thousand people died. Among the punitive forces were soldiers of the Nachtigal battalion, formed by the Abwehr to act as part of the Brandenburg-800 sabotage unit, led by Shukhevych. The bloody trail of Bandera’s followers is also clear in the notorious Babi Yar near Kiev, which became a massacre in 1941-1943. the site of executions of at least 150 thousand civilians and prisoners of war.

In the territory occupied by the Germans, Bandera destroyed Poles, Jews, Belarusians, Gypsies, and Russians. Ukrainians suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet regime were not spared either. With the creation of the UPA in 1942, ethnic cleansing became widespread and systematic. And today these sadists and murderers are passed off as “heroes” of the “national liberation movement.”

Historians, including Russian ones, must take part of the blame for the current rampant behavior of collaborationist lawyers and the tolerant attitude of Ukrainian society. For too long, the criminal activities of the OUN-UPA were covered without proper systematicity and thoroughness, and only certain, most bloody pages of their history were made public. However, the all-out offensive of the Ukronazis must be countered by an equally decisive counter-offensive with the weapon of truth.

In this regard, we consider important the publication in 2015 by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation of a collection of documents “Liberation of Ukraine”, which tells about the true liberators of Ukraine from the German occupiers, and about those who are trying to pass themselves off as “liberators”. A significant section is devoted to the actions of the latter, which contains documents containing new and irrefutable facts of cooperation of the OUN-UPA with the Wehrmacht and the organizers of the Nazi occupation regime, the conduct of armed struggle by Ukrainian nationalists against the Red Army and their implementation of the most severe repressions against the civilian population.

Thus, the message of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR to the head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army dated January 19, 1942 refutes the theses of OUN-UPA lawyers that the latter fought for “independent Ukraine” equally with the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. What kind of independence from the Germans could we talk about if the German command - just six months after the start of the war - began creating a “Ukrainian army”. In Novograd-Volynsky, Zhitomir region, a special school was staffed from captured Red Army commanders. The occupation authorities also formed punitive detachments from people of Ukrainian nationality, including deserters and prisoners of war. Such detachments were tasked with fighting the growing partisan movement in the rear of German troops, “to catch and destroy persons undesirable to the German authorities.”

Currying favor with the bearers of the German “new order,” Bandera’s followers agreed to any provocation, often donning Red Army uniforms and posing as Soviet military units. Having gained the trust of people, having identified partisans, underground fighters, party and Komsomol activists, the punitive forces then mercilessly dealt with them. One of these atrocities was recorded in an act signed on April 11, 1944 by members of the special commission of the 1st Division of the 206th Guards Light Artillery Regiment and several surviving residents of the village of Nova-Brikula, Strusovsky district, Ternopil region. Here, at the hands of Bandera, dressed in Red Army uniforms, 115 local residents died in one day.

According to a memorandum from the head of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement T.A. Strokach to the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal G.K. Zhukov dated May 10, 1944, one can judge how widely the Bandera movement proliferated in Volyn under the auspices of the Nazis. Units of the Wehrmacht and German special services coordinated joint actions with the OUN members against the advancing Red Army, supplying them with weapons, ammunition, and food. As follows from the order of the regional guide of the OUN in the northwestern territories of D. Klyachkivsky (Klim Savur), intercepted by the partisans, all the efforts of the nationalists were directed against the Red Army and the Soviet partisans.

After the active army left the territory of Ukraine, beginning the liberation of Eastern Europe, the OUN-UPA intensified terror against civilians. Attacks on small garrisons, villages, individual military personnel and party and Soviet activists became more frequent. The philosophy of the killers is clearly conveyed by Shukhevych’s call to his fighters: “Do not intimidate, but exterminate! There is no need to be afraid that people will curse us for our cruelty. Even if half of the 40 million Ukrainian population remains, there is nothing terrible in that.” As we see, the fanatics of “Ukrainian integral nationalism” used weapons not only against “Muscovites, Poles and Jews”, but also against their fellow tribesmen, without looking at who fell under a bullet or an ax - an old man, a woman or an infant.

This case is mentioned, for example, in the report of the head of the political department of the Kiev Military District, Colonel Lukashuk, to the head of the Main Administration of the Red Army dated February 6, 1945, which provides details of a raid by a gang of 200 OUN-UPA militants on the regional center of Gorodnitsa, Zhitomir region. Bandera's troops exterminated many residents, including infants, and left behind ashes.

The political regime now established in Kyiv is doing its best to suppress this kind of facts and strives not only to whitewash, but also to glorify the punishers from among the Ukrainian nationalists. The publication of documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which was discussed above, is an important link in the chain of publications that should be undertaken in order to ensure that the crimes of the OUN-UPA against their own and other peoples become obvious even to the most stubborn people of little faith.

Deputies of the Ukrainian parliament supported in the first reading and in general the bill “On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the ban on the propaganda of their symbols.”

We are talking about a radical revision of the entire historical and cultural heritage of the 70-year history of Soviet Ukraine. At the same time, Rada deputies supported in the first reading and in general the bill “On the legal status and honoring the memory of participants in the struggle for the independence of Ukraine in the twentieth century.” Among the participants are the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The law provides for social guarantees, benefits or other payments to fighters for the independence of Ukraine and members of their families. And also responsibility for “disdainful attitude towards persons who are recognized as fighters for the independence of Ukraine.”

Damn Banderas!

Let us recall that attempts to legitimize Bandera’s supporters in Ukraine have been made before. But they met sharp resistance from the former “independence fighters” themselves. Thus, in 2006, the newspaper “Veteran of Ukraine” published a posthumous letter from a resident of Volyn, Nadezhda Timofeevna Vdovichenko, who admitted that she “took part in the Banderivshchina.” I recalled how they “walked and drove around the villages at night” with the task of “strangling the people who held Russian prisoners and the prisoners themselves.” The repentant letter ends with the following lines: “All my life I carried a heavy stone on my heart, but I believed so much in the Banderas. I could sell any person... And they are damned Banderas, and be damned by God and people forever and ever. How many people did they kill? And they also want to be equated with the belligerent side. And who did they fight with? With their neighbors, damned murderers. There is so much blood on their hands that I know how many wells are filled with corpses... Because of this, many people now do not want to return to that Bandera era. With tears, I beg you, people, to forgive me my sins.” The fact that Nadezhda Vdovichenko asked her friend to make this letter public only after her death speaks of the atmosphere in which a large part of modern Ukraine lived. After the decisions of the Rada, this stifling atmosphere of fear can take over the entire republic.

It must be said that the woman from Volyn who has regained her sight is not alone. Her fellow countryman, political scientist and publicist, Viktor Varfolomeevich Polishchuk (1925 - 2008) was born into an ethnically mixed family (father - Ukrainian, mother - Polish). In September 1939, when Soviet troops entered Western Ukraine, Victor's father was arrested by the NKVDists. Until now, nothing is known about his fate. Viktor Polishchuk with his mother and sisters was deported to Northern Kazakhstan. In 1944-46. worked in the Dnepropetrovsk region. In 1946 he left for Poland, and since 1981 he lived in Canada. In Toronto, he published a book with the telling title “Bitter Truth. Crimes of the OUN-UPA (Confession of a Ukrainian).” In the mid-90s, V. Polishchuk’s book was published in Ukrainian in Donetsk. In response to accusations of anti-patriotism, the author noted: “I am not blaming my people, but cleansing them of the filth that is the OUN-UPA.” Below we publish several fragments from Polishchuk’s book.

From eyewitness accounts and other materials, it is possible to reproduce the following course of events in Volyn and Galicia in 1941-45:

— The OUN, prepared in advance, simultaneously with the advance of German troops to the east, organized its own police to help the Germans;

The OUN sent its emissaries to Volyn, who, through propaganda and terror, forced many Ukrainian peasants of Volyn to take part in the robberies and brutal murders of the Polish civilian population;

The destruction was organized and pre-planned;

The murder of Poles was not the work of Ukrainians, as members of the nation, but of the OUN, as a Ukrainian criminal ideology and policy.

The racial "cleansing of the territory" approach used by the OUN was a crime. It was a consequence of the program settings of the OUN. "People! Know! Moscow, Poland, Madyari, Zhidva are Your enemies. Beggars! Lyakhivs, Jews, Communists are poor without mercy!.." (From the address of Stepan Bandera, distributed in Lvov since June 30, 1941. On this day OUN members adopted the “Act of Proclamation of the Ukrainian State.” Starting from July 30, “Galician folk festivities” took place in the city for three days in the form of a Jewish pogrom, the number of victims of which is estimated from 4 to 7 thousand people).

Total cleansing of the territory

Today, when the OUN shouts with all its might that it fought on two fronts - against the Nazis and against the Bolsheviks, the question arises: against whom did it actually fight? On this topic... Dr. Vladimir Kubiyovych, head of the UCC (Ukrainian Central Committee - a legal organization that operated during the fascist occupation, one of the founders of the OS "Galicia" division) spoke out: "We in the UCC called on our people to stand at their posts in committees, do not provoke the Germans and remember that an anti-German action helps the Bolsheviks." The OUN-UPA had enough common sense to realize its strength in comparison with the forces of Germany and the USSR in the war. In that war, a German army of more than five million faced a Soviet army of almost five million. And the OUN numbered about 40 thousand...

The OUN-UPA initially counted on the victory of Germany, with which it absolutely groundlessly pinned its hopes on building a Ukrainian state. These hopes were associated more with the “brotherly” fascist ideology than with the strategy of Hitler’s Germany. And after the Stalingrad defeat of the 6th Army of Paulus, the OUN began to count on the mutual destruction of the two warring parties, as well as on the third world war. It was at the time of the clash between the Western allies and the USSR that the OUN-UPA was preparing a “clean” territory liberated from the Poles, so that there would not even be a thought about the annexation of Western Ukraine to Poland...

(By the way, the Chairman of the Union of Soviet Officers of Crimea, Sergei Nikulin, sent an official request to Germany: did Bandera’s people actually fight the Germans? Scientists from the Military Historical Research Institute (Munich) reported: “Our institute does not have materials on the losses of the Wehrmacht, inflicted on him by underground UPA groups in Western Ukraine. Around the summer of 1943, UPA troops began to attack Wehrmacht rear establishments, took German prisoners and killed several soldiers, although in most cases the German prisoners were released. - Ed.).

It pains me, a Ukrainian, to write about the murder methods used by the OUN-UPA. But it is impossible to remain silent about this. As a warning to future generations. I will give only a small part of the examples here. All of them are supported by documents.

F.B. from Canada: “Bandera’s men came to our yard, caught our father and cut off his head with an ax, they pierced our sister with a bayonet. My mother, seeing all this, died of a broken heart.”

Yu.Kh from Poland: “In March 1944, our village of Guta Shklyana was attacked by Banderaites, among them was one named Didukh from the village of Oglyadov. They killed five people. They shot and finished off the wounded. Yu. Khorostetsky was chopped in half with an ax. They raped a minor.” .

T.R. from Poland: “The village of Osmigovichi. On July 11, 1943, during the service of God, Bandera’s men attacked, killed those praying, and a week after that they attacked our village. Small children were thrown into a well, and those who were larger were locked in the basement and dumped him. One Bandera member, holding an infant by the legs, hit his head against the wall. The mother of this child screamed, she was bayoneted."

A separate, very important section in the history of evidence of the mass extermination of Poles carried out by the OUN-UPA in Volyn is the book by Yu. Turovsky and V. Semashko “Atrocities of Ukrainian nationalists committed against the Polish population of Volyn 1939-1945.” In 166 pages of fine print, it lists and describes methods of mass murder of men, women, and children. Here are just some excerpts from this book:

November 9, 1943, the Polish village of Parosle in the Sarny region. A gang of Ukrainian nationalists, pretending to be Soviet partisans, misled the village residents, who treated the gang throughout the day. In the evening, bandits surrounded all the houses and killed the Polish population in them. 173 people were killed. Only two survived, they were littered with corpses, and a 6-year-old boy who pretended to be killed. A later examination of the dead showed the exceptional cruelty of the executioners. Breast babies were nailed to tables with kitchen knives, several people were skinned, women were raped, some had their breasts cut off, many had their ears and noses cut off, their eyes gouged out, their heads cut off. After the massacre, they organized a drinking party at the local elder's house. After the executioners left, among the scattered bottles of moonshine and leftover food, they found a one-year-old child nailed with a bayonet to the table, and in his mouth was a piece of pickled cucumber, half eaten by one of the bandits.

March 1943. In the outskirts of Guta Stepanskaya, Kostopol region, Ukrainian nationalists deceived 18 Polish girls, who were killed after rape. The bodies of the girls were placed in one row and a ribbon was placed on them with the inscription: “This is how Lyashki (Poles) should die.” .

August 30, 1943, the Polish village of Ostrowki near Luboml. The village was surrounded by a dense ring. Ukrainian emissaries entered the village, offering to lay down their arms. Most of the men gathered at the school where they had been locked up. Then they took five people out of the garden, where they were killed with a blow to the head and thrown into dug holes. The bodies were stacked in layers, covered with earth. Women and children were gathered in the church, ordered to lie on the floor, after which they were shot in the head one by one. 483 people died, including 146 children.

There is a threat of degeneration over Ukraine

And this is on 166 pages! And this is only in Volyn. And there will also be Galicia! Yu. Turovsky and V. Semashko cite the figure of 70 thousand Poles who died in Volyn, which is about 20% of the then Polish population of the region. Moreover, they emphasize that their materials cover only 1/3 of all victims of the Volyn pogrom. Other sources also give figures of 100 and 200 thousand killed.

The truth that concerns the Ukrainians killed by the OUN-UPA should be investigated by historians who live in Ukraine... But... But now Ukrainian historians have appeared who have set themselves the task of “scientifically” justifying, even praising the OUN-UPA. It will be extremely difficult for honest historians. In Ukraine, especially in Western Ukraine, fear reigns again. People in Western Ukraine still remember the OUN-UPA...

In one of his last interviews, Viktor Polishchuk said that the victory of the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany saved the Ukrainian people from destruction, “and changes in the world (impossible under the conditions of Germany’s victory) led to the creation of an independent Ukrainian state.” Polishchuk was confident that the activities of the OUN as a fascist-type organization should be banned. And at the same time condemn the activities of such structures as the UPA, the Nachtigal and Roland battalions, the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, the SS Galicia division and others. Facts of scientific falsification by historians and defenders of criminal organizations also deserve condemnation. Viktor Polishchuk was sure: “Without overcoming Ukrainian nationalism, the threat of degeneration will hang over the people of Ukraine.”

In the pictures: a Bandera leaflet; Ukrainians of Lvov with joyful faces undress an unfortunate woman during a pogrom.

To begin with, a short educational program based on materials from Wikipedia and slovari.yandex.ru:

Stepan Andreevich Bandera(Ukrainian Stepan Andriyovych Bandera) (January 1, 1909 - October 15, 1959) - one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement in Eastern Poland (Galicia), Hero of Ukraine (2010), in 1941-1959 head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN (b)) .

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)- a nationalist terrorist organization that operated in the western regions of Ukraine in the 20-50s. XX century It emerged in 1929 as the “Ukrainian Military Organization” (UVO), then changed its name. The founder and first leader of the OUN was Yevgen Konovalets, a former colonel of the Austro-Hungarian army. During the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War, he actively participated in the nationalist movement in Ukraine together with S. Petliura. At one time he served as military commandant of Kyiv. The ideological platform of the OUN was the concept of radical Ukrainian nationalism, characterized by chauvinism and xenophobia, with a pronounced anti-Russian orientation and focused on the use of extremist means to achieve the goal - the creation of an “independent”, “independent” Ukraine.

After the Red Army entered the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in September 1939, the OUN, in cooperation with German intelligence agencies, began the fight against Soviet power. The preservation of the influence of nationalists was greatly facilitated by the methods by which the communist regime was imposed on Western Ukrainian lands. Ukrainian nationalists warmly welcomed the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR and from the first days of the war they provided support to German troops and the occupation authorities. Members of the OUN helped the German fascists in the “final solution to the Jewish question,” i.e., the extermination and deportation of Jews in the occupied territories, and served in the occupation administration and police. Even when it became completely clear that Hitler would not provide Ukraine with any semblance of “independence,” the nationalists did not stop collaborating with the Nazis. With their active support, the SS division "Galicia" was formed.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is an armed formation of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

It operated from the spring of 1943 in the territories that were part of the General Government (Galicia - from the end of 1943, Kholmshchyna - from the autumn of 1943), the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine (Volyn - from the end of March 1943), and Romanian Transnistria (Transnistria) (Northern Bukovina - from summer 1944), which until 1939-1940 were part of Poland and Romania.

In 1943-44. UPA detachments carried out ethnic cleansing of the Polish population in Western Volyn, Kholm region and Eastern Galicia.

In 1943-1944, UPA units acted against Soviet partisans and units of the Polish underground (both communist and subordinate to the London government, i.e. the Home Army).

But about the crimes of the UPA.

The UPA was created on October 14, 1942 by decision of the leadership of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). It was headed by Roman Shukhevych, a holder of two knightly orders of Nazi Germany. President Yushchenko declared him a hero of Ukraine, and he is trying to present the UPA itself as a belligerent during the Second World War.

Meanwhile, there is not a single document indicating that UPA detachments fought with large Wehrmacht forces. But there are more than enough documents about the joint actions of Ukrainian nationalists with the Nazis. And even more documents tell about the fanaticism committed by the “national hero” Roman Shukhevych and his brothers in arms.

It is known for sure that the published newspaper “Surma”, bulletins and other nationalist literature were printed in Germany. Some nationalist literature was published illegally in Lviv and other cities of Western Ukraine. Recently, the Russian Foreign Ministry published documents. Here are some of them:

The head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, Pavel Sudoplatov, in a message dated December 5, 1942, testifies: “Ukrainian nationalists, who had previously been underground, met the Germans with bread and salt and provided them with all kinds of assistance. The German occupiers widely used nationalists to organize the so-called “new order” in the occupied regions of the Ukrainian SSR.

From the Protocol of interrogation of Ivan Tikhonovich Kutkovets, an active Bandera member. February 1, 1944:
“Despite the fact that, at the behest of the Germans, Bandera proclaimed an “independent” Ukraine, the Germans delayed the issue of creating a national Ukrainian government... It was not profitable for the Germans to create a Ukrainian national government, they “conquered” Ukraine and considered it an eastern colony of the “Third Empire” and power over They did not want to share Ukraine with Bandera and they removed this rival. In addition, at this time, the Ukrainian police, created by the OUN members, carried out active security service in the rear of the German army to fight partisans, detain Soviet paratroopers and look for Soviet party activists.”

The circular “On the treatment of members of the UPA”, issued on 12.2.44, by the so-called Prützmann combat group, also deserves attention. It makes it clear how the UPA “fought” the Germans a year and a half after its creation:

“Negotiations with the leaders of the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army that began in the Derazhnya area are now also continuing in the Verba area. We agreed: members of the UPA will not attack German military units. The UPA currently sends scouts, mostly girls, into enemy-occupied territory and reports the results to a representative of the battle group's intelligence department. Captured Red Army soldiers, as well as captured persons belonging to Soviet gangs, will be delivered to a representative of the intelligence department for interrogation, and the newly arrived element will be transferred to the combat group for assignment to various works. In order not to interfere with this necessary cooperation for us, it is ordered:

1. UPA agents who have certificates signed by a certain “Captain Felix”, or who pose as members of the UPA, should be allowed through without hindrance, and weapons should be left with them. Upon request, agents are to be immediately brought to the 1st (Intelligence Branch Representative) Battle Group.

2. When UPA units meet German units for identification, they raise their left outstretched hand to their faces, in this case they will not be attacked, but this can happen if fire is opened from the opposite side...

Signed: Brenner, Major General and SS-Brigadefuehrer."

Another “heroic” stage in the history of Ukrainian nationalists and personally the UPA commander Roman Shukhevych was the fight against Belarusian partisans. Historian S.I. Drobyazko in his book “Under the Enemy’s Banners. Anti-Soviet formations within the German armed forces” writes that in 1941, on the territory of Belarus, the first Ukrainian police battalions were already formed from Red Army prisoners of war.
“Most of the Ukrainian auxiliary police battalions carried out security service on the territory of the Reichskommissariats, others were used in anti-partisan operations - mainly in Belarus, where, in addition to the battalions already created here, a number of units were sent from Ukraine, including 101, 102, 109, 115, 118 , 136th, 137th and 201st battalions.

Their actions, like the actions of other similar units involved in punitive actions, were associated with numerous war crimes against the civilian population. The most famous of which was the participation of a company of the 118th battalion under the command of the cornet V. Meleshko in the destruction of the village of Khatyn on March 22, 1943, when 149 civilians died, half of whom were children,” he writes.

And now - a word for the Banderaites themselves. This is what was published in 1991 in No. 8 of the Vizvolny Shlyakh edition, which was published in London:
“In Belarus, the 201st Ukrainian battalion was not concentrated in one place. His soldiers, in numbers and hundreds, were scattered across different strongholds... After arriving in Belarus, the kuren received the task of guarding bridges on the Berezina and Western Dvina rivers. Departments stationed in populated areas were charged with protecting the German administration. In addition, they had to constantly comb forest areas, identify and destroy partisan bases and camps,” writes Bandera member M. Kalba in this publication.

“Each hundred guarded the square assigned to it. The 3rd hundred of Lieutenant Sidor were in the south of the zone of responsibility of the Ukrainian battalion, the 1st hundred of ROMAN SHUKHEVICH were in the center... Chasing the partisans in unfamiliar territory, the soldiers fell into an enemy ambush and were blown up by mines... The battalion spent nine months in the “partisan front" and gained invaluable combat experience in this struggle. According to approximate data, the legionnaires destroyed more than two thousand Soviet partisans,” he notes.

As they say, no comments. Even the Banderaites themselves directly indicate what the “national hero” Shukhevych was doing in Belarus. One can only guess what kind of Ukraine he fought for against the fraternal Belarusian people.

Finally, in 1943-1944. UPA detachments in Volyn and Galicia exterminated over 100 thousand Poles. The Polish publication “Na Rubieїy” (Nr 35, 1999), published by the Volyn Foundation, describes 135 methods of torture and atrocities that UPA soldiers applied to the Polish civilian population, including children.

Here are just a few of these extravagances:
001. Driving a large and thick nail into the skull of the head.
002. Ripping off hair and skin from the head (scalping).
003. Hitting the skull of the head with the butt of an ax...
005. Carving on the forehead “eagle” (Polish coat of arms)…
006. Driving a bayonet into the temple of the head. ..
012. Piercing children through with stakes.
016. Throat cutting….
022. Closing mouths with tow while transporting still living victims...
023. Cutting the neck with a knife or sickle… .
024. Hitting the neck with an ax...
039. Cutting off women's breasts with a sickle.
040. Cutting off women's breasts and sprinkling salt on the wounds.
041. Cutting off the genitals of male victims with a sickle.
042. Sawing the body in half with a carpenter's saw.
043. Causing puncture wounds to the abdomen with a knife or bayonet.
044. Piercing a pregnant woman's stomach with a bayonet.
045. Cutting open the abdomen and pulling out the intestines of adults...
069. Sawing the body, lined with boards on both sides, in half with a carpenter's saw...
070. Sawing the body in half with a special saw.
079. Nailing the tongue of a small child, who later hung on it, to the table with a knife….
080. Cutting a child into pieces with a knife and throwing them around...
090. Hanging a monk by his feet near the pulpit in a church.
091. Placing a child on a stake.
092. Hanging a woman upside down from a tree and mocking her - cutting off her breasts and tongue, cutting her stomach, gouging out her eyes, and also cutting off pieces of her body with knives...
109. Tearing the torso with chains...
126. Cutting off the skin from the face with blades...
133. Nailing hands to the threshold of a home...
135. Dragging a body along the ground by legs tied with a rope.
Let us only add that the list of UPA crimes is by no means limited to this. Their victims were Russians, Czechs, Jews, but most of all... the Ukrainians themselves, who did not actively cooperate with them.

In July, Poland traditionally remembers the Volyn Massacre, because July marks the 76th anniversary of Bloody Week, the apogee of the Polish genocide, when gangs of Ukrainian nationalists attacked 99 Polish villages and hamlets simultaneously on July 11, 1943. The village of Gurów was the first to be attacked; out of 480 Poles, only seventy survived. This was the most tragic week in the history of the Volyn Poles.

Since 2009, July 11 in Poland is the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of Ukrainian Nationalists against the Citizens of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This year, mourning events under the auspices of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (PINR) took place in Warsaw, Krakow, Lublin, Wroclaw and other cities in Poland.

Shortly before this date, in Warsaw, with the participation of PINP Deputy Director Jan Buster, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the site of the death of Bronislaw Peracki, Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, killed in 1934 by Ukrainian nationalists.

Dozens of witnesses responded to the call. PINP and police officers have already begun interviewing them.

Polish historians indicate that during the Volyn massacre, from 60 to 130 thousand Poles died. The difference in the number of victims is explained both by incomplete data from researchers of these events, and by the fact that the Volyn massacre was originally called the mass executions of Poles in Volyn. But recently, Warsaw has been comprehensively considering the bloody events in Volyn with the same events in Eastern Lesser Poland (approximately the territory of modern Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil regions and partially eastern voivodeships of Poland), because Poles were slaughtered there too. Therefore, the former phrase “Volyn massacre” has now been expanded to the wording “massacre in Volyn and Eastern Lesser Poland.”

The chronological framework of events has also been expanded. Now we are talking not only about the events of 1943, but about the period from 1939 to 1947, that is, right up to Operation Vistula to resettle the Ukrainian population of eastern Poland to its western provinces in order to deprive the OUN-UPA* of a rear base.

Polish historians have been quite meticulous in their study of the Polish genocide. They found that until the fall of 1942, only isolated killings of ethnic Poles took place. On November 13, 1942, the first massacre took place in the village of Oburki in Lutsk County, killing about 50 people. By the end of the winter of 1943, the spiral of mass violence had spun to its maximum - on February 9, 173 people were killed in the Polish settlement of Parosle.

Since then, the number of victims of such massacres has increasingly grown into the hundreds. On April 23, OUN-UPA militants set a “record” - in the village of Yanova Dolina they executed 600 Poles at once. Until July 1943, 23 Polish settlements were attacked by Ukrainian nationalists, the total number of Poles killed was about 15 thousand.

A real bloody nightmare began in July. In the village of Sondova, 580 people were killed, in Ozheshin - 270, in Zagai - more than 300. It was possible to take the Poles by surprise by cunning. The day before, OUN-UPA leaflets appeared in Polish villages in Polish and Ukrainian with a call to extend hands to each other and fight against common enemies - Germany and the Soviet Union. It was pointed out that proof of the Polish population’s hostility to the Ukrainian idea would be their abandonment of their places of residence. The Poles believed it.

The motto of the OUN-UPA was “We will slaughter all Poles to the seventh generation, even those who no longer speak Polish.” The call is absurd, because, for example, Metropolitan of Lviv of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Andrey Sheptytsky, one of the initiators of the creation of the Ukrainian SS division “Galicia” and the “spiritual father” of the UPA, was of Polish origin.

The village of Przebrazh, 20 km from Lutsk, occupies a special place in Polish patriotism. This is one of the few Polish settlements that the OUN-UPA gangs were never able to capture. The first attack on Przebraz took place on July 5, 1943, the second on July 31, and the third on August 30. Before this, around Przebraz, gangs of Ukrainian nationalists burned all Polish farms and villages, killing 550 people.

Przebraz became the center of the Polish resistance; everyone who sought salvation from the OUN-UPA fled here. Its population grew to almost 20 thousand. This made it possible to form self-defense units and conduct raids in the rear of the OUN-UPA. Przebraz lasted from the summer of 1943 until January 1944, when, under the pressure of the Red Army, Ukrainian nationalists and their Nazi masters fled to the west.

OUN-UPA militants often planned attacks on Polish villages on Sundays, knowing that the Poles would go to church. They were killed in churches. The Polish Catholic Church keeps its own record of priests killed in the massacre: 120 priests were killed in Eastern Lesser Poland and 20 in Volhynia. They are conventionally called martyrs, because they were not officially beatified, but died at the hands of the Ukrainian Uniates (most of the OUN-UPA gangs consisted of Uniates) because of their loyalty to the Catholic Church. Professor of the Pontifical University of John Paul II, Father Jozef Maretsky, in his interviews, speaks out in favor of canonizing Catholic priests who fell at the hands of the OUN-UPA.

Official Warsaw adheres to a dual policy regarding Ukrainian nationalism. On the one hand, condemnation and criminal administrative prosecution for the public display of symbols of the Ukrainian nationalist organizations OUN-UPA, SS division “Galicia”, etc. On the other hand, some kind of incompleteness of these actions, including support from the state budget for Ukrainian nationalist organizations in the territory Poland. Thus, the branch of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland in Przemysl was not only allowed to use the building, but also to name one of the city streets in honor of the Uniate collaborator Josaphat Kotsylovsky.

The logic in the actions of the Polish authorities is that they do not benefit from the final death of Ukrainian nationalism. Warsaw hopes to use him in political games against Russia and therefore keeps the spark of life alive in him.

At the same time, Warsaw is accumulating a factual basis for condemning the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism, seeking to gain legal leverage over this political movement. Only in such conditions will Ukrainian nationalism, with its external polonophobia, be completely dependent on Warsaw.

Poland wants to control the development of Ukrainian nationalist ideology, its political route and ultimate goals. To do this, she needs evidence of the criminality of this ideology, which will make it possible to inflict moral and legal defeat on it, if necessary.

The situation is tied into a tight, insoluble knot: Poland honors the memory of those who fell at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, but Poland supports Ukrainian nationalists; Poland calls on Kyiv to condemn the crimes of the OUN-UPA, but Poland does not bring the procedure of condemning the ideology of the OUN-UPA to its logical conclusion.

This means that historical battles, scandals and disputes will be eternal companions of Polish-Ukrainian relations. Ukrainian nationalism will try to get out of the control of its Polish guardians, and the latter, in turn, will try to prevent this, recalling the atrocities committed by Ukrainian nationalists in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland.

For the Polish ethnic consciousness, these regions are the “Kresy vschodni”, the eastern border of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Polish land. Their history and culture are a source of inescapable nostalgia for Poles and an integral part of the Polish national spirit. Poland is not going to leave here, neither culturally, nor politically, nor ideologically.

*organization is banned in the Russian Federation

Today, instructions for the Ukrainian media for May 9 have appeared online - how to cover the events of the Second World War, and the recently finally rehabilitated OUN-UPA.

The main messages are that Ukraine was liberated from the Nazis not by the Soviet Army, but by the Ukrainian people, and much of the credit for this went to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Bandera). In addition, they recommend focusing on the number of Russians who fought in the ROA (Vlasovites), and on Russia’s deliberate underestimation of the role of the Ukrainian people in the victory in World War II (that’s right - World War II, WWII cannot be used).

Copies

I won’t publish everything, I think the essence is already clear... Plus, the Ukrainian authorities recommend proceeding from the fact that “May 9 is not a Victory Day, but first of all a lesson for Ukraine, Europe and the whole world,” and also call for equalizing Putin’s Russia and Hitler’s mode.

In principle, there is nothing new - Kyiv continues to impose a mutilated version of history on Ukrainians and promote Russophobia. Actually, this is why it was necessary to glorify the chronic Russophobes Bandera, who allegedly fought simultaneously against two totalitarian regimes (Soviet and Nazi) for an independent Ukraine. But it is very difficult to reconcile the incompatible, 6 million Ukrainians who fought against the fascists in the ranks of the SA, and 300 thousand Galician nationalists who fought with the Germans against the Soviet Union, i.e. AGAINST YOUR PEOPLE. That is why we have to lie so much and ignore historical facts.

Let me remind you that the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists have been proven in trials, just as their direct connection with the Nazis has been proven (there is a huge amount of photo and video evidence of this, see below). In contrast to this, the German archives do not record ANY FACT of serious clashes between Bandera’s followers and the Nazis, except for minor skirmishes, which the Germans themselves characterized as rare and not worthy of attention.

In 1941, Galicia greeted the Germans with flowers, bread and salt, and ceremonial parades; Ukrainian nationalists were promised an independent Ukraine, so they not only welcomed the Nazis, but also actively joined the police and regular military formations. On the very first day of the creation of the SS Galicia, more than 20 thousand Ukrainians voluntarily signed up for it; within a week, another 40 thousand had sold their applications.

Photo chronicle: Galicia meets the Nazis, and SS volunteers Galicia

A little about the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism and the slogans that are chanted today

Taken almost one after another from the Nazi...

And how these slogans were used by the “fighters against Nazism” of that time

In addition to the SS Galicia division, there were other formations of Ukrainian nationalists that, until 1943, clearly fought as part of or in direct interaction with the Germans:

Battalion Nachtigall(German: “Nachtigal” - “Nightingale”)

A unit formed primarily from members and supporters of the OUN(b) and trained by the military intelligence and counterintelligence agencies of Nazi Germany, the Abwehr, for operations on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. Which was headed by . It was Nachtigal, together with German troops, who took part in the invasion of the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, acting as part of the Brandenburg regiment. On the night of June 29-30, 1941, the battalion was the first to enter Lviv.

Now Ukrainian propaganda is trying to portray Shukhevych like this

In the uniform of a UPA warrior and Ukrainian symbols. But in reality it was like this

Battalion Roland(German: "Roland")

Formed in 1941 with the sanction of the head of German military intelligence V. Canaris for training and use as part of the special reconnaissance and sabotage formation “Brandenburg-800” during the German attack on the USSR. Subordinate to the 2nd Department of the Abwehr Office (Amt Abwehr II) (special operations) under the Wehrmacht High Command.

Unlike Nachtigall, its personnel were largely represented by Ukrainian emigrants of the first wave. In addition, up to 15% were Ukrainian students from Vienna and Graz. A former officer of the Polish army, Major E. Pobiguschi, was appointed commander of the battalion. All other officers and even instructors were Ukrainians, while the German command was represented by a communications group consisting of 3 officers and 8 non-commissioned officers. The battalion's training took place at Zaubersdorf Castle, 9 km from Wiener Neustadt. In early June 1941, the battalion departed for Southern Bukovina, and then moved to the Iasi region, and from there through Chisinau and Dubossary to Odessa, operating as part of the 6th Wehrmacht Army in the territory of first Western and then Eastern Ukraine in June −July 1941.

In October 1941, "Nachtigall" and "Roland" were redeployed to Frankfurt an der Oder and sent for retraining for use as security police units.

But soon sobering up came - the Ukrainian state, which Bandera’s supporters proclaimed on June 30, 1941 in Lvov, lasted only 17 days, after which Bandera was arrested, and Hitler essentially declared Ukraine his colony, in which nationalists were assigned only police functions.
At the end of 1942 and the beginning of 43, some of the Galician nationalists (OUN b, followers of Bandera) “kicked up”. Refusing to follow orders from the Germans. Nominally, the reasons were the deception with independent Ukraine (a year and a half later), and the terror that the Germans inflicted on the civilian population, incl. and in the territory of Galicia. They drove them to Germany, took away food and livestock, without really understanding where the owner was fighting - in the Red Army or in the SS... But the main reason was that the Germans were losing the war, there was no longer any hope not only for an independent Ukraine, but even for some privileges in the Nazi...
Having refused to carry out direct orders from the Reich, the OUN-UPA, from the point of view of the Germans, became gangs of Ukrainian nationalists (that’s what they were called in reports), but there was no reason to destroy them, just like the OUN-UPA, there was no reason to start a war against the Nazis , they would thereby take the side of the Union, which by that time was already winning. And in Soviet Ukraine, nothing awaited them except camps.

Actually, the UPA itself appeared only in February 1943. Help

February 17-23, 1943 in the village. Ternobezhye, on the initiative of Roman Shukhevych, held the III OUN conference, at which a decision was made to intensify activities and begin an armed uprising.

The majority of the conference members supported Shukhevych (although M. Lebed objected), according to whom the main struggle should not be directed against the Germans, and against Soviet partisans and Poles - in the direction already carried out by D. Klyachkivsky in Volyn.

At the end of March 1943, supporters and members of the OUN who served in German paramilitary and police forces were ordered to go into the forests along with their weapons. According to the order intercepted by Soviet partisans, the actual beginning of “the formation of the Ukrainian national army at the expense of policemen, Cossacks and local Ukrainians of the Bandera and Bulbovsky direction” occurred in the second decade of March 1943.

The ranks of the future UPA in the period from March 15 to April 4, 1943 were replenished from 4 to 6 thousand members of the “Ukrainian” police, whose personnel in 1941-42 were actively involved in the extermination of Jews and Soviet citizens

From that moment on, the UPA nationalists allegedly ceased to submit to the Germans, and further fought against them and against the Soviet regime. Although, as I wrote above, there is no evidence of large-scale military operations of the UPA against the Germans, some minor skirmishes (the release of relatives of those driven away to work, the defense of their own homes, property, attacks on food warehouses/carts) cannot be considered such, this forced measures of self-survival.
Even in the collections of documents “UPA in the world of German documents” (book 1, Toronto 1983, book 3, Toronto 1991), compiled by the descendants of nationalists who emigrated to Canada (and therefore hardly impartial), there are very few examples of clashes between the UPA and the Nazis, and most of them are like this

Negotiations with one of the nationalist gangs not far from Rivne brought the following results: the gang will continue to fight against Soviet bandits and regular units of the Red Army. She refuses to participate in battles on the side of the Wehrmacht, as well as to surrender her weapons... In recent weeks, the actions of Ukrainian gangs have been directed not so much against the Wehrmacht, but against the German administration. Ukrainian gangs still oppose Polish, Soviet gangs and Polish settlements.

Actually, the UPA did not fight against the regular Soviet Army. By this point, they were living the dream of the mutual destruction of the Soviets and the Reich. Meanwhile, they themselves were concerned about their own survival and continued the work that they began under the leadership of the Nazis - the genocide of the civilian population, primarily supporters of the Soviet Power, and the ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews, including jointly with the Nazis. Let me give you a few episodes:

The tragedy of Janova Dolina

On the night of April 22-23, 1943 (on the eve of Easter), detachments of the 1st UPA Group under the command of I. Litvinchuk (“Dubovoy”) entered the village. Yanovaya Dolina and began to set fire to all the buildings. Some of the residents died in the fire, those who tried to get out were killed.

The German garrison stationed in the village - a company of Lithuanian auxiliary police under German command - was in the village during the attack, but did not leave its location. The nationalists did not attack the garrison. The police did not try to oppose the nationalists, and opened fire only when the nationalists approached his location.

As a result of the action, between 500 and 800 people died, including women and children. Many were burned alive

The tragedy of Guta Penyatskaya

As of the beginning of 1944, the village of Guta Penyatskaya had about 1,000 inhabitants. The settlement of Guta Penyatskaya supported Polish and Soviet partisans in their actions to disorganize the German rear.
On February 28, 1944, the village was surrounded by the 2nd police battalion of the 4th regiment of the SS Volunteer Division "Galicia" with the support of the local UPA and was completely burned - only the skeletons of stone buildings remained - a church and a school. Of the more than a thousand residents of Guta Penyatskaya, no more than 50 people survived. More than 500 residents were burned alive in the church and their own homes.

The Tragedy of Podkamen

On March 12, 1944, a unit of the SS division “Galicia” entered the town of Podkamen under the pretext of searching for weapons and partisans. On the eve of the Polish self-defense of the town, an attack by a UPA detachment was repelled.
The SS Galicia soldiers who entered the territory of the monastery began to kill all the Poles who had taken refuge on its territory. Others, searching the place, demanded identification from the people they found. Whoever had it indicated in his “ausweiss” that he was a Pole was killed. Those who could prove the opposite were left alive... During the action, soldiers of the 4th regiment of the SS Volunteer Division "Galicia" with the participation of UPA units killed more than 250 people...

—————-

There are many such examples, and they all confirm the cooperation of the UPA with the Nazis, including with the SS Galicia, which continues to fight as part of the Wehrmacht.
And by the way, the SS Galichna, which Ukrainian propaganda very rarely mentions, was also largely staffed by Galician nationalists, incl. and members of the OUN. The division was created in March 1943, and as they say, at the urgent requests of the patriotic public, I quote:
At the beginning of March 1943, in the newspapers of the district of Galicia, the “Manifesto to the combat-ready youth of Galicia” was published by the governor of the district of Galicia, Otto Wächter, which noted the devoted service “for the good of the Reich” of the Galician Ukrainians and their repeated requests to the Fuhrer to participate in the armed struggle, - and The Fuhrer, taking into account all the merits of the Galician Ukrainians, authorized the formation of the SS Rifle Division "Galicia"»

I wrote above that in the first week after the publication of the manifesto, 60 thousand volunteers applied to the division, and in total - about 80 thousand. It should be added that the SS Galicia was involved in punitive operations not only on the territory of Ukraine, but also in Slovakia and Yugoslavia. More information about their “exploits”.

Separately, in the activities of the Galician nationalists, one can highlight the genocide they committed against the Poles. According to various sources, from 30 to 60 thousand people were killed, mostly women and children of the elderly (Poland insists on the figure of 100 thousand). Now Kyiv is trying to justify the “Volyn Massacre” by saying that the Poles also killed ethnic Ukrainians. This is true, but on their part it was a retaliatory measure, in the hope of thereby pacifying Bandera’s supporters and stopping the massacre on the territory of Galicia, and the number of victims is completely incomparable.

Volyn Tragedy (Massacre)

There are many similar facts of UPA crimes (), and it makes no sense to reject them. According to individual photos, modern followers of Bandera give refutations (they were not taken there, or did not die at the hands of Bandera’s followers), but only a few refute them, and there are thousands of documents.
Attempts to attribute all this to the lies of Soviet propaganda are also untenable - the facts are confirmed by Polish, German, and Israeli historians.

And finally, a little video, for those who have the time and desire to understand the topic thoroughly.

Chronicle. SS Division Galicia. Colomia. Hutsuli

Followers of Bandera, OUN UPA, SS division Galicia (from 8.30 minutes photo and video chronicle)

OUN-UPA, Facts of History Today and the Past!

German State channel: Bandera collaborated with the Nazis and was involved in the extermination of Jews

VOLYN without a statute of limitations - a film about the crimes of the OUN-UPA

POLICEMAN (2014) BANDERISTS. UPA Army. Hard to watch, but useful. 16+

PS
Galician nationalists clearly fought on the side of Nazi Germany while they believed that Ukraine would be given to them for this, while they were used mainly to perform police functions and in punitive operations AGAINST THE CIVILIAN POPULATION, including AGAINST UKRAINIANS.
From the fact that they wanted to get Ukraine, it does not follow that they fought for freedom for the Ukrainian people; 2-3 years before these events they were citizens of Poland, and before that for hundreds of years they were part of Austria-Hungary, which suited many of them.
It’s scary to imagine what would have happened if Germany had won that war and kept its promise to give power over Ukraine to the Banderaites, and what fate would have awaited the families of those 6 million Ukrainians who went to fight in the Red Army, what would have awaited the Russians, Poles, and Jews living in Odessa , Kharkov, Donetsk... However, it is not difficult to imagine this, looking at the photos published above, and remembering Babi Yar in Kyiv, where, with the active participation of nationalists, from 70 to 200 thousand racially incorrect townspeople were shot.

This terrible photo shows Kyiv, September 1941. Babi Yar. A mother, a second before death, hugs her child. The man in the SS uniform who will kill her and the child in a second or two is not German. He is Ukrainian, or more precisely, a native of Western Ukraine, from Zhitomir. He served in the Galicia division, and since 1943 he participated in the work of the Einsatz groups.
Where do such details come from? Almost from himself. This photograph was confiscated by the partisans along with documents and an army badge. They seized it when they searched his body.

Bandera's supporters hoped to get Ukraine for themselves from the hands of the Nazis, but when they were denied this, they still considered them their allies.
In addition, by mid-1944 the Nazis were ousted from Western Ukraine - Bandera’s supporters were no longer physically able to fight against them.
To be fair, it should be noted that Bandera’s hatred of the Poles and the Soviet regime did not appear out of nowhere - it was preceded by the Polish-Ukrainian War, the forced Polonization of Galician Ukrainians, then the deportation of 200-300 thousand nationalists and their families, accompanied by an orgy of the NKVD officers. All this can, to some extent, explain why Galicians greeted the Nazis as liberators, but this cannot justify the inhumane reprisals against women, elderly people and children.
And of course, Ukrainian nationalists did not fight against Nazism, or even more stupidly, against totalitarian regimes. Some of them fought for their own, racially pure Ukrainian Reich, others for the German one...

To write the article, only sources were used that confirmed the information with documentary evidence: Wikipedia, materials from the book of the Polish historian Alexander Korman “Genocide of the UPA”, the Canadian collection “UPA in the world of German documents”.