The story of the elimination of the OUN conductor of the Carpathian Territory J. Melnik - "Robert".
N00663 November 6, 1946
Sov. secretly
Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) U Comrade Khrushchev N. S.
Realizing the task set by the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CP (b) U from 4 / X-1946 to reinforce the strikes against the leading links of the OUN-UPA, I report to you on the elimination of the regional conductor of the Karpaty wireline "Robert" and his closest accomplices.
The successful execution of the operation to eliminate "Robert", developed by the regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of State Security, was facilitated by the captured on October 21 of this year. during an operation in the village of Verbizh-Verkhny, Pechenezhinsky district, a wounded bandit Dmitry Antonovich Rebrik nicknamed "Liman", who turned out to be an investigator of the Security Council of the regional wire "Karpaty".
The investigation over "Liman" was aimed at identifying the location of the edge wire led by "Robert".
In the process of working with "Liman", detailed information was obtained on the composition of the regional wire, as well as data on "Robert's" connections with one of the leaders of the UPA "Shelest", now acting as the chief judge of the OUN, and other senior officials of the OUN-UPA.
In his testimony, "Liman" said that "Robert", with whom his wife, Melnik Antonina, who is the typist of the regional wire, with her body of 8-10 people, is constantly hiding in a carefully camouflaged bunker in the Yavorino mountains near the village of Lipa, Bolekhiv district.
At the same time, "Liman" announced that in the coming days "Robert" is going to move to a specially equipped winter bunker, the location of which is not known to "Liman".
Taking this into account, it was decided to immediately organize a military operation to liquidate "Robert", for which the troops of 82 and 65 divisions, up to one regiment, were used.
The management of the operation was entrusted to the head of the OBB UMVD Major Kostenko, to whose assistance the early. branches - Art. Lieutenant Yatsenko, Art. operative art. Lieutenant Kudryavtsev and a special group of 15 people.
The previously captured bandit "Liman" was used as a guide during the operation.
The operation was launched on October 26, during the operation "Liman" declared that he could not orient himself on the terrain, at the same time he continued to assert that the cache of "Robert" is located on Mount Yavorino.
Liman's testimony was overlapped and corroborated by other data. Therefore, it was decided to continue the operation. Only on the 7th day, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on October 31, in the proposed place on Mount Yavorino, a special group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs led by Major Kostenko with the participation of 100 people. fighters and commanders of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the 82nd and 65th divisions, a cache was found in which a group of bandits were hiding. (Experienced Major A. Kostenko noticed a characteristic unmasking sign - a small quadrangular piece of land thawed on the slope of the mountain. The heat emanating from the ground above the entrance to the bunker drew weak regular square lines in the wet snow. -Novoross)
Shots were heard as they approached the cache. The bandits refused the offer of the head of the operation, Major Kostenko, to surrender, but nevertheless entered into negotiations with the explicit purpose of delaying time.
Wanting to capture "Robert" and those who were with him alive, the leaders of the operation conducted negotiations and skirmishes all night with the bandits who had settled in the bunker.
At dawn on November 1, shots were heard inside the bunker, and at 6 a.m. one of the bandits in the bunker said that he had shot all his accomplices and that he himself wanted to surrender alive.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, those who wanted to surrender were allowed to leave the hideout, the latter called himself the guard of "Robert" and gave his nickname "Yasny" by the name of Yanyshivsky Iosif Pavlovich, born in 1928, a native of the village of Vitvitsa, Bolekhovsky district, Stanislavskaya oblast.
With the help of a surrendered bandit, 6 corpses were removed from the cache, but "Robert" was not among them.
During interrogation, "Yasny" stated that at about one in the morning "Robert" proposed to brick him up with his wife and the technical assistant of the Security Council of the edge wire, nicknamed "The Rock", in a special tunnel, which had a separate exit to the surface of the earth. The final point of this exit was walled up and no one knew its location. (The "Skala" was later to confirm the OUN SB, why the couple survived, and the guards died. In such cases, the SB conducted a sharp analysis with the survivors: "Prove, friend, that" you did not sell yourself to the guardsmen "in exchange for life" - Novoross.)
Before taking cover in the tunnel, "Robert" made an order to the commandant of his personal guard, "Levko", who was in the cache, that after he was walled up, to detonate the previously mined bunker and approaches to it, and simultaneously blow up all his remaining participants, and thus hide all traces of him, "Robert".
Giving this order, "Robert" believed that after the explosion, when the troops left, he would be able to open the exit from the tunnel and escape.
Yasny testified that after the departure of “Robert” and the persons accompanying him - his wife and the technical assistant of the regional line of SB “Skala”, all the bandits who remained in the hideout, except for him - “Yasny” and the commandant of the security “Levko”, shot themselves. At the moment when "Levko" wanted to blow up the bunker, "Yasny", wishing to save his life, shot him with a machine gun. These testimonies were confirmed by examining the body of "Levko".
By order of Comrade Kostenko's bunker was blown up, which helped to find the entrance to the tunnel. When the soldiers were moving in the tunnel, a shot rang out. As it turned out, "Robert" and his wife were dead, and "The Rock" shot himself as the soldiers approached. (Excavations have shown that after the explosion, “Roberta” and his wife were tightly covered with earth. The “Rock” tried to dig out the “seer”, but convinced that it was useless, and the exit from the shelter was blocked, he also decided to commit suicide -Novoross.)
As a result of this operation, 9 bandits were killed, among them were identified:
Miller Yaroslav Nikolaevich nicknamed "Robert" - "Kornilov" - regional conductor of the OUN "Karpaty";
Miller Antonina Romanovna nicknamed "Tanya" - wife of "Robert" and the typist of the edge wire;
Khomin Ivan, nicknamed "The Rock" - technical assistant of the SB of the edge wire;
Nicknamed "Mikola" -byv. lieutenant of the German army in the SS - technical assistant of the regional wire on organizational issues;
nicknamed "Levko" - the commandant of the guard of the edge wire;
nicknamed "Mariyka" - ex. special courier of the Nadvornyansky supra-district wire of the OUN "Doctor". Previously, she served as cook for "Robert" and his group;
Mushin Seliverst, nicknamed "Bogdan" and bandits nicknamed "Moroz" and "Tymko" are guards of the edge wire.
All the corpses were identified by the surrendered Yanyshivsky - "Yasny" and "Liman", and "Robert", in addition, by a photo card.
Seized from the cache: one radio station, 2 radios, two typewriters, of which one was beaten by "Robert", 3 machine guns, 6 machine guns, two rifles and 6 pistols, many seals and stamps of Soviet institutions, including the Kiev police and military parts.
In addition, 28 orders and medals of the USSR, 11 party cards, 9 candidate cards, 30 Komsomol cards, 180 military cards, 55 Red Army books, 78 Soviet passports and other documents were seized.
A large number of nationalist records and literature were seized.
The interrogated security guard of "Robert" - Yanyshivsiky Iosif - "Yasny" testified that he knew the location of the so-called winter cache of "Robert", where there is a large number of food prepared for "Robert" and his retinue, as well as literature and possibly documents.
This cache is located a few kilometers from the discovered one.
We are planning further measures to destroy the entire regional wire and the network subordinate to it, as well as to search for "Shelest" and other members of the central wire of the OUN.
Secretary of the Stanislavsky Regional Committee of the KP (b) U (M. Slon)
And this is a themed bar in a former bomb shelter in Lviv, with UPA propaganda.
The entrance to the establishment is tightly closed by a dark wooden door located to the left of the entrance to the entrance, and the "Kryivka" itself was in the "bunker"
