One of the most powerful units of the "fifth column" in the USSR were the Ukrainian Nazis. They were preparing a powerful uprising for the beginning of the German invasion of the USSR, which was supposed to end Soviet rule in the Ukrainian SSR.
In September 1939, Moscow regained the West Russian lands that had been lost after the collapse of the Russian Empire. They were occupied by Poland. Thanks to Stalin, Ukraine-Little Russia became unified, Western Ukraine was annexed to the Ukrainian SSR (Ukrainian SSR). The Ukrainian SSR included Lvov, Lutsk, Stanislavsk and Ternopil regions.
In addition, in 1940, by agreement with Romania, which also in 1918 seized a number of territories that were part of Russia, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina became part of the USSR. In 1940, Northern Bukovina, called Chernivtsi region, was annexed to Ukraine, and from the southern part of Bessarabia, the Akkerman region of the Ukrainian SSR was formed (then the Izmail region, in 1954 it became part of the Odessa region).
The process of establishing Soviet power on the territory of Western Ukraine was complicated by the opposition of the Ukrainian Nazis - the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The organization was formed at the congress of Ukrainian nationalists in Vienna in 1929 as a result of the unification of a number of radical Nazi organizations based in Poland (Lvov), Czechoslovakia (Prague) and Germany (Berlin). The goal of the nationalists was to create a unified Ukrainian state. The OUN acted as an anti-Polish, anti-Soviet and anti-communist organization, therefore it was used by Western intelligence services in the fight against the USSR. The main method of struggle was terror. The organization existed at the expense of membership fees, direct extortion and robbery, as well as financial and material support of foreign states interested in the destruction of the USSR. The leader of the organization until 1938 was E. Konovalets. After his assassination, the OUN was headed by A. Melnik. In 1940 -1941. the organization split into two parts: the first, the most radical - OUN (b) named after the leader Stepan Bandera, the second - supporters of Melnik, OUN solidarists (OUN (s), Melnikovites).
Melnik and his supporters believed that the stake should be placed on Hitlerite Germany and its plans for a war with the USSR. The Melnikovites were against the creation of an armed force in Western Ukraine, since they did not see the possibility of a successful armed uprising without external support. Therefore, Melnik and his entourage proposed to withdraw as many members of the OUN as possible to the territory of the General Government (part of German-occupied Poland with the capital in Krakow) to organize units of Ukrainian nationalists under the command of the Germans and their further use by the Third Reich in the "fight against Bolshevism." In the conditions of the war of Germany against the USSR, these units were to become the nucleus of the allied Wehrmacht "Ukrainian army". To this end, a Ukrainian-German military bureau under the leadership of Colonel R. Sushko was formed and actively worked in Krakow. The Ukrainian Legion was formed there. The OUN activists who remained in the Ukrainian SSR had to wait in deep secrecy for the outbreak of war between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union.
Bandera, on the other hand, preferred to rely on his own forces, although he did not refuse the help of the Third Reich. The OUN was supposed to prepare and start a guerrilla war, regardless of the foreign policy situation. Such an uprising was supposed to shake the foundations of Soviet power in Ukraine and give Germany the opportunity to invade the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Bandera forces focused their efforts on preparing an armed uprising. At the same time, they did not refuse the possibility of forming units of Ukrainian nationalists outside Ukraine, their military training in the General Government. Bandera prevailed in western Ukraine and in 1943, under the wing of the Nazis, formed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In general, the struggle between Bandera and Melnikovites was fought for the right to lead the nationalist emigration, and therefore for the future leadership position in the alleged Ukrainian state. Thus, to act as the only representative of the "Ukrainian movement" and a claimant for financial, material and organizational assistance of the Third Reich. Soon the struggle turned from a political to a criminal one - the Bandera and Melnikovites killed, seized each other's material resources, etc. In this internecine battle before the start of the Great Patriotic War, hundreds of militants were killed.
Western Ukraine within the borders of October 3, 1939 on the political and administrative map of the USSR of March 3, 1940
Fight against Bandera
The transition of Western Ukraine to the USSR was unexpected for the nationalist underground. However, the OUN managed to quickly overcome the first confusion and restore the organization. This was facilitated by the fact that the Chekists were focused on eliminating possible Polish resistance (they represented state structures, the police, the army, the aristocracy, the big bourgeoisie, etc.) and released OUN activists from Polish prisons, who immediately strengthened the underground. At first, the Bandera supporters concealed their hostility to the Soviet regime and tried to disguise themselves and penetrate the new bodies of Soviet power, the Komsomol, the party and the police. However, on the whole, this attempt failed and most of the nationalist agents were exposed. Then Bandera took a course towards an armed uprising.
The first attempt to organize an anti-Soviet uprising on the territory of Western Ukraine was made by radicals at the end of 1939. However, the Soviet security officers thwarted it, preemptively arresting 900 possible militants. Many OUN activists fled to the territory controlled by the Reich.
In early 1940, Bandera decided to reinforce the Western Ukrainian underground with cadres. From trained in military affairs and ready for sabotage war, activists formed groups (branches) of 5 - 20 people, which were supposed to lead the underground and become the basis for the creation of insurgent and sabotage detachments on the ground. In January - March 1940, several such groups entered Soviet territory. So, in mid-January, a group of 12 militants led by S. Pshenichny crossed the border into the territory of the USSR from Poland occupied by the Germans in the Kristinopol region near the village of Bendyugi. The violators were unlucky: eight people were killed in a battle with border guards, four were detained later. However, by the spring of 1940, up to 1,000 militants were able to penetrate the territory of the USSR.
At the end of spring - beginning of 1940, a new uprising against Soviet power in Western Ukraine was planned. At the beginning of 1940, the Krakow center (wire) of the OUN began preparations for an uprising. To prepare for the uprising, 60 organizers were secretly deployed across the border to Galicia and Volhynia. The first group, led by V. Timchiy, crossed the border at the end of February, the second group - at the beginning of March, the third - on March 12. On March 24, the Insurrectionary Headquarters began to operate in Lviv. To begin with, a management system was created: in large cities (Lviv, Stanislav, Ternopil, Lutsk, Drogobich) chiefs were sent - district guides, each of them was subordinate to 3-5 interdistrict guides, in turn to them subdistrict guides were subordinate. Each district and district wire included: chief of staff, military training instructor, intelligence, security, communications, propaganda and youth work assistants. The sub-district organization included 4-5 village organizations (in settlements). These organizations were supposed to pick up 40-50 militants, organize military training and reconnaissance. The lowest echelon consisted of 3-5 militants. According to the OUN, there were 5,500 militants and 14,000 sympathizers in the region.
However, the Soviet state security organs exposed the plans of the Ukrainian Nazis and struck a preemptive strike. The most serious operations were carried out in late March - early April in Lviv, Ternopil, Rivne and Volyn regions. During the mass arrests of those suspected of preparing the uprising, 658 radicals were arrested. From 1939 to June 1940, a large number of weapons were seized: 7 grenade launchers, 200 machine guns, 18 thousand rifles, 7 thousand grenades, other weapons and equipment. On October 29, 1940, a trial was held in Lviv against 11 leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Ten were sentenced to death, the sentence was carried out in February 1941.
It is worth noting that in the spring of 1940 the Chekists were unable to defeat the Ukrainian "fifth column". Bandera postponed the uprising to the autumn of 1940, elected a new leadership and began active preparations, recruiting new members of the organization. The OUN members launched an active nationalist propaganda, prepared the material, technical base and personnel for the uprising. Such slogans as "Ukraine for Ukrainians", "Independent Ukraine" were being introduced into the minds of members of the OUN. Nazi Germany was taken as an example of a future "independent" Ukraine. Conducted special military training for members of the organization in the forests. Various military literature, charters, manuals and instructions, maps were acquired in large quantities. Weapons were collected in specially organized caches. A lot of work was done to keep track of the officer and military personnel of the Ukrainians, who were planned to be involved in the uprising. A plan of the uprising - the "Mobilization Plan" was developed, and in August it was sent to all regional, district and peripheral organizations. The OUN intelligence was engaged in collecting information about the location of military units, their weapons, the most important military, state and economic facilities. Also, the reconnaissance task included establishing the location of airfields, the number of hangars, aircraft, aircraft systems, the number of firing points, the state of air defense, etc. All information obtained was transmitted to the Krakow center, and through it to Germany.
The security organs of the OUN paid great attention to control over the members of the organization, their mutual, bloody responsibility, wavering members and possible traitors were brutally killed. Prepared so-called. “Black lists” for physical liquidation in the first place, they included workers of the Soviet regime, parties, commanders of the Red Army, security officers, persons who arrived from the eastern regions of the USSR, national minorities (for example, Poles and Jews). They were subject to physical destruction at the very beginning of the uprising. Measures were being prepared to form the so-called. "Signorata" - persons who shared the nationalist, counter-revolutionary views of the OUN and were supposed to become the nucleus of the future state, political and economic apparatus of the future Ukrainian state.
However, the Chekists preempted the enemy again. In August - September 1940, 96 underground groups and grassroots organizations were destroyed, 1108 radicals were arrested, including 107 leaders of various levels. During the searches, the security officers seized 43 machine guns, more than 2 thousand rifles, 600 revolvers, 80 thousand cartridges, other weapons and equipment. After that, a series of trials against Ukrainian nationalists took place.
Later, when the myth of the "tyrant Stalin" and "bloody terror" was created, the Banderaites were recorded as "innocent victims" of the Stalinist regime. Now this myth dominates in "independent" Ukraine, where members of the OUN are shown as "national heroes" who fought in the "red plague" and "bloody tyrant". However, the documents suggest otherwise. In reality, Ukrainian radicals were preparing an armed uprising against the Soviet regime. to seize power into their own hands and create the so-called."Independent" Ukrainian power of the fascist type with the principle: "Ukraine for the Ukrainians." Taking into account the fact that in reality the Ukrainian ethnos never existed (it exists only in the inflamed heads of Ukrainian nationalists), and all "Ukrainians" are historically representatives of the southwestern part of the Russian superethnos, the Banderaites prepared the cultural, linguistic, historical and physical genocide of huge masses the Russian population of Ukraine-Little Russia (Little Russia-Russia is the historical part of Russian civilization). In fact, these plans for the total genocide of the Russian people, in the interests of the masters of the West, began to be implemented in Little Russia in 1991, after the collapse of Great Russia (USSR). Currently, Kiev is governed by a criminal oligarchic-thieves regime that uses the Nazis to fight Russia and eliminate the Russianness of Little Russia-Ukraine. At the same time, it is quite possible that soon the Ukrainian Nazis will become the leading political force in Ukraine, and will establish a full-fledged fascist regime.
Preparing an armed uprising against Soviet power, the OUN counted not only on its own strength, but on the armed intervention of Hitlerite Germany. Moreover, the OUN Center in Krakow was negotiating with a number of foreign governments on direct intervention against the USSR. Thus, the OUN members acted as a real “fifth column” preparing the collapse of Soviet civilization with the support of external forces.
Also Bandera acted as Nazis and assassins, preparing for pogroms and physical liquidation of representatives of the Soviet government, the Communist Party, the commanding staff of the Red Army, state security agencies, Russian immigrants from other regions of Russia-USSR, representatives of national minorities - Jews, Poles, etc. In fact, all these plans were implemented somewhat later, the Nazis, when they began to invade the USSR. Many millions of Soviet citizens died at the hands of the German Nazis. One can imagine what the Ukrainian Nazis did, learning from their older comrades in the Third Reich, if they could seize power in Little Russia.
Thus, the "innocent victims" of Stalinism, the Banderaites in reality were Nazis, murderers, representatives of the "fifth column" preparing the collapse of the USSR in order to create an "independent" Ukraine, a Ukrainian state "for Ukrainians", which led to terrible terror and mass genocide of Russians, national minorities. Today's Ukraine partially represents a possible Ukrainian state under the rule of Bandera - the genocide of the Russians, the extinction of the people, the rule of thieves and Western masters, economic collapse and civil war, and a gloomy future (complete disappearance of Little Russia from the world map).
Parade in Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) in honor of the visit of the Governor-General of Poland, Reichsleiter Hans Frank. October 1941
