History very often tends to repeat itself. In the light of the recent tragic events in Ukraine, the pages of the armed struggle that unfolded on the territory of its western regions during the Great Patriotic War acquire special relevance. Ukrainian nationalists, hatching plans to create their own independent state and hating the central Russian government, be it imperial or Soviet, much more than the German occupiers, waged an armed struggle on several fronts at once - against the Red Army, the Wehrmacht, the Polish Home Army.
Today, not without the submission of the American and European mass media, as well as domestic liberals, there is a widespread point of view about the almost total resistance of the population of Western Ukraine to Soviet power. It is profitable for the modern heralds of the Maidan to create a myth about the age-old opposition of Ukrainians to the Russian statehood. After all, this legitimizes their activities at the present time, constructs its own political tradition with its own pantheon of heroes-martyrs, the chronicle of the "liberation struggle".
It is no secret that the history of both Ukraine as a whole and the Great Patriotic War is being rewritten in the mass media controlled by the nationalists, in the "scientific works" raised on Western grants by independent historians. Bandera's people are portrayed as national heroes, while the Red partisans are portrayed as accomplices of the "occupational Soviet power."
But did all of Western Ukraine really approve of the actions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other nationalist formations? Even a cursory glance at the history of the Great Patriotic War and the establishment of Soviet power in the western regions of Ukraine says the opposite. Rarely does a modern reader know the name of Yaroslav Galan. This Soviet writer, meanwhile, in 1949, four years after the Great Victory, was brutally murdered by student Mikhail Stakhur, who often came to visit him under the guise of an aspiring poet. The student was a Ukrainian nationalist, an OUN militant. He considered eleven blows with an ax a worthy price for the attention that Galan showed to him. The writer paid for the great literary work to expose both Ukrainian nationalism and the activities of the Vatican and the Uniate Church controlled by it in Western Ukraine. It is known that the barbaric murder of Galan infuriated Joseph Stalin himself and became a catalyst for the intensification of the struggle of the Soviet special services and law enforcement agencies against the remnants of the Bandera groups.
Yaroslav Galan, after whose name the streets in many cities of Russia are named, was far from the first and not the only victim of the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population. Even during the Great Patriotic War, the OUN and UPA militants killed civilians who supported the Soviet regime, who belonged to other nationalities (Jews, Poles, Russians - of course) and even simply were not in a hurry to demonstrate their loyalty to the “fighters for independence”.
It should be noted here that there was no unity in the ranks of the Ukrainian nationalists. Their largest structure, the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), was split back in 1940. Part of the organization submitted to the "Colonel" Andrei Melnik, who was elected leader in 1939, while another, more radical and larger part of the OUN, recognized Stepan Bandera as its leader and received the name OUN (revolutionary).
For the convenience of perception, the OUN (r) activists were nicknamed Bandera. They made up the backbone of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Naturally, the Melnikov and Bandera commanders, which is typical of small-town "Napoleons" with incredible ambitions, could not share the leadership of the Ukrainian nationalist movement and were unable to unite even in the face of a formidable enemy - the Red partisans, and then the regular Soviet army.
Naturally, one of the primary enemies for Ukrainian nationalists, in addition to Jews and Poles, were the communists. They, quite rightly, were viewed as agents of Soviet influence in Western Ukraine. Recall that from 1919 to 1938. on the territory of Western Ukraine, which was part of Poland during this historical period, the Communist Party of Western Ukraine operated.
It ceased to exist … on the initiative of the Soviet communists. The Comintern accused the West Ukrainian and West Belarusian Communist Parties of pro-fascist sentiments and announced their dissolution. A significant part of the Western Ukrainian communists who found themselves on the territory of the Union were repressed. But many activists, who confirmed their loyalty to the Soviet course, smoothly moved into the ranks of the CPSU (b) and during the Great Patriotic War they formed the shock part of the anti-fascist and partisan movement in the region.
In 1943-1944. on the territory of the western Ukrainian regions there was a real "forest war" between the formations of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Soviet partisans. For the OUN-UPA at the first stage of the war, it was the Soviet partisans who were the main enemy - and in ideological terms, since they personified a direct attempt on the ideal of independence - the existence of Ukraine as part of the USSR, and in practical terms, since from the very beginning of their existence they took a course not only on armed resistance to the German occupation forces, but also to the destruction of the Ukrainian nationalist movement.
Demyan Sergeevich Korotchenko (1894 - 1969), one of the organizers of the Soviet partisan struggle in the occupied territory, Alexey Fedorovich Fedorov, Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev, Timofei Amvrosievich Strokach (1903 - 1963). Chief of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisans
Back in 1942, separate reconnaissance and sabotage groups of the NKVD and the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff operated on the territory of the Volyn region. A more large-scale deployment of partisan activity dates back to the beginning of 1943 and is associated with the redeployment of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement to Western Ukraine. It was led by Timofey Amvrosievich Strokach (1903-1963), who before the war was the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and after the war he was promoted to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR. That is, despite the significant spontaneous component, the creation of the partisan movement was still under the vigilant control of Soviet state security and military intelligence. Many key figures of the Ukrainian partisan movement emerged from among the employees of the special services, party leaders, and red commanders.
The path of the Sumy partisan formation, commanded by Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak (1887-1967), glorified back in the Civil War, is legendary. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Kovpak, the chairman of the city executive committee of Putivl, was already 54 years old. Age is considerable, especially for a soldier. But the veteran of the First World War and Civil war considered it his duty to "remember his youth." Yes, I remembered that the Nazis and their henchmen on the territory of occupied Ukraine pronounced his name with a shudder. First of all, because, unlike many other partisan detachments, the largest unit in Ukraine - the Kovpak troops - actively used the tactics of raids. The lightning strikes of the partisans, appearing as if from under the ground, left behind the corpses of German soldiers and policemen, burned police stations, and blown up infrastructure.
Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak and his adjutant
From the Bryansk forests, Kovpak undertook his famous raid to the Carpathian Mountains, walking across the entire Right-Bank Ukraine. For him he received the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, and after the territory of Ukraine was actually liberated in 1944, he transferred to a managerial job in Kiev, was a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR. Those Bandera who were able to get away from the bullets of Kovpak the partisan had every chance to get to know him better as a judge. The memory of the legendary Kovpak is still alive today among the adequate part of the Ukrainian people. And those for whom Sidor Kovpak is a hero and an example of courage and selfless patriotism will never be able to understand the Neo-Banderites, who, in justifying Russophobia and the crimes of their ideological predecessors, have come to reproduce these crimes in the once peaceful cities of modern Ukraine.
In addition to military operations against the German occupation forces, the partisans also performed an important propaganda function. After all, the population of Western Ukraine, which before the war belonged to Poland, and even earlier to Austria-Hungary, had no idea of the Soviet power and was generally hostile towards it (if we talk about the inhabitants of the countryside).
Accordingly, the partisans sought to dispel the myths that had developed regarding the Soviet regime and to enlist the support of the Ukrainian villagers. For this purpose, cultural, educational and educational activities were developed among the Ukrainian population. Even Polish partisans, who were in conflict with both Soviet troops and the UPA, were forced to recognize the significant constructive potential carried by Soviet partisan formations to Western Ukraine, torn apart by the "forest war".
The use of partisan detachments in the fight not only against the Nazis and their allies, but also against Ukrainian nationalists was sanctioned by the Soviet leadership. Already in 1943, the leaders of the USSR, on the basis of reports from Soviet intelligence, formed an objective and adequate opinion about what constitutes the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and other similar organizations. It was clear that as the Soviet army defeated the Nazis and pushed them out of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian, Baltic and other anti-Soviet "forest brothers" would turn into the main armed enemy remaining on the territory of the country and conducting subversive activities.
Thus, the People's Commissar for State Security of the Ukrainian SSR S. Savchenko, in a secret report to the secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine N. Khrushchev and D. Korotchenko, reported that the Banderaites are in constant close contact with the British and American authorities. The latter, in turn, promise to help the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the event that its armed struggle against the Soviet Union continues. The report is dated October 9, 1943, that is, in the midst of the war, the "allies" did not plan what they planned in the future, but already carried out poorly concealed contacts with obvious enemies of the Soviet state and encouraged the latter to continue and intensify anti-Soviet resistance.
Distribution of cartridges and rifles in a partisan detachment
Naturally, the Ukrainian nationalists, who acted from the very beginning in contact with foreign intelligence services, were ready not only for armed resistance to partisans and the regular Soviet army, but also for any provocations. The purpose of the latter was to denigrate the Soviet regime and scare away the local population from it. So, Bandera, disguised as red partisans, attacked villages and killed civilians. Partisan commander M. Naumov in his diary is not alien to a sense of humor. He says that Bandera's people, coming to Ukrainian villages during the day, collect onions, garlic and bread, emphasizing their disinterestedness and asceticism. However, at night, the same Bandera people will definitely visit the village again in order to steal a cow and provide themselves with a full-fledged food.
The vain efforts of modern neo-Bandera propagandists from among the Russophobic activists of Ukrainian nationalist parties, as well as their loyal lawyers - Russian liberals, have not been able to erase from the people's memory the image of a Bandera as a bandit and marauder terrorizing the civilian population, killing teachers or paramedics and taking the last from the peasants products.
The partisan participates in the battle for the village
After the liberation of the territory of Ukraine from the Nazis, the partisan formations were redirected to fight against the Bandera formations continuing armed resistance. After the war, some of the partisans returned to a peaceful life, some continued to serve in the army or militia, still being at the forefront of the struggle against the enemies of the Soviet state.
Thus, we see that during the Great Patriotic War there could be no talk of the solidarity of the entire Ukrainian population with the nationalists, whose anti-Soviet ideology clearly showed the Russophobia nurtured by the West. Most Ukrainians, honest and decent people, fought as part of the Red Army against the Nazi invaders, partisans in Kovpak's detachments and other formations. Moreover, not only and not so much the Banderites were the “masters” of the forest area of Western Ukraine. The feat of Soviet partisans is immortal and everyone should know about it, especially in the context of the modern military-political situation in Ukraine.
Partisans enter liberated Kiev
