How Bandera fought against the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Bandera - who are they? Bandera during the war

These people, where did this movement come from? In this article we will try to answer these and other very relevant questions. Today, there are a lot of terrible stories about the past of this movement, some people justify it, some condemn it, or even treat it with hatred.

Historical information about the appearance of Bandera

So, Banderaites - who are they? There are a lot of negative definitions of this movement. During times Patriotic War these were people who supported the ideology of Stepan Bandera, one of the leaders of Ukrainian nationalism. Then they committed many murders of non-Ukrainians, justifying it with the desire for freedom and independence for their country.

Today, there is a lot of evidence of the crimes of Bandera’s followers that were committed during the time. They killed those who did not belong to the Ukrainian nation, who had relatives of people of a different nationality. Some of the murders that Bandera committed (photo below) can hardly be called anything other than atrocities. It all started with the idea of ​​liberating western Ukraine from the power of the Polish invaders.

Stepan Bandera. short biography

Now about the leader of the mentioned movement. Stepan Bandera was born in 1909 into a family. In addition to him, the family had six more children. Obviously, Stepan absorbed the idea of ​​nationalism with the instructions of his father, who tried to pass on his worldview to his children. This was further facilitated by the First World War, which took place before the eyes of a still impressionable child.

Bandera lived in his father's house until 1919, after which he moved to the city of Stryi and entered the gymnasium. He studied there for eight years. It was in the gymnasium that his nationalist activities began, which subsequently led to the appearance of Bandera’s followers in Ukraine. He became the leader of youth in Western Ukraine, defending its independence by any means, not even disdaining the fact that now, in modern world, called terrorism.

Political activities of Stepan Bandera

After graduating from high school, Stepan, in addition to social activities, was engaged in work entrusted to him by the Ukrainian military organization. Bandera has been a member of it since his senior year at the gymnasium. He became an official member of this organization in 1927. He began working in the intelligence department, and then in the propaganda department. He was followed by young people who adhered to his radical nationalist views.

During his activities in this organization, he achieved great heights and popularity, especially in the city of Lvov, whose Banderaites (as they would later be called) truly considered him an idol. Became a leader underground organization OUN.

Now a little about political career Stepan. He was responsible for several organized murders of prominent political figures, whom nationalists were fighting against at that time. For one of them, in 1934, he was convicted and sentenced to death, which, however, was commuted to life imprisonment after some time. He stayed in prison until the age of 39, when, due to the occupation of Poland, all prisoners (including Stepan) were released.

The nationalist leader continued his activities. And if we discuss the question “who are Bandera’s people,” then we can answer that these are his followers, who at one time supported him.

Bandera's activities during World War II

At this time, Stepan had just been released. Having joined his supporters, he visited Lviv, where, after assessing the situation, he decided that now the main enemy of Ukraine’s independence was the Soviet Union.

It can be considered that the Ukrainian Banderaites officially appeared after the split of the OUN, when two people with completely opposite views began to lay claim to the post of head of this organization. This is S. Bandera and A. Melnik. The first believed that Germany would not help Ukrainians gain the freedom they wanted, so they needed to rely only on themselves. The alliance with the Germans could only be considered temporary. The second one thought completely differently. Ultimately, everyone went to their own camps. Bandera's closest supporters were S. Lenkavsky, Y. Stetsko, N. Lebed, V. Okhrimovich, R. Shukhevych.

In June 1941, an act of revival of the Ukrainian state was proclaimed, which resulted in Bandera’s imprisonment in Germany. The Germans did not want this turn of events at all. As Stepan predicted, they had completely different plans for Ukraine.

Bandera remained in a German prison until September 1944. It wasn't the best scary place, these were exactly the kind of political criminals that were kept there. Three years later, the Germans themselves released Stepan. It was rather an act of protest against his proclamation of an independent Ukrainian state.

During these three years, Bandera could not engage in politics, although he maintained contact with his comrades through his wife. However, all this time Western Ukraine, whose Banderaites did not give up their activities, continued to fight the invaders of territories.

Life of Stepan Bandera after release

After his release in September 1944, S. Bandera decides to stay and live in Germany. Inability to return to the territory Soviet Union did not prevent the organization of a foreign branch of the OUN (b).

At this time, according to some sources, he was recruited and worked for German intelligence and counterintelligence. And according to other sources, he refused this offer.

Until the fifties, this man led the life of a conspirator, as he was hunted, but after that he moved to live in Munich with his family. Until the end of his days, he walked with the guards in order to protect himself from assassination attempts, of which, by the way, there were many. Here he was known under the name Popel.

However, this did not save him from death. In 1959, he was killed by KGB agent B. Stashinsky. He shot Bandera in the face with a syringe pistol (contents - They did not have time to save him; Stepan died on the way to the hospital. The shooter was later arrested and sent to prison for eight years. After his release, Stashinsky’s fate is unknown.

After Bandera's death, a family remained - Oparovskaya's wife Yaroslava, son Andrei, daughters Natalya and Lesya. Despite all his actions, he loved his family and protected it in every possible way.

Thus ended the life of a man who was the ideological inspirer of the nationalist movement in Western Ukraine, as well as the organizer of numerous political assassinations. His followers committed many murders, hiding behind the idea of ​​Ukrainian independence, its liberation from Polish and then Soviet rule.

In 2010, Bandera was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, despite the fact that many people condemned it. However, in 2011, the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine decided that this person cannot be considered a hero.

Followers of Bandera during World War II

So, continuing their activities during World War II, Bandera’s followers (photos of their atrocities are widely available today) actively began to fight first against the Polish occupation, and then against the Red Army defeating the Germans. A group was formed that supported Stepan’s idea of ​​Ukrainian independence. Everyone was an enemy - Jews, Poles and other nationalities. And they were all subject to destruction.

An ardent follower and friend of Bandera was Roman Shukhevych, who practically led the OUN in his absence. In 1941, he was subordinate to the Nachtigal battalion, which killed a large number of Lvov residents of Polish nationality. From that moment on, the slaughter of the civilian population of Ukraine began.

In addition to this, they also committed other atrocities, namely the murder of residents of the village of Korbelisy in Volyn. Many were burned alive. In total, about 2,800 people died then.

Terrible atrocities were committed in the village of Lozovaya, where more than a hundred residents were killed, with various forms of abuse.

There is other evidence of the terrible fate of the civilian population. Almost all children of non-Ukrainian nationality were subject to death, and martyrdom. Many people had various parts of their bodies torn off or chopped off, and their stomachs ripped open. Some were tied alive to poles using barbed wire. These were truly scary times.

Today there are historians who believe that representatives of the OUN-UPA really enjoyed the savagery they carried out. Even the German Nazis were not so happy. This data was collected from the reports of arrested and interrogated Bandera members. This was also claimed by some Germans who collaborated with them.

Bandera members of the UPA

Bandera's UPA is a formed armed army that was subordinate to the leaders of the OUN (b). It was only later that various representatives who supported this movement and their idea began to join it.

Its main goal was Soviet partisans, as well as the destruction of everyone and everything who had nothing to do with Ukraine. Many people still remember their cruelty, when entire settlements were slaughtered simply because they belonged to a different nationality.

At the time of the offensive of the liberating Red Army, there were about fifty thousand active fighters in the UPA. Each of them had their own clear ideological position and hatred towards the “soviets,” which was facilitated by the years of past Stalinist repressions.

However, there were also weak sides army. This, of course, is ammunition and the weapon itself.

How Bandera's followers acted during the war

If we discuss the crimes of Bandera’s members as part of the UPA, then today, by the standards of historians, they are quite numerous. For example, about 200 people from the village of Kuty (Armenians and Poles) were subject to death. All of them were slaughtered during the ethnic cleansing of this territory.

The well-known Volyn massacre affected many settlements. It was a scary time. Some leaders of the movement we are considering were of the following opinion: let there be less population in the territory, but they will be pure Ukrainians.

According to various estimates, then from twenty to one hundred thousand people died (and these were civilians!) at the hands of people who supported the idea of ​​​​nationalism under the leadership of S. Bandera. No motives, even very noble ones, can justify the violent death of so many people.

Confrontation with Bandera

The crimes of Bandera caused enormous opposition to them from Soviet partisans during the war. As the territory of Ukraine was liberated from the Germans by the Red Army, the formation of the UPA intensified its actions. They tried to prevent the establishment of Soviet power on “their” land. Various acts of sabotage were carried out, for example, burning shops, destroying telegraph communications, and killing people who were in the ranks of the Red Army. Sometimes entire families were slaughtered simply because they were loyal to the Russian partisans.

Soviet troops, as the territories were liberated, also carried out a cleansing of the German Ukrainian nationalists. Almost all large UPA groups were destroyed. However, small detachments appeared that became increasingly difficult to catch.

It was a difficult time for Western Ukrainians. On the one hand, which mobilized the adult male population. On the other hand, there were the UPA formations, which exterminated everyone who was in any way connected with the Soviets.

After the end of World War II, NKGB and NKVD workers were sent to this territory to liberate it from nationalist groups. In addition, explanatory work was carried out among the population, as a result of which the so-called “extermination squads” were created. They helped in eliminating bandit groups.

The fight against Bandera continued until the fifties, when the underground OUN-UPA groups were finally defeated.

Followers of Bandera today

As of today Ukrainian territory one can observe a revival of Stepan Bandera's followers. Many Ukrainians adopted the idea of ​​nationalism, but completely forgot about the terrible times that happened then. Perhaps they even find an excuse for them. Stepan Bandera has become the idol of many young people, as he once was. Some representatives of the older generation believe (and regret) that not all Banderaites were once destroyed by their grandfathers. Opinions differ, and very much so.

Supporters and followers of the OUN leader celebrate the birthday of their idol with red and black flags. They cover their faces with bandages and hold his portraits in their hands. The procession takes place almost throughout the city, but this does not happen everywhere. Some people have a rather negative attitude towards such a vivid manifestation of veneration of Stepan Bandera.

As for ideology, modern Banderaites in Ukraine took it from their predecessors. Even the slogan “Glory to Ukraine - Glory to Heroes” was borrowed from them.

Symbols of followers of Stepan Bandera

The symbol of today's nationalists, as in past times, is the red and black canvas. This Bandera flag was approved back in 1941. It symbolizes revolutionary movement, the fight against the occupiers of Ukrainian lands. True, during World War II it was not used as often as at the present time.

If we talk specifically about the flag, then such colors are found in many countries at similar revolutionary events. For example, in Latin America it was used very often.

Thus, when considering the question: “Bandera - who are these people?” it is necessary to mention their flag, which after the Maidan of Ukraine and subsequent events became very recognizable.

Modern monuments to Bandera and his victims

Today there are many monuments reminiscent of the atrocities committed and the victims that Bandera’s followers left behind during the war. They are located in many cities and villages. The largest number of them are located in Lviv and its environs. There are also similar facilities in Lugansk, Svatovo, Shalygino, Simferopol, Volyn and Ternopil regions.

In Poland, in the city of Legnica, there is an entire alley dedicated to those killed at the hands of the UPA. A monument-mausoleum was erected in Wroclaw in memory of the victims who fell at the hands of the OUN-UPA in 39-47 of the last century.

However, there is also a monument to Bandera in Poland. It is located near Radymno. It was installed illegally, there is even an order for its demolition, but the memorial still stands.

In addition, there are numerous monuments to Stepan Bandera. There are a sufficient number of them scattered across Western Ukraine - from large monuments to small busts. They also exist abroad, for example, in Germany, where the leader of the nationalist Ukrainian movement was buried.

Today on television and on the Internet a lot of news is devoted to Ukraine. The word “Banderaites” is heard every now and then in news stories.

Who are they and what are they doing in Ukraine? If you look for the answer on your own, without help knowledgeable people, then you can stumble upon completely incorrect descriptions of these people. To answer this question, we will have to go back in time.

Where did Bandera's followers come from?

The collective name “Bandera” was formed from the name of one of the leaders who actively promoted Ukrainian nationalism. Stepan Bandera wanted to free his nation from “non-Ukrainians” so much that he brutally dealt with anyone who had other roots. The main justification for him was that he strives to gain complete freedom and independence of the country from the influence of other states and peoples as quickly as possible.

Accordingly, today Banderaites are those who share Bandera’s ideology and want to cleanse Ukraine of the ethnically “unclean” ones. Banderaism appeared during the Great Patriotic War, but now it is experiencing a second revival.

Life of Stepan Bandera

Bandera himself was not a purebred Ukrainian. He was born into a priest's family who had Greek roots. The father taught the children a lot and tried to convey to them his worldview. Perhaps then Stepan absorbed the first portion of nationalism from his father, which later grew into hatred. In addition, the First World War also left an indelible mark on the psyche of a very young man.

While still a high school student, Bandera began to show nationalistic inclinations. He led the youth movement in Western Ukraine, trying by any means to achieve its independence. It is worth noting that Bandera was not afraid to use even the most dangerous means - for example, terrorism.

As an undergraduate student, Bandera joined the Ukrainian military organization, in which he continued his activities after graduation from educational institution. In some cities, especially in Lviv, Stepan was considered an idol. It was there that the OUN, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, was created. A special Bandera uniform was even developed.

In those days, nationalists devoted a lot of effort to fighting their political opponents, so Bandera already had several political victims. For one of these crimes, the killer was sentenced to death, but then the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment - but he did not manage to serve even this term. During the German occupation of Poland, all nationalists, including Bandera, were released. This happened in 1939, just at the beginning of the Second World War.

Bandera considered the Soviet Union to be the main enemy of the people of Ukraine. But at the same time, he believed that Germany would not help Ukrainian nationalists achieve independence. In fact, this is what happened: in 1941, Stepan was taken into custody in Germany, since the Nazis had completely different plans for Ukraine. He spent 3 years in prison.

After his release, Bandera remained to live in Nazi Germany and created a foreign branch of the OUN. His activities were very inconspicuous, he tried not to attract attention and until the end of his life he walked with security. However, he still failed to escape the assassination attempt: in 1959 he was killed by KGB agent B. Stashinsky.

After his death, Bandera was left with a family. His followers maintained faith in their leader and loyalty to their ideology, adding their own cruel innovations to it. They committed many more murders on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, hiding behind the ideas of Bandera.

Activities during World War II and after

While the Bandera leader was in Germany, his followers were active in Ukraine and fought first against the Polish occupation, and then switched to the Red Army and Soviet power. It was then that the UPA was created - the “Ukrainian insurgent army”, whose enemies were everyone who was not Ukrainian. All “extra” had to be eliminated by any means.

One of the ardent fans of this doctrine was Roman Shukhevych. Under his leadership, many families of Polish origin were killed. These times are remembered as the bloodiest in the history of the region. The Belarusian village of Khatyn was simply wiped off the face of the earth. People of all ages were not just killed, but tortured before delivering the fatal blow.

Confrontation

Undoubtedly, the nationalist movement had its enemies. After all, Bandera’s followers did not just kill people of other nationalities. It got to the point of terrible absurdity: entire families were slaughtered if they were loyal to the Russians and did not support the ideology of the radicals. People lived in fear and it was impossible to defend themselves. At that time, the Soviet Union sent NKGB and NKVD workers to Ukraine. Work was carried out with the population, “extermination squads” were created. Everyone who wanted to help eliminate gangs took part in the battles. In the end, good turned white: the last underground groups of the OUN-UPA were mercilessly defeated in the mid-fifties. Only then did the attacks on civilians stop.

Who are Bandera’s followers in Ukraine today?

In modern Ukraine, the Bandera movement has begun to revive again. Young people are most susceptible to this radical ideology. However, not everyone is well acquainted with history and does not know how much trouble this too ardent nationalism brought to the country where today’s Banderaites live. The older generation does not particularly support them and regrets that they did not exterminate every last one of Bandera’s followers.

Today in Ukraine, the leader’s birthday is celebrated brightly: parades are held, participants carry portraits of the leaders of the movement and light torches. The holiday spreads throughout the city, but not all residents like the fanaticism towards Stepan Bandera and the red and black flag of Bandera.

Today's Banderaites are the most active fighters for the freedom of Ukraine and ardent opponents of the Russians. If you search on the Internet for “Bandera people photo,” you will see that in appearance they are mostly unremarkable young people, except that they wear national symbols. At parades, red and black banners and national flags are unfurled, and banners with slogans are carried. Stepan Bandera is their main idol; monuments are erected to him and songs are dedicated to him.

However, all Ukrainians should not be classified in this direction. The majority of the country's residents are not at all happy with what is happening inside Ukraine. Fortunately, similar incidents that occurred during the lifetime of Stepan Bandera and other leaders of the movement are not repeated. Although today there are many terrible stories about how Bandera’s followers commit atrocities in Ukraine, you shouldn’t believe everything, because the whole truth about Bandera’s followers can only be learned by visiting the country.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

On September 12, 1939, at a meeting on Hitler’s train, the head of military intelligence and counterintelligence, Canaris, was given the task: “...to begin preparing Ukrainian organizations working with you and having the same goals, namely, the extermination of Poles and Jews.” By “Ukrainian organizations” they meant the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). No sooner said than done. Two months later, 400 Ukrainian nationalists began training in Abwehr camps in Zakopane, Komarn, Kirchendorf and Gackestein. In 1941, these young men will become the core of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which, according to the Act of Proclamation of Ukrainian Statehood of June 30, 1941, “will enter the war on the side of Germany and will wage it together with the German army for as long as possible on all fronts.” modern warfare she won't win."

On the day of the adoption of the Act of Proclamation, the Ukrainian Nachtigal battalion, under the command of Roman Shukhevych, burst into Lviv together with German advanced units and shot more than three thousand Lviv Poles, including 70 world-famous scientists. And within a week, about seven thousand more Jews, Russians and Ukrainians were brutally slaughtered.

• The Banderlogs chose as their idol the sadistic dwarf Stepan BANDERA, who, due to rickets suffered in childhood, grew only 1 m 57 cm. His classmates recalled how he, in order to strengthen his character, caught and strangled cats. Photo by Oscar YANSONS/Komsomolskaya Pravda

While Lviv was being cleared of corpses, in the courtyard of the St. George Cathedral, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky held a service in honor of the “invincible German army and its main leader, Adolf Hitler.” With the blessing of the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the mass extermination of civilians in Ukraine began by Bandera, Nachtigalevites, Upovites and soldiers of the SS Galicia division. The nationalists took up the cause so vigorously that already on July 5, 1941, Hitler, shocked by the report of their atrocities, ordered Himmler to “bring order to this gang.” In the end, the Germans simply dispersed the OUN leaders, and Stepan Bandera was sent to rest in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for a couple of years, albeit in a cozy block for privileged prisoners. He was released only in the middle of the war, when the Red Army went on the offensive. And then the UPA, left without German control, showed itself in full force. Thousands of Ukrainians died a terrible, martyr’s death every day. The nationalists seemed to have broken free. They turned each murder into a sophisticated torture, as if competing with each other in their atrocity. Later, when the NKVD investigative teams investigated the crimes of Bandera’s followers, they compiled a list of the 135 most frequently used tortures by OUN-UPA fighters against the civilian population: * Driving in a large and fat nail into the skull.* Punching a sharpened thick wire through from ear to ear.* Crushing the head by placing it in a vice and tightening the screw.

• Having occupied Lvov in the summer of 1941, Bandera’s supporters carried out a massacre of Poles and Jews. Women were raped and paraded naked through the streets before being shot.

* Sawing the body in half with a carpenter's saw. * Cutting the belly of a woman with an advanced pregnancy and putting in, for example, a live cat instead of the removed fetus and stitching up the belly. * Cutting the belly and pouring boiling water inside. * Tearing out the veins from the groin to the feet. * Hanging victims for entrails.* Putting a glass bottle into the anus and breaking it.* Cutting open the belly and pouring food inside, the so-called feed meal, for hungry pigs, who tore out this food along with the intestines and other entrails.* Nailing the tongue of a small child with a knife, which later hung on it.* Hanging from a tree with your feet up and scorching your head from below with the fire of a fire lit under your head.* Driving oak stakes between the ribs.* Nailing your hands to the threshold of your home. And then it’s even worse...

For some reason they forgot in Russia...

Chopped into pieces with axes

Testimony about the atrocities of militants of the Ukrainian rebel army has been published in full, but for some reason not in Russia and Ukraine, but in Poland. They believe that their crimes have no statute of limitations and are surprised that the “bloody Stalinist regime” allowed thousands of former policemen to live peacefully until retirement and receive benefits from the current government of Ukraine on an equal basis with the war participants who liberated their land from the Nazis.

* Two teenagers, the Gorshkevich brothers, who tried to call the partisans for help, had their bellies cut open, their legs and arms cut off, their wounds generously covered with salt, and left to die in the field. * In one of the houses, on a table among scraps and unfinished bottles of moonshine, lay a dead child, a naked body which was nailed to the boards of the table with a bayonet. The monsters stuffed a half-eaten pickled cucumber into his mouth.* The Upovites muzzled the two-month-old child Joseph Fili, tore him by the legs, and put parts of the body on the table.* In the summer of 1944, a hundred “Igors” stumbled upon a camp of gypsies in the Paridub forest who had fled from persecution by the Nazis. The bandits robbed them and brutally killed them. They cut them with saws, strangled them with nooses, and chopped them into pieces with axes. In total, 140 Roma were killed, including 67 children.

* One night from the village of Volkovya, Bandera’s men brought a whole family into the forest. They mocked unfortunate people for a long time. Seeing that the wife of the head of the family was pregnant, they cut open her stomach, tore out the fetus from it, and instead stuffed a live rabbit into it.

• ...and in Poland the victims of Ukrainian nationalists are remembered very well

At night, a village girl of seventeen years old, or even younger, was brought into the forest from the village of Khmyzovo. Her fault was that she, along with other village girls, went to dances when she was in the village military unit Red Army. “Kubik” saw the girl and asked “Varnak” for permission to personally interrogate her. He demanded that she admit that she “walked” with the soldiers. The girl swore that this did not happen. “I’ll check it now,” “Kubik” grinned, sharpening a pine stick with a knife. A moment later, he jumped up to the prisoner and with the sharp end of a stick began to poke her between her legs until he drove a pine stake into the girl’s genitals.* Bandera’s men came to our yard, grabbed our father and cut off his head with an ax, and pierced our sister with a stake. Mom, seeing this, died of a broken heart.* My brother’s wife was Ukrainian. Because she married a Pole, 18 Bandera members raped her. When she woke up, she went and drowned herself in the Dniester.* Before the execution, nationalists accused teacher Raisa Borzilo of promoting the Soviet system at school. Bandera's men gouged out her eyes alive, cut out her tongue, then threw a wire noose around her neck and dragged her into a field.* In the fall of 1943, soldiers of the “army of immortals” killed forty Polish children in the village of Lozovaya, Ternopil district. In the alley, they “decorated” the trunk of each tree with the corpse of a child killed before. The corpses were nailed to the trees in such a way as to create the appearance of a “wreath.”* We witnessed how the OUN men completely cut out entire Red Army hospitals, which at first were left in the rear unguarded. They cut out stars on the bodies of the wounded, cut off ears, tongues, and genitals.

• With the criminal connivance of Russian diplomacy, the official authorities in Ukraine in recent years, starting with the presidency of Viktor YUSHCHENKO, have glorified the exploits of the fascists, so is it any wonder that they came to power?

Got a living heart

“We had five parents, we were all inveterate Bandera supporters. During the day we slept in our huts, and at night we walked and traveled around the villages. We were given tasks to strangle those who sheltered Russian prisoners and the prisoners themselves. The men did this, and we women sorted through clothes, took cows and pigs from dead people, slaughtered livestock, processed everything, stewed it and put it in barrels. Once, 84 people were strangled to death in one night in the village of Romanov. Elderly people and old people were strangled, and small children were strangled by the legs - once, they hit their heads on the door, and that was it. We felt sorry for our men that they would suffer so much during the night, but they would sleep off during the day and the next night they would go to another village.... In Novoselki, Rivne region, there was one Komsomol member, Motrya. We took her to Verkhovka to old Zhabsky and let’s get a heart from a living person. Old Salivon held a watch in one hand and a heart in the other to check how long the heart would beat in his hand... A Jewish woman was walking with a child, ran away from the ghetto, they stopped her, beat her and buried her in the forest. We were given an order: Jews, Poles, Russian prisoners and those who hide them, to strangle everyone without mercy. The Severin family was strangled, and their daughter was married in another village. She arrived, but her parents weren’t there, she started crying and let’s dig up her things. The Banderas came, took the clothes, and locked my daughter alive in the same box and buried her. And her two small children remained at home. And if the children had come with their mother, then they would have been in that box..."From the diary of Bandera's Nadezhda VDOVICHENKO

Heroes of Babyn Yar Just like today, once Bandera’s followers were already the masters of Kyiv. They entered the city on September 23, 1941, and on September 28 they shot 350 thousand Kiev residents, including 50 thousand children, at Babi Yar! Among the 1,500 punitive forces at Babi Yar there were 1,200 policemen from the OUN and only 300 Germans! In general, 5 million 300 thousand civilians died at the hands of the Nazis in Ukraine. But of this number, Bandera’s followers brutally tortured: 850 thousand Jews, 220 thousand Poles, 500 thousand Ukrainians, 450 thousand Soviet prisoners of war and approximately five thousand of their own “insufficiently active and nationally conscious” members of the UPA.

Savior of the Nation It is a paradox, but it was Stalin who turned out to be the man who resolved the national issue in Western Ukraine in a civilized manner. Without cutting off heads and disemboweling children, through population exchange. The new communist government established in liberated Poland did not allow full-scale acts of revenge against the Ukrainians. On July 6, 1945, an agreement “On population exchange” was concluded between the USSR and Poland. 1 million Poles went from the USSR to Poland, 600 thousand Ukrainians went in the opposite direction, plus 140 thousand Polish Jews went to Palestine.

Just a fact: On March 17, 1951, the UPA appealed to the US government to provide assistance to the Ukrainian rebels in the fight against the USSR.

• victims of bullying

After the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops finally seized the strategic initiative and began to liberate Ukraine. In November 1943, Kyiv was cleared of the Germans, after which in the first half of 1944 the Korsun-Shevchenko and Lvov-Sandomierz operations were carried out to liberate the territories west of the Dnieper. At this time, the Red Army soldiers clashed with units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)*.

Liberate Ukraine

After the defeat of the Nazis on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943, the Red Army was rapidly approaching the Dnieper. The Germans hastily strengthened their positions. The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)*, one of whose leaders was Stepan Bandera, also prepared to repel the advance of Soviet troops. For these purposes, a hasty mobilization of the armed wing of the organization was carried out - the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (now an extremist organization banned in Russia).

Its backbone consisted of people from Western Ukraine who shared nationalist ideas and professed radical anti-Sovietism. Organizationally, the UPA* was divided into several units autonomous from each other: “West” (Lviv region), “North” (Volyn) and “East”. The main combat units were battalions (300-500 soldiers) and companies (100-150 people), as well as platoons of 30-40 soldiers. They were armed with rifles, machine guns and even Hungarian tankettes and anti-tank guns.

According to historians, by January 1944, that is, by the time the Red Army began operations in Right Bank Ukraine, the number of UPA* was about 80 thousand people. Of these, about 30 thousand were constantly under arms, the rest were dispersed throughout villages and towns and were involved in combat operations as needed.

Units of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Army General Nikolai Vatutin were the first to enter the battle with Bandera. The nationalists initially tried not to get involved in major clashes with units of the Red Army, preferring the tactics of small attacks.

War on a grand scale

This went on for several months, until on March 27, near the village of Lipki in the Rivne region, Soviet troops surrounded two battalions of Bandera’s supporters. The battle lasted about six hours. About 400 bandits were killed on the spot, and the rest were pushed back to the river.

When trying to cross it by swimming, about 90 people drowned, only nine people were captured by the Red Army - all that was left of the two UPA battalions*. The report addressed to Joseph Stalin said that one of the commanders, nicknamed Gamal, was identified among the corpses.

Another major battle took place two days later near the village of Baskino in the same Rivne region. A Bandera detachment of several hundred people was taken by surprise by Soviet soldiers. The UPA* bandits were pushed back to the river and began crossing. And everything would have been fine, but on the opposite bank an auxiliary company of Red Army soldiers was waiting for them. As a result, the nationalists lost more than 100 people.

Climax

But the largest battle between the Red Army and the UPA* took place on April 21-25, 1944 near the Gurba tract in the Rivne region. The battle was preceded by an attack by Bandera at the end of February on General Vatutin, as a result of which he died. To deal with armed detachments of nationalists of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which Georgy Zhukov began to command after the death of Vatutin, allocated an additional cavalry division, artillery and eight tanks.

From the UPA* side, detachments of the “North” unit took part in the battle total number about five thousand people. Soviet troops had significant superiority, having 25-30 thousand soldiers. As for the tanks, according to some sources, there were eight of them; according to other sources, the Soviet command used 15 armored vehicles. There is also evidence of the use of aviation by the Red Army. Despite the numerical advantage of the Soviet units, Bandera’s troops had excellent knowledge of the area and, to a certain extent, the help of the local population.

The battle itself was an attempt to break through the main forces of Bandera through the front line into territory controlled by the German army. Lasting for several days, the battle eventually ended in a decisive victory for the Red Army. More than two thousand UPA* soldiers were killed, and about one and a half thousand were captured. The losses of Soviet troops amounted to about a thousand people killed and wounded. Despite the fact that the remaining Banderaites were able to break through to the Germans, the backbone of the “North” unit was defeated. This significantly facilitated the task of further liberation of Western Ukraine.

Other major operation against Bandera was carried out by the Red Army at the height of the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. On August 22-27, Soviet rifle and cavalry units conducted a raid on fortified points and camps of the UPA* in the Lviv region. More than 3.2 thousand bandits were destroyed, more than a thousand were captured. Soviet troops The trophies included an armored personnel carrier, a car, 21 machine guns and five mortars.

Roundup war

In 1945, at the last stage of the Great Patriotic War, when the front line went far to the west, the so-called round-up tactics were mainly used against the “runaways.” Its essence was that first reconnaissance in force was carried out in order to call the nationalist forces into open battle. When they got involved, the main ones came into play Soviet forces. This tactic was much more effective than searching for armed bandits in the mountains and forests.

Raid operations were also sometimes carried out on a large scale. Thus, in April 1945, a 50,000-strong group under the command of General Mikhail Marchenkov defeated the UPA* forces in the Carpathian region on the line of the new Soviet-Polish border. More than a thousand Banderaites were killed, several thousand were arrested.

After the end of the war, the surviving nationalists finally switched to guerrilla warfare tactics. It was possible to put an end to the Bandera underground only by the beginning of the 1950s.

*- Organization prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation