Ukrainian Partisan Army

UPA Army

Ukrainian Partisan Army See also Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Lipotys, Organization of the Ukrainian Nationals (OUN) Founder, Mykola Lebed 1942

Commander in Chief - Gen. Roman Shukhevych - killed in 1950.

Vasyl Kuk, Last Leader of Ukrainian Insurgent Army, took over after the death of Gen Shukhevych

Stephan/Stepan Bandura - leader of the Organization of the Ukrainian Nationals (OUN) died of poison gas in 1959

The story of the UPA and of its founder, Mykola Lebed, has been distorted in various ways for 60 years now. Soviet propagandists, Russian nationalists, and Ukrainian Communists have denounced the UPA as collaborators who, after the war, became "American agents" and actively fought to separate Ukraine from the Soviet Union. Although Ukraine is now independent, this has not prevented the UPA's detractors from continuing their ideological attacks.

Soviet propagandists, Russian nationalists, and Ukrainian Communists have denounced the UPA as collaborators who, after the war, became "American agents."

Lebed, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), founded the UPA in western Ukraine in 1942. Born in 1909, Lebed rose to prominence for his role in planning the OUN's 1934 assassination of Polish Interior Minister Bronislaw Pieracki. Arrested by the Gestapo as he tried to cross Germany to the free city of Danzig, Lebed was turned over to Poland and sentenced to death, a sentence that was later commuted to life in prison. He was sent to a prison camp in the Belarusian town of Bereza Kartuska.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Lebed escaped and rejoined the OUN in western Ukraine. Shortly afterward, the OUN split into two factions and Lebed joined the group headed by Stephan Bandera that came to be known as OUN-b.

The UPA continued its struggle after the war and was eventually liquidated as a resistance force by Soviet secret-police (NKVD) troops in 1950, when the last UPA commander-in-chief, Roman Shukhevych, was killed in an ambush. In a measure designed to separate the partisans from local residents who shared their goals, millions of Ukrainians were deported from western Ukraine to secure regions in eastern Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
For more of this story: http://www.ukemonde.com

March 31, 2009
Here are a few pics that were taken last year while in Lviv during theCelebration of Independent Army's Day. So many people and as you can see one soldier was very proud to show off his uniform UPA! No one was afraid to be there, they walked tall, they spoke of the days when they fought WW2.

Roman's father was in UPA before leaving Ukraine and ending up in Germany. He was proud to be a part of history. I just wish he would have written his stories before he died.

Judy jkruzer@shaw.ca

Litopys UPA - http://litopysupa.com
Ukrainian Museum - http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org
Vasyl Kuk, Last Leader of Ukrainian Insurgent Army Dies http://www.brama.com
Complete story in volumes: http://www.infoukes.com
Stepan Bandura http://exlibris.org.ua