The NKVD and OUN western Ukraine September 1939

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Steve
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The NKVD and OUN western Ukraine September 1939

#1

Post by Steve » 30 Aug 2016, 16:42

Prior to the Soviet attack on Poland the NKVD formed nine operational groups. Each group consisted of between 40 and 70 personnel supported by an infantry battalion. Their job was to capture important facilities such as banks, telephone exchanges, police stations, military facilities etc. The groups also had lists of people who were to be immediately removed. Five groups advanced into the Western Ukraine and by early October had arrested 3,194 members of the police, gendarmes, and representatives of the “bourgeois” class.

Ever since the 1920s the Ukrainian nationalist group known as the OUN had been receiving money from the German Abwehr. When the war started it was told to stage an uprising in the Polish rear. In August with war looming the Polish authorities started arresting Ukrainian nationalists. Quite likely thousands were arrested but when the Polish state collapsed in September many escaped. It is estimated that about 7,000 Ukrainians participated in the short lived uprising that now took place. Polish police stations and officials were attacked and some Polish soldiers disarmed, hundreds of Polish civilians were probably killed.

From the NKVDs perspective it can probably be said that it had a successful start. However, though the NKVD was later able to infiltrate the OUN it did not destroy it. In 1940 the Soviet police claimed to have eliminated 128 resistance units with 870 men but whether all these were OUN units is not clear from the wording. With its roots in the Ukrainian peasantry and its leadership outside the country it was a very resilientant organisation and was undoubtedly the largest resistance group in the western Ukraine. In 1941 when it came out of the shadows it was stronger than ever.

Sources used are: - The Lands Between by Alexander V. Prusin, 2010.
The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands by Alexander Statiev, 2010.

smetanin albert
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Re: The NKVD and OUN western Ukraine September 1939

#2

Post by smetanin albert » 28 Sep 2016, 13:44

Every Ukrainian soul in a real Irishman! He wants an independent Ukraine, but he has no money. They have money to serve the Turks, the Germans, the Russian. As to their advantage. Today he is a Slav, a member of the OUN and tomorrow. This eternal resistance. It is an eternal "Fronde".


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Steve
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Re: The NKVD and OUN western Ukraine September 1939

#3

Post by Steve » 28 Sep 2016, 14:47

Albert certainly has a way with words, I must confess I never thought of it in those terms.

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