Talk:Ukrainian Insurgent Army/ Sandbox

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The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian: Українська Повстанська Армія, Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya, UPA) was a Ukrainian guerrilla army formed on October 14, 1942, in Volhynia. The UPA was the military branch of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The main goal of the UPA was an independent Ukraine. Its leaders were Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera.

The UPA fought a broad spectrum of military forces in the area: the German Wehrmacht, the Polish Armia Krajowa and the Soviet Red Army. After World War II, UPA partisan units continued fighting the Soviet Union and communist Poland until the early 1950s, especially in Carpathian Mountains regions. It was unique among practically all resistence movements in Nazi-occupied Europe in that it had no significant foreign support, making its growth and strength an indication of its popularity among the Ukrainian people [1]

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[edit] UPA's Struggle Against Germany

UPA was formed in late 1942 for three reasons: in order to serve as a foundation for a Ukrainian army; in response to the needs of Ukrainian villagers who demanded protection against German repression; and in order to prevent Soviet partisans who had begun penetrating into northwestern Ukraine from assuming the role of the people's protector. During this struggle in grew size and its activities increased in scope to cover much of western Ukraine. German estimates stated that UPA had up to 100,000 soldiers (other estimates are as low as 35,000), and they conducted hundreds of raids on German police stations and military convoys. By late 1943 and early 1944, UPA controlled much of the territory in Volyn outside of the major cities, and was able to organize basic services for the villagers such as schools and hospitals. In the region of Zhitomir, for example, UPA was estimated by the German General-Kommisar Leyser to be in control of 80% of the forests and 60% of the farmland. [2]

The Carpathian mountains saw some of the heaviest fighting between UPA and German forces in late 1943 and early 1944, as UPA struggled to maintain control over several of the mountain passes. In November 1943 UPA battle groups Black Forest and Makivka defeated 12 German battalians supported by the German airforce in a battle over control of UPA-held territory, and in May and July 1944 two more attempts by the Germans to capture Carpathian mountain passes were repulsed. The latter victory involved the defeat of two German divisions supported by artillery. On July 26, 1944 near the village of Nedilna another German division was defeated and its entire supply column, including many officers and soldiers, were captured by UPA. [3]

In a debriefing before U.S. authorites in 1948, a Committee of former German commanders on the Eastern front claimed that "the Ukrainian Nationalist movement formed the strongest partisan movement in the East with the exception of the Russian Communists." <ref name=German commanders>{{cite book| title=Russian Combat Methods in World War II| location= Washington, D.C. | publisher= U.S. Army Center of Military History | year = 1950| page = 111 }} </ref>

[edit] UPA's Struggle Against Soviet Forces

UPA's began fighting Soviet forces when they appeared on its territory as the Soviet Army advanced into western ukraine. In early 1944 UPA insurgents ambushed and killed Nikolai Vatutin, the famous commander of the Battle of Kursk, who led the liberation of Kiev. Famous Soviet intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov, Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky) of the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church and Polish general Karol Świerczewski were also killed by UPA insurgents. Soviet officials of all levels, from high rank NKVD and military officers to the school teachers and postal workers were also targeted.

[edit] UPA and the Destruction of Western Ukraine's Polish Community

The UPA strove to and often succeeded in removing Poles from areas that it regarded as indigenously Ukrainian. Some estimates have put the Polish death toll between 80,000 and 100,000 (see Massacre of Poles in Volhynia for more details) and many historians, particularly in Poland, use the term genocide or ethnic cleansing to denote the events. Ukrainian researchers counter with similar allegations of mass deportations, murder and mayhem by Armia Krajowa and other guerilla forces aimed at terrorizing Ukrainian inhabitants of Volhynia.

The UPA's activities are sometimes seen as a response to actions of the inter-war Polish government, which sought to limit the number of Ukrainian institutions in the same areas, often regarded as indigenously Polish. However, the scope of such actions, although unquestionably anti-Ukrainian, was mostly limited to cultural suppression such as closing Ukrainian-language schools and shutting down Ukrainian churches.

[edit] Aftermath

During the Soviet years UPA was officially mentioned only in negative terms, and was considered to have been a terrorist organisation. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, former UPA members struggled for official recognition as legitimate combatants, with the accompanying pensions and benefits due to war veterans. They have also strived to hold parades and commemorations of their own, especially in Western Ukraine. This in turn led to opposition from the Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet Army, and disapproval from the Russian government. So far the attempts to reconcile the two groups of veterans have made little progress. An attempt to hold a joint parade in Kiev in May, 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II proved unsuccessful. The assessment of the historical role of UPA remains a controversial issue in Ukrainian society although Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko joined several public organizations in Ukrained in calls for reconciliation, pensions and other benefits for UPA veterans that would equate them in status with the veterans of the Soviet Army, and a better understanding of their role in the chaotic times of UPA operations.


[edit] See also:

[edit] References

Inline
  1. ^ Subtelny, O. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 474. 
  2. ^ Toynbee, T.R.V. (1954). Survey of International Affairs: Hitler's Europe 1939-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  3. ^ Krokhmaluk, Y. (1973). UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York: Vantage Press. 
General

[edit] External links

[[Category:Terrorism]] [[Category:National liberation movements]] [[Category:History of Ukraine]] [[Category:History of Poland]]


de:Ukrajinska Powstanska Armija es:Ukrains'ka Povstans'ka Armiia pl:Ukraińska Powstańcza Armia ru:Украинская повстанческая армия uk:Українська Повстанська Армія