The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Banderite faction of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942, existing until the 1950s. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, the Polish people (both the Polish Underground State resistance and Soviet-backed forces as well as against civilians), and against Nazi Germany, though in so doing initially motivated by anti-German ethnic exclusionary sentiment, and ultimately entering collaboration with the Germans on common totalitarian ideological grounds by late 1944. The UPA carried out massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia,J. P. Himka. Interventions: Challenging the Myths of Twentieth-Century Ukrainian history. University of Alberta. 28 March 2011. p. 4, reproduced in The Convolutions of Historical Politics, edited by Alexei Miller and Maria Lipman, 211–238. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2012, p. 214 which are recognized by Poland as a genocide.
The goal of the OUN was to establish an independent Ukrainian state. This goal, according to the OUN founding declaration, "was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a dictatorship" that would drive out occupying powers and then establish a "government representing all regions and social groups"; OUN accepted violence as a political tool against enemies of their cause.Myroslav Yurkevich, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Orhanizatsiia ukrainskykh natsionalistiv) This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993). In order to achieve this goal, a number of partisan units were formed, merged into a single structure in the form of the UPA, which was created on 14 October 1942. From February 1943, the organization fought against the Germans in Volhynia and Polesia. At the same time, its forces fought against the Polish Home Army,Timothy Snyder. The reconstruction of nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. Yale University Press. 2003. pp. 175–178. during which the UPA carried out massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, resulting in the deaths of up to 100,000 Polish civilians.Aleksander V. Prusin. Ethnic Cleansing: Poles from Western Ukraine. In: Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen. Immigration and asylum: from 1900 to the present. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. 2005. pp. 204–205.Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe. "The Ukrainian National Revolution" of 1941. Discourse and Practice of a Fascist Movement. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Vol. 12/No. 1 (Winter 2011). p. 83. In 1944, as the German Army was retreating, the UPA continued its war against them by attacking its rear and seizing its equipment, but at the end of July 1944 the UPA formed a united front with Nazi Germany, ceasing attacks on the withdrawing Wehrmacht and defending against the Soviets in exchange for military aid. Soviet NKVD units fought against the UPA, which engaged in armed resistance against Soviets until 1949. On the territory of Communist Poland, the UPA tried to prevent the forced deportation of Ukrainians from western Galicia to the Soviet Union until 1947.
The UPA was a decentralized movement widespread throughout Ukraine, divided into three operational regions; each region followed a somewhat different agenda, given the circumstances of a constantly moving front line and a double threat from both Soviet and Nazi forces. Not all UPA soldiers were members of the OUN or shared OUN's ideology.
The UPA was formally disbanded in early September 1949, but some of its units continued operations until late 1956. Officially, the UPA's last military engagement occurred in October 1956, when remnants of the group fought on the Hungarian border region in support of the attempted revolution in that country. In March 2019, surviving UPA members were officially granted the status of veterans by the government of Ukraine.
The UPA has a mixed legacy, both in Ukraine and abroad. While commemorated by many Ukrainians as heroes of their nation for anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet resistance, some Soviet Army veterans oppose their positive remembrance and only some UPA veterans have received official veteran status in March 2019, despite receiving other forms of commemoration along with monuments and memorials. Some UPA veterans have responded to Polish grievances over their past misdeeds by meeting with Polish veterans and apologizing. Despite controversies over the exhumation of UPA victims in Volhynia, Ukrainian and Polish historians have also collaborated on a multi-volume history of the two nations, including the fraught history during the UPA's era.
Organization
The UPA's command structure overlapped with that of the OUN-B (the more radical faction of the OUN after it split in 1940); local OUN and UPA leaders were frequently the same person. The OUN's military referents were the superiors of UPA unit commanders. The UPA was established in Volhynia and initially limited its activities to this region. Its first commander was the OUN military referent for Volhynia and Polesia, Vasyl Ivakhiv. In July, the UPA Supreme Command was organized with Dmytro Klyachkivsky at its head.
Organizationally, the UPA was divided into regions. the Western Operational Group operated in western Ukraine;Петро Мірчук, Українська Повстанська Армія. 1942–1952. Мюнхен, 1953. – 233–234 ст. the Southern Operational Group in the central-southern regions of Podolia and parts of Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Odesa oblasts; the Northern Operational Group in the northern regions of Volhynia, Rivne Oblast, and parts of Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts; in eastern Ukraine, the UPA fled north, as the Soviet Union had executed a number of the UPA's participants. The members of the Eastern Operational Group joined other UPA units in Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv oblasts.
In November 1943, the UPA adopted a new structure, creating a Main Military Headquarters and the General Staff. Roman Shukhevych headed the HQ, while Dmytro Hrytsai became chief of staff. The General Staff consisted of operations, intelligence, logistics, personnel, training, political education, and military inspectors departments. In addition to the three regions named above, there was also an attempt to create an Eastern Operational Group, including Kyiv and Zhytomyr oblasts, but the project never came to fruition. Similarly, the UPA-South region ceased to exist in the summer of 1944, but continued to appear in documents. Three military schools for low-level command staff were also established.
The UPA's largest unit type, the kurin, consisting of 500–700 soldiers,Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 12, p. 169 was equivalent to a battalion, and its smallest unit, the rii (literally bee swarm), with eight to ten soldiers, equivalent to a squad. Occasionally, and particularly in Volyn, during some operations three or more kurins would unite and form a zahin or brigade. Organizational methods were borrowed and adapted from the German, Polish and Soviet military, while UPA units based their training on a modified Red Army field unit manual.
In terms of UPA soldiers' social background, 60 percent were peasants of low to moderate means, 20 to 25 percent were from the working class (primarily from the rural lumber and food industries), and 15 percent were members of the intelligentsia (students, urban professionals). The latter group provided a large portion of the UPA's military trainers and officer corps. The number of UPA fighters varied: a German Abwehr report from November 1943 estimated that the UPA had 20,000 soldiers; other estimates at that time placed the number at 40,000. By the summer of 1944, estimates of UPA membership varied from 25,000 to 30,000 fighters, up to 100,000, or even 200,000 soldiers.
Structure The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was structured into three units:
The fourth region, UPA-East, was planned, but never created.
Anthem The anthem of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was called the March of Ukrainian Nationalists, also known as We were born in a great hour (). The song, written by Oles Babiy, was officially adopted by the leadership of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in 1932. The organization was a successor of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, whose anthem was "Chervona Kalyna". Leaders of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, Yevhen Konovalets and Andriy Melnyk, were founding members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. For this reason, "Chervona Kalyna" was also used by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Flag The flag of the UPA was a red-and-black banner, which continues to be a symbol of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. The colors of the flag symbolize "red Ukrainian blood spilled on the black Ukrainian earth. Use of the flag is also a "sign of the stubborn endurance of the Ukrainian national idea even under the grimmest conditions."
Awards Cross of Merit Cross of Combat Merit
Military ranks The UPA made use of a dual rank system that included functional command position designations and traditional military ranks. The functional system was developed due to an acute shortage of qualified and politically reliable officers during the early stages of organization.
Supremecommander Regionalcommander Division(military district)commander Brigade(tactical sector)commander Battalioncommander Companycommander Platoon leader Squad leader
UPA rank structure consisted of at least seven commissioned officer ranks, four non-commissioned officer ranks, and two soldier ranks. The hierarchical order of known ranks and their approximate U.S. Army equivalent is as follows: UPA RANKS US ARMY EQUIVALENTS Brigadier General Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Major Captain First Lieutenant Second Lieutenant Master Sergeant Sergeant First Class Staff Sergeant Sergeant Private First Class Private
The rank scheme provided for three more higher general officer ranks: (Major General), (Lieutenant General), and (General with Four Stars).
Armaments Initially, the UPA used weapons collected from the battlefields of 1939 and 1941. Later, they bought weapons from peasants and individual soldiers or captured them in combat. Some light weapons were also brought by deserting Ukrainian auxiliary policemen. For the most part, the UPA used light infantry weapons of Soviet and, to a lesser extent, German origin (for which ammunition was less readily obtainable). In 1944, German units armed the UPA directly with captured Soviet arms. Many kurins were equipped with light 51 mm and 82 mm mortars. During large-scale operations in 1943–1944, insurgent forces also used artillery (45 mm and 76.2 mm).Motyka, p. 148 In 1943 a light Hungarian tank was used in Volhynia.However it is not true that UPA had a Soviet T-35 tank.
In 1944, the Soviets captured a Polikarpov Po-2 aircraft and one armored car and one personnel carrier from the UPA; however, it was not stated that they were in operable condition, while no OUN/UPA documents noted the usage of such equipment.Ivan Bilas. Repressive-punishment system in Ukraine. 1917–1953 Vol.2 Kyiv Lybid-Viysko Ukrainy, 1994 p. 585 By the end of World War II in Europe, the NKVD had captured 45 artillery pieces (45 and 76.2 mm calibres) and 423 mortars from the UPA. In attacks against Polish civilians, axes and pikes were used. However, the light infantry weapon was the basic weapon used by the UPA. Українська Повстанська Армія – Історія нескорених – Львів, 2007 p. 203
History Formation 1941