UPA fought against NKVD troops, not Red Army, says SBU

November02200921:36

The major enemy of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army in WWII) was Soviet interior ministry, NKVD, troops, not the Red Army, Ukraine security service archive director Volodymyr Vyatrovych says. There are documents in the archive about the operations of UPA and Red Army, the Liberation Movement Research Center told ZIK Nov. 2.

“UPA’s main adversary was NKVD, not the Red Army. NKVD troops were involved in cleansing operations against civilian population in Western Ukraine. It is against NKVD that UPA fought till mid-50s,” Vyatrovych says.

According to the historian, the popular Soviet propaganda myth that UPA used stab-in-the-back tactics against the Red Army are not true. “Documents prove that UPA commanders gave clear orders to UPA units not to attack the advancing Red Army,” he point out.

Such UPA neutrality, Vyatrovych goes on, was caused by certain tactical and political reasons. On the one hand, UPA commanders realized they could not stop the German-Soviet front rolling to Europe. On the other hand, they viewed the Red Army as a potential ally in the fight against Stalin and Nazis.

The historian recounted episodes when Red Army soldiers joined the UPA. “Very often they were POWs liberated by UPA fighters from German concentration camps,” he says. Among them, for instance, were Red Army Lieut. Dmytro Karpenko who was the first recipient of UPA’s highest award, The Golden Cross of Combat Merit, and Ivan Kulyk (Siryj) who fought for UPA till 1952. “There are many similar cases in UPA history,” the archive director assured.

Comments

03:5412.11.09 Harold Jones
- Pathetic to see old psychopaths like "steve" squirming to avoid facing up to responsibility for killing millions of people. UPA was a grassroots insurgency against tyranical oppression.
03:4608.11.09 Wal
- What a ridiculous comment. UPA was not fascist. Bandera and the UPA killed hundreds of thousands of whom? Opposition soldiers? Well, they were fighting a WAR weren't they?
04:1003.11.09 Steve
- The UPA was a fascist organization allied with the Germans and is responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people. In Germany, there are no monuments to Hitler, but there are monuments to Stepan Bandera in Ukraine.