Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army

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Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army aka Polissian Sich (Poliska sich).

The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army was a Ukrainian insurgent formation, organized in Volhynia June 1941 by Taras Borovets under the aegis of the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic. It was initially known as the Polissian Sich, then as the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) and finally the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army.


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[edit] The Polissian Sich

Its earliest anti-Soviet activities in Sarny consisted of attacking NKVD jails and Soviet Army mobilization centers and capturing arms and ammunition. In July 1941 the Sich was recognized by the German authorities as a local militia, whose primary mission was to clear Polissia of the remnants of the Soviet Army before they regrouped into partisan detachments.

In August Borovets obtained the support of the OUN (Melnyk faction) and, assisted by a cadre of UNR Army officers, expanded his force to several thousand men. The Sich's chief of staff was Petro Smorodsky, formerly a lieutenant colonel of the UNR Army. After defeating a Soviet force at Olevske on 21 August, Borovets established his headquarters there. With the elimination of the Soviet partisan threat, the Germans forced the Polissian Sich to demobilize (15 November 1941).

[edit] UPA (North)

In March 1942 Borovets reactivated the Polissian Sich, this time as an anti-Nazi insurgent force, and renamed it the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The five-company army began its anti-Nazi activities in late April 1942. Its best-known operation took place at Shepetivka on 19 August. In the autumn of 1942 Borovets signed an armistice with Soviet partisans, but failed to reach an agreement with the Germans, and hostilities with the Soviet partisans and the Germans resumed in February 1943. By that time, partisan units controlled by the OUN (Bandera faction) in Western Ukraine had become the dominant Ukrainian force.

The two Ukrainian insurgent forces shared a common name, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, without merging into one army.

By late 1943 and early 1944, UPRA 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, hospitals, and the printing of newspapers. In the region of Zhytomyr for example, Ukrainian UPRA was estimated by the German General-Kommissar Leyser to be in control of 80% of the forests and 60% of the farmland.[1].

In June 1943 German SS and police forces under the command of General von dem Bach-Zalewski, seen as an expert in fighting against guerrillas, attempted to destroy UPRA in Volyn during Operation "BB" (Bandenbekampfung). He was chosen specifically by Himmler to destroy all Partisan activity in this operation.[2] During Operation "BB" Bach-Zalewski had under his command 10 battalions of motorized SS troops, 10,000 German and Polish police, 2 regiments of the Hungarian army, and three battalions of Cossacks organized from among Soviet POWs.[3] By August, this operation proved to be a military failure. During this struggle, on August 19-20 UPRA captured the military center of Kamin Koshyrsky, defeating several German battalions and capturing large quantities of arms and ammunition.[3] General Bach-Zaleski was relieved of his command and replaced by General Prutzmann. Ultimately the German forces failed to destroy UPA or to establish control over the Volyn countryside.

In March 1944, UPA insurgents mortally wounded Nikolai Vatutin, the famous commander of the Battle of Kursk, who led the liberation of Kiev.[4] Several weeks later an NKVD battalion was annihilated by UPA near Rivne, beginning the full-scale struggle in the summer of 1944, involving 30,000 Soviet troops against UPA in Volyn that, despite heavy casualties on both sides, was inconclusive.[citation needed] As late as summer 1945, many battalion-size[5]

[edit] The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army

The steady loss of men to the rival UPA and the decline in peasant support prompted Borovets to rename his force the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army.

On 18 August 1943 the force was surrounded and disarmed by the UPA. Borovets and his staff escaped and remained active until November 1943.


[edit] References

  1. ^ Toynbee, T.R.V. (1954). Survey of International Affairs: Hitler's Europe 1939-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
  2. ^ James K. Anderson, Unknown Soldiers of an Unknown Army, Army Magazine, May 1968, p. 63
  3. ^ a b Krokhmaluk, Y. (1973). UPA Warfare in Ukraine. New York: Vantage Press. 
  4. ^ Grenkevich, L., translated by David Glantz. (1999). The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944: Critical analysis of. Routledge, 134. 
  5. ^ Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: a history, pp. 489, University of Toronto Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8020-8390-0

[edit] Sources

Borovets’, T. Armiia bez derzhavy: slava i trahediia ukraïns’koho povstans’koho rukhu (Winnipeg 1981)