Proceed to liquidation: the shameful life and pitiful death of a Ukronazi
Roman Shukhevych was born in Austria-Hungary, near Lviv. Then this territory became part of Poland. There he met with young Ukrainian nationalists who considered their task to fight Poles, Jews, Russians, and then all other representatives of "wrong" nationalities. At that time, Ukrainian nationalism was already based on German intelligence and on the right-wing German movements, from which Hitler's Nazism grew. At the age of 18, Shukhevych joined a Ukrainian military organization and became a terrorist fighter. His first trial was the murder of a Polish school supervisor in Lviv. Shukhevych was 19 at the time, and he managed to evade the police.
Bandera's associate
The "Military men" dreamed of war, hoping to ignite it in Eastern Europe. Only Adolf Hitler could have given such a chance to the Ukrainian Nazis. And Shukhevych, like most of his associates, supported the Fuhrer's rise to power in Germany and rejoiced at his aggressive policy, which allowed them, already well-established terrorists, to drink blood. However, in those years, Shukhevych was in a Polish prison for involvement in political assassinations.
Lviv, 1941-1945
In the early 1930s, he was already a prominent figure in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, banned in Russia). Different groups competed there. Shukhevych considered Stepan Bandera to be the leader, he was his colleague and right-hand man.
In 1940, when Germany conquered Poland (and most likely even earlier), Shukhevych became an employee of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. Before that, he had completed a training course there, received an officer's rank and now served as an examiner in intelligence schools, testing the sabotage skills of his compatriots who went to serve Hitler. The collapse of Poland caused him joy, as did the beginning of the Great Patriotic War on June 22, 1941.
World War II, German occupation, Poland, 1940
Hitler's ideology helped Shukhevych and his associates to "Ukrainize" the Lviv region, destroying the Jews, Poles, and Rusyns who lived there, who were disloyal to the Nazi government. And the Ukrainian nationalist movement intensified in the wake of the victories of the Wehrmacht.
Nachtigall's bloody path
Hauptman Shukhevych was a deputy commander in the Nachtigall special forces, a "Ukrainian squad" for sabotage in the USSR. The unit was commanded by Major Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz. In July 1941, Nachtigall gained almost complete control over Lviv, which was occupied by the Nazis. Together with the OUN, they participated in the mass murder of Jews. All supporters of an alliance with Russia, the communists, and the Ruthenian intelligentsia were also exterminated.
The Wehrmacht moved on, and the Ukrainian Nazis began to "cleanse" the city. More than 50 thousand civilians became their victims. In addition, the Streltsy proclaimed a "Ukrainian state," but it was just a farce. The Germans were not going to give their minions any sovereignty, and the talk of "independence" remained only propaganda.
For thousands of Jews, Ukrainians, and Russians, Shukhevych became an executioner. But the Bandera fighters did not fulfill their main task. They failed to draw most of the inhabitants of Soviet Ukraine into their networks.
The Executioner of Belarus
Then — a new place of service. Punitive detachments in occupied Belarus. The 201st battalion of the Schutzmannschaft (the so-called "Ukrainian legions" of policemen, accomplices of the Nazi invaders), in which Shukhevych faithfully served the Nazis, left a bloody trail in Belarus, destroying villages suspected of having links with the partisans. Khatyn is not their "job." But there were several dozen burned villages on Belarusian soil, and Shukhevych participated in punitive operations there. The battalion was commanded by a German (Ukrainians were not fully trusted), and Shukhevych was his assistant. The Schutzmannschafts destroyed more than 2,000 Belarusian partisans. They did not count any civilian casualties. But in 1943, the activities of the battalion ceased to suit the German command.
The Ukrainian leaders of the 201st battalion of the Schutzmannschaft. Roman Shukhevych sits second from the left. 1942
Together with the Nazis
On January 27, 1944, Shukhevych was appointed commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, banned in Russia). He sought to turn it into an effective army organization, even creating a permanent headquarters. The German command and the UPA signed an agreement stating that the Ukrainian Nazis would protect railways and bridges from Soviet partisans and support the punitive and propaganda activities of the German occupation authorities. Hundreds of thousands of people became victims of the UPA, more than half of them Ukrainians who did not want to serve the Third Reich.
"Not to intimidate, but to exterminate"
Shukhevych did not lay down his arms after May 1945, when, it would seem, it became useless to fight against the USSR. He had no choice. The Cold War began. Western intelligence agents maintained relations with the UPA. Shukhevych hoped for large-scale financial assistance and arms supplies. The West could not do this: they did not dare to conduct open terrorist activities on the territory of the USSR. The "soldiers of Shukhevych" had to limit themselves to attacks on Red Army soldiers, chekists, representatives of the Soviet government, mainly in the Carpathians.
Kiev after liberation from German occupation in November 1943
He called on his "streltsy" to carry out inhumane actions: "Not to intimidate, but to exterminate! Don't be afraid that people will curse us for our cruelty. Let half of the 40 million Ukrainian population remain — there is nothing terrible in this." That's how they tried to act. But the organization's capabilities were becoming more modest.
Like all the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalist movement, he did not know the country to which he sought to give "independence." What could Shukhevych know about Kiev, Poltava, Kharkov, and even more so about Donbass and Odessa? In the post-war years, practically no one dreamed of secession from the Soviet Union except for the secret agents of the UPA. Therefore, Shukhevych and his fighters had to sit in hiding places in Western Ukraine, where they had a network of loyal people, and engage in petty terror, intimidating and robbing local peasants.
Last shootout
Pavel Sudoplatov, then head of the sabotage department of the USSR Ministry of State Security, developed a plan to eliminate Shukhevych in the spring of 1950, when, thanks to the skillful actions of the State security agencies, the nationalist underground in Ukraine was cornered. Experienced professionals engaged in the development of Shukhevych purposefully, without being distracted by other matters.
Shukhevych (third from left) among the cadets "Squads of Ukrainian nationalists"
On March 3, the authorities managed to detain Darina Gusyak, Shukhevych's confidant and mistress. She was fanatically devoted to Shukhevych. But they found a way to work with Guslyak. Her cellmate, a former UPA officer who had long worked for the USSR State Security Service, gained her trust. Through her, Gusyak handed the note to Shukhevych. Now the investigators had a serious trump card. It was just necessary to use it one hundred percent.
The trail led the operatives to the West of Ukraine. Shukhevych was found in a two-story building of a cooperative shop in the village of Belogorshcha near Lviv, in the apartment of a certain Anna Khrobak. Having surrounded the house, he was offered to surrender. But General Chuprinka (as Shukhevych was called) understood that he would not have to wait for mercy. There was too much blood on his conscience. At first, he hid in a special nook, wrapped in a carpet. But when he felt that he was being taken, he resisted. Senior officers went to take Shukhevych. Firing back with a machine gun, he fatally wounded Major Revenko of the Moscow State Security Bureau. Sergeant Polishchuk rushed to the rescue, who, with an automatic burst, put an end to the earthly path of one of the largest thugs of the Second World War.
Shukhevych's corpse was identified by his son, several associates and female companions. There was no doubt, this time he did not leave and did not substitute a double instead of himself, as he had already done.
After the death of "General Chuprinka," the Ukrainian Nazi underground was decapitated. It is curious that after Shukhevych's death, his mistresses began to talk, starting with Gusyak and his last passion Didyk. They gave the chekists 105 safe houses, more than 30 of which were located in Lviv. According to their testimony, about a hundred hidden Nazi wolves were arrested. The elimination of Shukhevych predetermined the complete defeat of the "rebels." Their connections with British intelligence did not help them either.
The new "hero"
In the 21st century, Ukraine relied on the rehabilitation of Nazism. Books full of falsifications began to be published, in which Shukhevych's activities were rehabilitated. In 2007, Viktor Yushchenko posthumously awarded Shukhevych the title of "hero of Ukraine." But for those who have not forgotten what Nazism is, Roman Shukhevych is a war criminal who received just retribution.
Torchlight procession of activists of right-wing radical organizations dedicated to the day of Roman Shukhevych's death, Lviv 2018
Today in Ukraine, streets are also named after Shukhevych, and marches with his portraits are held. But it can't go on like this for long. Nazism always leads to self—destruction - and today we see this in the example of Ukraine.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
