about the activities of Ukrainian nationalists in the western regions of Ukraine - 1944
№00154
March 8, 1944
Owls. secret
POLITICAL REPORTING
CONTENTS: On the counter-revolutionary activities of bourgeois Ukrainian nationalists in the western regions of Ukraine and the ongoing work to eliminate them.
In addition to the previously sent political reports about the counter-revolutionary activities of Ukrainian nationalists, I am sending another report.
With the entry of a number of parts of the front into the territory of the western regions of Ukraine, bandit groups, Ukrainian nationalists - "Benderites" significantly intensified their terrorist and counter-revolutionary activities.
Operating in the rear of our troops, they attack in small groups individual servicemen who are lagging behind units moving alone, as well as small units and transports with food, weapons, and ammunition.
In the second half of January 1944, when the army units, where Comrade VORONOV was the head of the political department, were on the defensive along the Goryn River, a number of districts of the Rivne region remained in the rear. Hiding gangs began to intensify their activities.
Only during the period from January 10 to February 1, in 20 days, 23 cases of armed clashes with bandit groups of nationalists, attacks by bandits on individual servicemen were noted in the army sector.
As our troops moved further to the west, the attacks and terrorist acts of bandit groups became more active.
From January 31 to February 13 of this year. 19 more cases of attacks by bandits on servicemen of this army were noted, and in total, more than 100 such cases were registered during the period when our troops were in Western Ukraine.
1. CHARACTERISTICS AND STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS OF UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS YUSH
From the available materials and testimonies of the arrested Ukrainian nationalists, the organizational structure, program settings and practical activities of the organizations of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) existing in Ukraine, in the western regions and some eastern ones, emerge.
The main task of the "OUN" is the creation of the so-called "Ukrainian Independent Council Power" (USSD).
The 3rd Extraordinary Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, held in August 1943, discussed and adopted the OUN program, which obliges the members of the organization to fight for the creation of an independent Ukraine, proclaiming the slogan of fighting the Bolsheviks and Germans 36 .
The OUN program demagogically expounds certain socialist principles and resolutely rejects the Soviet system and its state, political, economic and cultural forms of government.
In the presence of a program created and adopted by the congress of the "OUN" within this organization, there are separate currents that differ from each other in various methods of waging a struggle: "Benderites", "Melnikovites".
STRUCTURE OF "BENDEROVTS"
Territory administratively from bottom to top: stanitsa (village), subdistrict (several villages), district within the old borders, supradistrict (two districts) and district. Districts and sub-districts, in addition to the serial number, have pseudonyms. For example: Ludvipolsky district has a pseudonym "Skelya", Gorodnitsky - "Inferno", etc.
The administration of the territory is carried out in three directions: administrative, political and military. At the head of the village are: a stanitsa head, an assistant in economic matters, a stanitsa propagandist - political power, and a stanitsa trooper - military power.
The activities of representatives of the administrative, political and military authorities are coordinated in the district.
There is a commandant in the super-district, who has the right to control the work of the authorities.
The "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" - "UPA" - consists of several military districts, of which three are known - Rivne, Kovel and Kremenets. Each military region has 5 departments: the Military Department, the Political Department, the Economic Department, the Communications Department and the Sanitary Department.
At the district, a school for foremen was organized to train commanders. Each district includes 6-7 detachments.
The Rivne Military District includes detachments: named after "Bohun" under the command of "YAREMA"; named after "Konovalets" under the command of "KORA", the rest of the units are called "Shoula", "Laidaka", "Crows" and "Surmach". The detachments are directly subordinate to the group commander. For example: the detachments "YAREMA" and "KORA" and "Laydak" are part of the "Zagrava" group, which is commanded by "OAK".
The entire "UPA" was headed by Stepan Bandera. After he published a manifesto on the creation of "Independent Ukraine", he was arrested by the Germans. According to still unverified data, it is known that with the entry of the Red Army into Western Ukraine, he was released by the Germans and is now traveling around the detachments in order to intensify their terrorist activities.
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE "UPA" UNITS OPERATING IN THE RIVNE REGION
According to the testimony of the arrested secretary of the YAREMA detachment - MIKHNOV, the orderly of OAK - "MATERDEY", as well as the head of the village of Nemovichi of the Sarnsky district - SVIRID, who fled from the YAREMA gang, it is known that the commander of the YAREMA detachment is a resident of the village of Nemovichi Sarnovsky district, by the name of SEMENYUK Nikolai Efimovich, born in 1918, Ukrainian, education - 4th grade, served in the Red Army and commanded a platoon, was allegedly captured by the Germans, from where he fled and, returning home, entered the German police in the city of Sarny . He left the police to join the "Benderites" and is now acting there as a commander. His mother, father, wife and two children live in the village of Nemovichi.
Before the arrival of the Red Army, "YAREMA" had about 240 people in the detachment, of which he now left 100 people, he dismissed the rest to their homes until further notice, until the Red Army units move forward, after which they begin to intensify the fight against Soviet power.
At present, the YAREMA detachment has crossed to the right bank of the Sluch River and is operating in small groups, hiding in the forests of the Rakitnyansky and Klesovsky districts. Armed with rifles, there are several machine guns and machine guns.
KORA AND LAYDAKA UNITS
According to the testimony of the members of the Kora detachment - YARUTA Sergei Yemelyanovich, the detachment consists of 140 people, armed with rifles, [has] two heavy machine guns, two light guns, two grenade launchers and a cavalry of 60 horsemen. The detachment is located on the left bank of the Goryn River near the village of Gorodets, but does not stand still for a long time, but constantly changes its deployment in the forests in the areas of the villages: Romeyka, Antonovka, Novaki, Vladimiretsky district.
The Laidak detachment consists of 300 people and is armed with: one 45 mm gun, 3 Maxim heavy machine guns, 3 light machine guns. It is deployed in the forests of the Dombrovitsky and Vysotsky districts.
GROUP "UPA" - "VOSTOK"
The Vostok group has several detachments under its control, which were stationed in the Koretsky, Mezherichesky, Tuchinsky, Kostopolsky and Derazhnensky districts.
The detained former doctor of the Koretsk city hospital, KOSIK Vasily Nikiforovich, said that in September 1943 he was abducted from the city by "Bandera", who took him to the "Red Cross" of the "Vostok" group and forced him to work in the detachment as a doctor. Taking advantage of the fact that the detachments were divided into small groups, he fled. He further said that the Vostok group included three kurens. The first was commanded by "KVATERENKO", a detachment of 250-300 people, the second by "BAIDA", 250-300 people, and the third by "NEGUS" - recently killed and "TAPILYA" was appointed in his place, the number of detachment - 100 people. In total, there were 700-800 people in the Vostok group. All detachments are armed with finks and rifles. The commander of the Vostok group is VERESCHAK, last name unknown, 28 years old, speaks German well, developed, courageous. The political commissar of the group - nicknamed "EAGLE", the chief of staff - OCHERETEN-KO. Before the arrival of the Red Army, "VERESCHAK" ordered all the commanders of the kurens not to engage in battle with large forces, but to leave as quickly as possible behind the lines of the Red Army and carry out acts of sabotage there, destroy small units of the Red Army and Soviet authorities. After that, the entire Vostok group was divided into small groups of 30-40 people. “VERESCHAK” himself with 40 “Banderites” left for the north, and the smoking “KVATERENKO” with a group left for their homeland near Lutsk.
III. FORMS AND WAYS OF CREATING "UPA" AND THE MOOD OF "BANDEROVTS"
The organizers of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists "OUN" for the most part are natives and residents of Galicia. They began to recruit into the OUN primarily at the expense of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and peasants - ardent nationalists, and when such "volunteers" turned out to be extremely few, they began to forcibly mobilize Ukrainian youth through blackmail and threats. Those who tried to evade such mobilization, they repressed the families of the mobilized - they killed their parents, robbed and burned property, and in some cases they simply took them to their detachments by force of arms.
(...)
At meetings in these villages, he campaigned and, addressing the population, called for all possible assistance to the UPA, and also personally recruited young people. In his agitation, KHRASHCHEVSKY called on the population not to provide any assistance to the Red Army, but to go into the forests.
Fedor Filippovich KUPCHISHIN, born in 1916, an accountant by profession, was forcibly mobilized in August 1943 along with 30 other villagers and assigned to the 3rd hundred of the Konovaltsev battalion. He said that in the hundred where he was, 30% - natives and residents of Galicia - volunteers, and the rest were mobilized by force. He further stated: “The mood of the “Banderites” is such that if there were an appeal to us to join the Red Army, then everyone would come, since everyone does not serve voluntarily, but in the order of mobilization, they are also cut off from their families and besides now, like hunted, they are being persecuted by the Red Army. The food became bad. Previously, they were taken from the Germans, and now from the Red Army. Everyone in the detachment does not have the right to call each other by name and surname, but only by the nickname assigned to him. Nevertheless, one can often hear talk about the situation of those mobilized in a negative direction for the OUN. All combatants must undergo daily military training.
KOSIK Vasily Nikiforovich, born in 1917, higher education, who previously worked as a doctor in the city Koretsk hospital, forcibly taken away by Bandera in September 1943 and worked as a doctor in the Red Cross of the Vostok group, after his flight from the detachment said that in the group " Vostok, 50% were mobilized by force, and some were taken away at night under the force of arms. They don’t want to fight against the Red Army, most of the detachment want to go over to the side of the Red Army, but they are afraid that after they are exposed they will be severely punished or shot, especially since the nationalists widely propagandize that the Red Army shoots all captured “Banderites”.
IV. ATTITUDE OF THE UKRAINIAN POPULATION TO "UPA"
The population of the western regions of Ukraine, where Ukrainian nationalists have especially intensified their counter-revolutionary activities, is intimidated.(...) When armed groups of Red Army soldiers were sent to these areas, the inhabitants of some of these villages left the villages and went into the forests. After the mass political work carried out in these areas, the residents began to return, and the men came to the draft board. However, today there are still many cases where men subject to conscription are hiding in the forests,
ATTITUDE OF THE POLISH POPULATION TO THE "OUN"
The Polish population is literally terrorized by Ukrainian counter-revolutionary nationalists and hates them. In other cases, he conducts an armed struggle with them or fled to the cities, and also hides in the forests. The arrival of the Red Army is seen as their liberation from the Germans and protection from Ukrainian nationalists. In some cases, though with great apprehension, it helps to open the "Bandera". Ukrainian nationalists by all means incite the hatred of the Ukrainian population towards the Polish, so the Poles hate Ukrainians, and especially nationalists, and vice versa. And in order to support this hatred, the “Banderites” exterminate entire villages inhabited by Poles. Moreover, they exterminate, regardless of gender, age and his political beliefs. The Poles are being brutally tortured.
For example: the arrested active "Bandera" VASYUK testified that in June 1943, while in the detachment under the nickname "Dove", he, together with the detachment, systematically raided Polish villages. They robbed and killed the Polish population. In November 1943, the detachment attacked the villages of Stariki, Vyazovka, Ugla. All residents were killed, and property, cattle, bread were taken, huts were burned. The bodies of the dead were burned. In total, the detachment killed 1,500 Poles of all ages in these villages.
The head of the OUN group in the village of Selishche KHRASHCHEVSKY, being an ardent nationalist, carried out the extermination of the population of Polish nationality. So, in the village of Selishche, with a group of "Bandera" slaughtered two families of Poles, and also tormented BAZHINSKY Vladimir, his wife Yulia, three children, mother, sister Elena, her son Vyacheslav. In February 1942, he organized an attack on the house where the partisans were, and killed BONDAR and the partisan VELICHKO. The remaining members of his group worked on his instructions: they established the deployment of Red Army units, partisans, and handed over Soviet activists and persons associated with the partisans. They took an active part in the executions of the Polish population in the villages of Rudnya, Lva, Stariki, Alexandria, which were completely burned.
(...)
The resistance of the Polish population to Ukrainian nationalists is also characterized by this fact.
On February 6, during the occupation of the city of Shumsk, Tarnopol region, by the Red Army, 1500 Poles armed with rifles and machine guns were found in the Polish church and in the nearest houses. To the demand of the commander of the battalion 868 SP to hand over their weapons and go home, the armed men replied: “We will not hand over our weapons until a lot of the Red Army enters the city and Soviet tanks appear. We keep weapons for personal protection from the "Bandera". You are few, you will leave, and the bandits will destroy us.”
Armed Poles do not show active actions against the Red Army, but rather support the Red Army.
V FORMS AND METHODS OF PROPAGANDA OF THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAM "UPA"
In each district, the "OUN" created special underground printing houses, where newspapers, leaflets, brochures, appeals to the population, ..in the struggle against Soviet power are printed.
It should be said that they organized the publication of any kind of counter-revolutionary literature on a large scale, and many districts and villages of the Rovno region were flooded with this literature.
One of these printing houses, belonging to the Rivne district, was discovered and seized on January 22, 1944, and the head of the printing house, S. I. LAPIN, was detained. The printing house was located in the forest of the Sarny region. At the time of the operation, there were two compositors and a security guard in the printing house. The compositor ZINCHUK Arseniy Ivanovich was detained, and the second MUKUSEY and the guard under the nickname "Korch" did not give up alive and committed suicide. The printing house seized:
1. Printing machine "American".
2. Font in Ukrainian in sets and in boxes.
3. Printing inks - 2 cans.
4. Blank paper - 1.5 rolls.
5. Appeal to the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army - 22.
6. Leaflets of information "OUN" - 182 copies.
They carry out the distribution of leaflets and counter-revolutionary agitation in the most varied forms.
(...)
For the dissemination of counter-revolutionary nationalist literature, for propaganda among the population and especially the Red Army masses, Ukrainian nationalists widely use girls.
For this purpose, they select competent and beautiful girls and give them tasks.
For example: a girl from the village of Novomalin, Ostrogsky district, MARTYNOVSKAYA, said that two days before the arrival of the Red Army, the girls were gathered by the stanitsa of the village Egerskaya Fyokla Magdievna, who said that the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was going underground, and the girls, the color of the Ukrainian people, "UPA" assigns an honorable job - to conduct agitation among the Red Army soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, distribute and read leaflets published by the UPA. This work should be carried out mainly among the Red Army men and commanders of the Red Army of Ukrainian nationality. No one will be held accountable for this. The work must be done carefully and skillfully. Do not enter into conversations with communists and Komsomol members. Only qualified agitators or girls with higher education can influence this category of people.
The girl RYABCHIK Maria, nicknamed “Forget-Me-Not,” said: “A representative of the UPA came to our village in Derman and said that one of these days Red Army units would come to our village. Don't tell anyone about the activities of the rebel army. Girls need to carry out propaganda of a corrupt nature among the military. Let the Red Army soldiers read our leaflets, treat them well, not be rude, find out the mood, explain that the truth is written in the “Bandera” leaflets and that people will live better without the Soviets.
In some cases, "Bandera" soldiers, capturing Ukrainian servicemen, do not kill them, but, after interrogating them, supply them with leaflets, release them to their unit with the task of working in favor of the "Banderaites".
(...)
VI. SOURCES OF SUPPLY "UPA" WEAPONS. AMMUNITION, FOOD AND MEDICINES
In order to provide the armed detachments of the UPA with food, weapons and ammunition, the “Banderites” in all districts of the Rivne region have created large stocks of food, which are stored in specially equipped, carefully camouflaged warehouses or pits. Stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, medicines and various military equipment have also been created.
So, during the month of January, military units, Smersh bodies, detachments in Koretsky, Sarnsky, Ostrogsky and Vladimiretsky districts of the Rivne region discovered 31 warehouses with food, 2 warehouses with military property, 3 warehouses with weapons, one warehouse with medicines. 250 tons of flour, cereals, sausages, bacon, etc. were seized from food warehouses. From the warehouses with weapons - 82 mm mortar, 20 pieces of Polish-style rifles, 2 boxes of shells for a 45 mm cannon, 20 pieces of mines, 4 light machine guns, 2 boxes of various medicines, 2 boxes of surgical instruments.
All these warehouses were located in the forest and were guarded by a special patrol of "Bandera". Warehouses with food "Bandera" created by the forced taxation of the population of the villages of taxes for the "UPA", the collection of products in the villages by robbing and ruining the farms of the Poles. From the testimonies of the captured bandits, it is known that each farm was obliged to hand over one centner of rye or wheat from the harvest to the UPA. In addition, there were cases of attacks and seizure of food going to the Red Army.
For the treatment of sick and wounded members of these detachments, special hospitals were built, also carefully classified.
So, in the colony "Koloverta" of the Koretsky district, an underground hospital with 12 beds was opened in the courtyard of a resident of KONANCHUK. There were 8 wounded Bandera soldiers in the hospital, five of them were detained, and two nurses and a senior caring for the wounded fled.
UPA acquired qualified medical personnel by kidnapping and forcibly removing doctors from small towns or rural hospitals.
For example: "Bandera" under the force of arms kidnapped a doctor from the Koretsk city hospital ZHURAVLEV. Doctors PANTOSHENKO and TITOV were kidnapped from the city of Rovno.
Medicines, surgical instruments were acquired by robbing hospitals and pharmacies.
Bandit groups acquire weapons and ammunition mainly through attacks on single fighters, on small subunits. As a rule, fighters and commanders are most often brutally killed with melee weapons, and their personal weapons are captured by bandits.
There were also cases of attacks on carts with ammunition and weapons. Minefields were cleared, and mines were stolen.
(...)
The following measures were taken after that: the commandant of the village of Romanovka of the “UPA” group LAVRESCHUK Sergey Grigoryevich, born in 1909, under the nickname “Kolchak”, had previously served in the Polish army for two years; employee of the security service "UPA" with. Romanovka OYTSUS Stepan Mikhailovich under the nickname "SEAMAN"; business executive of the village of Romanovka "UPA" PALEKHA Petr Andreevich, born in 1913, served in the Polish army; the commander of the village of Romanovka of the UPA group LOPATETSKY, born in 1916, served in the Polish army.
In total, as a result of this raid, 9 people were detained, of which 4 people were leaders of the UPA organization and the Security Council of the village of Romanovka.
On February 5, two Red Army soldiers of 870 joint venture 287 SD were sent to the village of Mizoch to complete the task, but they did not return to the unit. Soon the corpses of fighters killed by cold steel were found. Their noses and ears were cut off.
"Bandera", a group headed by KHRASHCHEVSKY, had an order from him to go to the village
VI. " CURRENT MEASURES TO LIQUIDATE OUNSD AND "UPA"
In order to eliminate the UPA bandit groups hiding in the forests, individual villages and farms, the forces of the army border regiments, detachments and platoons of the Smersh ROC divisions and corps, reinforced from parts of the division, are jointly combing forests, individual settlements where bandit groups are hiding. Measures have been taken to strengthen the control of the rear and detain persons staggering without documents. Checkpoints carefully check documents and detain all persons who are suspicious. These activities have already produced some positive results.
During the month of January 1944, about 2 thousand suspicious persons were detained, not counting the military age, of which more than 500 members of the OUN were identified, including up to 60 leaders and most active figures of the UPA arrested. In addition, 182 bandits were killed as a result of skirmishes and clashes with bandit groups.
(...)
Divisions of the 4th GV. KKP 2 GV. KD liquidated the gangs in the villages of Podlesye and Chekno, where the dungeons were carefully equipped by the bandits. The arrest was made under the following circumstances.
Conducting reconnaissance of the area and reconnaissance among the local population, Senior Lieutenant Comrade Timoshin drew attention to the absence of men in some houses. Talking to a woman from this village SHIMANSKAYA, he asked where her husband was, she replied that he was tortured by the Poles.
On February 6, SHIMANSKY returned home, and when Timoshin asked him where he had been, he replied that he had been at the mill. At the same time, the local population argued that there was a gang of “Banderites” in the village, and that if the Red Army did not liquidate it, then it would cut them.
On February 7, SHIMANSKY, seeing that he might be exposed, tried to swim across the river, but was discovered and captured. The detainee showed that 11 more bandits were hiding in his dungeon and showed a passage to the dungeon.
The platoon of Lieutenant ISAKOV cordoned off the shed and offered the bandits to surrender, but they were silent. After a grenade was thrown into the hole, shouts of surrender were heard and the bandits, one by one, left the dungeon. There were 11 of them, from whom 6 SVT rifles were seized, one of the 1891/1930 model. and the rest are German. 30 grenades and 25 anti-personnel mines were taken.
The dungeon where the bandits were located was equipped under the guidance of engineers. It was built at a depth of 5-7 meters underground, the height is up to 2.5 meters, the walls, floor and ceiling are wooden. There are several rooms in the dungeon, each of which can accommodate up to 40 people. There were also equipped compartments for products, latrines. Flour, lard, meat were withdrawn from the products. From the dungeon there is an underground passage to the Styr River (150 meters), where a boat stood opposite the exit. The exit to the coast is carefully disguised.
Another gang was detained on the same day in the village of Chekno, which was hiding in a dungeon similar to the first. 15 sacks of flour, six poods of bacon, three poods of sausage, several hams and other products were confiscated from this gang. A portrait of PETLYURA hung in the dungeon. The second group did not have weapons, but there were many anti-Soviet slogans written on plywood, cardboard and paper, which they hung on fences. The local population, although in the past helped the “Banderites”, now willingly breaks off contact with them and is ready to offer help in their liquidation. It is now striving to ensure that a firm state order is established as soon as possible, protecting them from the arbitrariness of all sorts of gangs.
During the raids on January 1, Trofim Vasilyevich, the head of the local group of “bulbovtsy” POPAK, born in 1913, a native of the Klesovsky district, was simultaneously detained. In 1941, while in the Red Army, in the area of the Sluch River, he surrendered to the Germans, escaped from captivity and returned to his homeland. With the advent of the Red Army, he hid in the forests, where he joined the Bulbov detachment. While in the POPAK detachment, he repeatedly participated in raids on the surrounding villages where the Polish population lived. Arranged robberies, pogroms, killed and terrorized the population. Being an active member of the OUN, he participated in the pogroms of the Jewish population. Together with other bandits, he killed a large number of the Polish and Jewish population. He personally took part in the murder of a resident of the Bisentsy farm - KURYATO, his daughters, REPIN, Ivan Slutsky, Vladislav STAKEVICH, massacred the family of a resident of the village of Perestanitsa - YANUSHEVSKY Adam in the amount of 11 people. Further, he showed that the Bulbov detachment was created by the German authorities and fought against citizens not of Ukrainian nationality, but mainly against Jews and Poles.
I reported to you about the measures taken by the Armed Forces and the PU of the front to expose and eliminate the counter-revolutionary and terrorist activities of Ukrainian nationalists in political reports No. 094 of February 20, 0136 and 00138 of February 29, 1944.
Much work is being done by the political departments of the armies. For example, the political department of the army, where the head of Comrade. VORONOV, carefully studied all the material on the counter-revolutionary activities of Ukrainian nationalists, available in the political agencies of the army.
VII. THE WORK OF THE POLITICAL AUTHORITIES TO EXPOSE THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES OF THE BOURGEOIS UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS
The political administration of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed the theses "German-Ukrainian nationalists are sworn enemies of the Ukrainian people." According to these theses, reports are made at party activists for senior officers.
The front-line and army press publishes materials on issues of increasing vigilance, a number of articles directed against Ukrainian nationalists, and articles about the friendship of peoples.
More than 400 Ukrainian-speaking agitators have been assigned to work with the local population. Two million have been printed - appeals of the government of Ukraine to the UPA and the NRUPA, which are pasted in absolutely all settlements and scattered in all western regions of Ukraine.
The protection of headquarters, rear areas, units and formations has been strengthened. Party activists and officers' meetings were held in all formations and units on the issue of increasing revolutionary vigilance. Party meetings were held at which reports were made to the communists on the activities of bandit groups of Ukrainian nationalists. Red Army meetings were held with the Red Army soldiers.
On this issue, army meetings were held between the heads of political departments of formations and deputy commanders for political affairs of units under army subordination.
In order to verify the instructions given at the army conferences, groups of employees of the political departments of the army, who are working there, went to the formations.
Similar measures are being taken in other armies.
Yesterday I gave a coded message to all the chiefs of the political departments of the armies and corps about increasing vigilance and carrying out extensive explanatory work among the population.
HEAD OF THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT
1 UKRAINIAN FRONT MAJOR GENERAL
S. SHATILOV
_____________________
36 The III Extraordinary Congress of the Bandera OUN was held in the Ternopil region from August 21 to 25, 1943 and was devoted to the development of a tactical line in the changed situation. Some delegates believed that the Bolsheviks could return to Western Ukraine, but would be weakened by the war, and therefore the further development of the UPA would allow, at a favorable moment, to carry out deep raids on the rear of the Red Army, which would lead to mass uprisings throughout Ukraine and in other national republics and the collapse USSR.
Others expressed hope for the possible arrival of Western allies in the Balkans, and in these conditions the strongest possible army was also needed. Still others believed that the USSR would come out of the war so strong that no insurgency could destroy it, and Britain and the United States would have to reckon with the position of the Kremlin. Under these conditions, the only way out would be emigration.
As a result of heated discussions, the supporters of the first point of view won, but the possibility of a landing of the Western allies in the Balkans was not ruled out. The collection took a course to strengthen the UPA, to incite national uprisings in different parts of the USSR. The adopted documents stated that the OUN was fighting “for the Ukrainian Independent Collective Power, for the right of every people to an independent state existence, for the liberation of the oppressed peoples from imperialism, for the construction of a just political and social order.” The only way to achieve these goals was "the revolutionary struggle of the Ukrainian people and all other oppressed peoples against the imperialisms of Berlin and Moscow, which will hasten the defeat of both imperialisms and, through the national revolutions of the oppressed peoples, lead to the construction of their national states.” To implement the adopted program, a new leadership of the OUN was chosen.
The central wire of the OUN(B) was headed by the so-called Wire Bureau of three people - R. Shukhevych, D. Mayevsky, R. Voloshin. In fact, the leadership was concentrated in the hands of R. Shukhevych. The former leader of Bandera, N. Lebed, took up the post of chief of the foreign referent and left Ukraine for Western Europe. The movement in Volhynia and Polissya continued to be headed by D. Klyachkovsky, in Galicia - by R. Kravchuk, and in Central and Eastern Ukraine - by V. Kuk. The security service was supervised by N. Arsenich, and M. Prokop was engaged in propaganda (see 3 program resolutions of the III Great Conquest of the OUN (S. Banderi) on 21-25 Serpny 1943. // OUN and UPA in 1943 ... P. 204—212; Resolutions of the Third Extraordinary Great Assembly Organized by Ukrainian Nationalists on August 21-25, 1943 // Ibid. S. 212—220; Resolutions of the Third Great Assembly of the OUN (S. Bandera) [25] August 1943 // Ibid. S. 220—224).
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