The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was a military-political formation that operated in the territory of Ukraine from 1942 to 1956. The main goal of creating the UPA was to unite various armed nationalist groups under the leadership of the OUN(b) to form a national Ukrainian army, restore an independent Ukrainian state, and prepare for an uprising after the weakening of the Soviet USSR and Nazi Germany during World War II.
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History and Leadership of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army
The UPA aimed to create a unified Ukrainian state that would encompass all ethnic Ukrainian lands. The date of the army’s founding is considered to be October 14, 1942. The last battles of the UPA with Soviet troops occurred in 1956, when the insurgents attempted to block Soviet military columns heading to Hungary to suppress the anti-communist uprising. According to some reports, the last clashes even took place in 1967.
The main commanders of the UPA over the years were Dmytro Klyachkovsky (1943), Roman Shukhevych (1944–1950), and Vasyl Kuk (1950–1954). The army primarily used trophy weapons: German, Soviet, Hungarian, and Austrian. In addition to Ukrainians, representatives of other nationalities, including Jews and Russians, fought in the ranks of the UPA.
Activities of the UPA and Controversial Perception
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought on two fronts: against Nazi Germany and Soviet authority. According to German documents and reports from Soviet partisans, attacks by UPA units on German troops continued until August 1944, and German occupation leaders recognized the anti-German nature of UPA’s actions. At the same time, Soviet propaganda actively discredited the army, claiming it collaborated with the Nazis.
In the Russian Federation, the UPA was declared an extremist organization by a ruling of the Supreme Court in 2014. In Poland, there is a prevailing negative attitude towards the UPA: in 2016, the country’s parliament recognized the actions of UPA soldiers in Volhynia as genocide against the Polish population. At that time in Volhynia, not only UPA units operated, but also other armed formations, including the networks of “Bulba”-Borovets, “Melnykovtsy,” as well as German punitive units, police, and Soviet partisans.
Documents from the Security Service of Ukraine indicate that in Western Ukraine, Polish losses amounted to over 30,000 people and 240 destroyed settlements, while Ukrainian losses were over 16,000 people and 115 villages. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance estimates that the number of Poles killed due to the actions of the UPA and other nationalist units may reach 100,000 people.
The perception of the UPA in Ukrainian society after gaining independence remained ambiguous for a long time, varying from viewing them as freedom fighters to assessments as collaborators. At the same time, after the Revolution of Dignity, a positive attitude and recognition of the UPA’s contribution to the struggle for the country’s independence began to prevail in Ukraine.
Since 2015, UPA fighters have been granted the status of fighters for Ukraine’s independence in the 20th century, and in 2018, a law was passed that grants them the status of combatants.
“We are witnessing a serious reevaluation of the past. The history of the UPA is becoming one of the key elements of our national memory. …For more than 70% of Ukrainians, this history has become an experience and laid the tradition of resistance to the aggressor and the defense of independence,” said Yaryna Yasynevych, program director of the Center for Studies of the Liberation Movement, at the presentation of the research.
According to a sociological survey conducted in the fall of 2023, more than two-thirds of Ukrainians consider the UPA a symbol of the defense of independence. This indicates a significant increase in the role of UPA history in shaping national identity and the collective memory of modern Ukraine.