distribution of printed publications of the OUN (Bandera) in Ukraine

From the message of the head of the Security Police and the SD on the resistance movement in Ukraine and the distribution of printed publications of the OUN (Bandera) against the deportation of youth to Germany

Archive: RGVA. F. 500k. Op. 1. L. 471, 484-486; BA. R 58/698. VI. 180, 193-195. Genuine. Translation from German.

Berlin

August 28, 1942

Chief of the Security Police and SD

command headquarters

Secret!

Messages from the occupied eastern regions No. 18

A. The enemy and the measures taken

[...]1

Ukrainian resistance movement

On June 1, 1942, Bandera's illegal composition "The Banner of Youth" was intercepted, in which Ukrainian youth are urged not to believe the promises of the Germans, but to join Bandera's movement in his struggle for the independence of Ukraine. Among other things, it says:

“Ukrainian girls and boys!

The imperialist powers will choke on their own blood and the blood of other peoples. It's about world domination.

The goal is to enslave as many peoples as possible and capture as many lands as possible. All covered with beautiful slogans. They talk about Bolshevik internationalism, English democracy or the new order in Europe and Asia. Millions of soldiers are fighting for our bread, our metal and our coal, and also for our labor force. Entire hordes of Moscow and German soldiers are destroying and robbing our country. Ukrainian youth! Can we entrust the fate of Ukraine to the power of cruel foreigners? Or can we wish for the inhuman domination of the "liberators" for the sake of the magnificent well-fed life of the German youth? We want to build our own life in Ukraine. Today the OUN under the leadership of Stepan Bandera is fighting for the greatness of Ukraine. Ukrainian girls and boys!

Rise under the banner of the OUN.

Fight for the Ukrainian state.

Be proactive. Help your comrades and friends become patriots of Ukraine.”

In Kyiv, a leaflet of the Bandera movement was left at the site of one of the security teams. It contains an appeal to all Ukrainians with a call to fight not only against Moscow, but also against German proletarians (supporters of the NSDAP).

Also, in the Kyiv region, a leaflet of the Landes leadership of the Bandera movement regarding Western Ukraine was found. It argues that the Germans, with their crude colonial policy in Ukraine, have caused justified indignation; that their victory over the Bolsheviks is only possible with the help of the Ukrainians; that their short reign had shattered hopes of an independent Ukraine, so that it was now necessary to embark on the path of an organized revolution led by Bandera. Germany must devote its last forces to the fight against England, as a result of which the chances of the OUN will increase. The leaflet urges Ukrainians to let go of Moscow's demands to form gangs, because it would require significant sacrifices from which only Moscow would benefit. The main thing is to unite all forces. The hour of the decisive blow will be determined by the leadership of the OUN.

Ukrainian drivers, former prisoners of war, serve in one of the transport military units in Ukraine. According to available information, they are engaged in enemy propaganda and call to go over to the side of the Reds. Some of them are preparing an uprising. At the same time, they intend to kill the German soldiers of this unit and head towards the front in cars. They prepared maps of the location of German gas stations and housing where Germans live. While 6 people were detained, 2 participants [of the conspiracy] were shot while trying to escape.

On July 24, 1942, the head of the Bandera movement in Eastern Ukraine, who used the pseudonyms Pip, Andre and Wise, was stopped in Kyiv. He tried to run, they shot at him, he later died. His real name has not been established. He had with him a passport (presumably fake) in the name of Vasil Panasyuk, as well as the organizational instruction of the Bandera movement that had not yet been intercepted.

On July 24, 1942, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Pogorily was detained. He called himself the founder and leader of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Nationalist Organization (RUNO), which was allegedly created in January 1942 in Kyiv and today has 1,000 members. The goal of RUNO is to unite all those living in Ukraine, so that in the event of a Russian victory, to prevent the re-occupation of Ukraine. RUNO was originally based on the fact that England would defeat Germany. Until now, thanks to leaflets, only the RUNO program was known. It provides, among other things, the elimination of the Fuhrer and the coup in Germany. A draft of one of the leaflets also refers to an assassination attempt on the head of the Security Police and the SD. In August 1942, a RUNO conference was to be convened in Kyiv, to which representatives of friendly neighboring states were also to be invited.

According to a reliable source, one functionary of the Bandera movement in Volhynia said the following:

“We, Ukrainian nationalists, must now orient ourselves towards Soviet Russia and help her by all means. We have nothing to expect from the Germans.

The Ukrainian people will be almost completely uprooted. At the end of the war, each German soldier will receive from 40 to 50 hectares of land in Ukraine, and we Ukrainians will have to work this land like slaves. Therefore, we must stick to the Soviets. England will force the Soviets to change their constitution. Collective farms have already been dissolved in Russia and private property has been introduced. In the near future, all the peoples oppressed by the Germans will take up arms. Germany will surely lose the war."

[...]2

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1 Reports about the partisan movement in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and the North Caucasus have been omitted.

2 Reports on the activities of underground organizations in the occupied territories, on the situation in Estonia, and on the situation in a number of non-occupied regions of the USSR have been omitted.