Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during the Second World War

Abstract

The outbreak of World War II found the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) divided into two fractions: the supporters of Stepan Bandera and those of Andrij Melnyk. The conflict was based on differences on the strategy of struggle for independence as well as on the generation conflict. Bandera, representing young national activists, was of the opinion that OUN's actions in the lands occupied by the Soviets should be intensified, and its politics should be independent of any outer factors. Melnyk, in turn, who managed the OUN's Prowid, (Leadership) was supported by Ukrainian emigration circles – by veterans of World War I and of struggle for independence of the years 1917-1921. He represented the conservative wing, opting for a closer collaboration with the Third Reich, in whose politics he saw the factor that could change the Versailles order.

In the years 1940-1941 the final split happened in the OUN. Two organizations emerged, which started fighting each other: OUN-M [supporters of Melnyk] and OUN-B [supporters of Bandera]. Despite the differences concerning the strategy, both the fractions collaborated to a varying degree with the Germans, getting their support for their own initiatives on the self-government, cultural, economic and military planes.

Both Bandera's and Melnyk's groups treated the German aggression on the USSR as a breakthrough in their attempts to regain independence. However, too much activity, as well as too much autonomy in them, especially on the side of Bandera's camp, that exceeded the limits set by the German leaders, led to a change in German policy towards the Ukrainian nationalists and to use of repressions against them. This, in turn, made the two fractions pass to the underground, which starting from 1942 assumed the form of resistance movement.

The greatest achievement of the nationalist resistance movement was forming the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that ultimately was controlled by OUN-B. UPA started to fight at the same time the German occupational troops, the Soviet guerillas and the Polish underground forces striving after independence. OUN-B and UPA are also responsible for mass murders they committed on Polish inhabitants of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

Starting with 1943 the nationalist movement represented by OUN-B and OUN-M started slowly to depart from extreme nationalism and the fascist principle of leadership, accepting the rules of pluralism and democracy.