Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky (1919-1947) and his role in the struggle against the Soviet authority

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Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky (1919-1947) and his role in the struggle against the Soviet authority

Sergii Adamovych

PhD hab. (History), Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, 57 T. Shevchenko Street, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, postal code 76018

Abstract

The Purpose of the Study. In the article, on the basis of archival and memoir materials and scientific publications, the author has done the research on a little-studied biography of the famous militaryfigure Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky and analysed his role and place in the activities of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1943 - 1946. In addition, in the article there has been covered the history of the first Slovak campaign of the UPA in 1945. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity, verification, objectivity, as well as the use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization), special and historical (historical and genetic, historical and typological, historical and systemic) methods. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky's figure, who held prominent positions in the UPA (a head of the Military Field Gendarmerie, a commander of the UPA raiding units in Slovakia in 1945 and the tactical division "Makivka"), is poorly researched and the only significant source is the materials of the criminal case of the Soviet special services, which remain unverified. The Conclusion. The phenomenon of Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky's figure has been revealed in the very fact that, despite being brought up in the family of a Polish officer and going to the Soviet aviation school, under the influence of Plast, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and with the help of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, he was formed as a Ukrainian patriot and contributed to the creation andfunctioning of the UPA significantly. Together with the UPA, Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky acted in various areas of the army's life effectively: he participated in the formation of the Ukrainian officer elite at the senior school of the UPA "Oleni" (Deer), ensured discipline among the insurgent formations members as the head of the Military Field Gendarmerie, organized the first propaganda raid in Slovakia and headed the units of the Tactical Division-24 "Makivka". Unsuccessful attempts to commit a suicide during detention in March of1946 and in the prison hospital, the materials of the criminal case and the very court verdict ofthe Soviet punitive and repressive system (execution) lead to the opinion that Dmytro- Yaroslav Vitovsky remained loyal to the Ukrainian national idea and refute the versions spread by the Soviet special services about his betrayal of insurgents.

Key words: Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Military Field Gendarmerie, Slovakian UPA Raid of1945, Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Анотація

ДМИТРО-ЯРОСЛАВ ВІТОВСЬКИЙ (1919 - 1947) І ЙОГО РОЛЬ У БОРОТЬБІ ПРОТИ РАДЯНСЬКОЇ ВЛАДИ

Сергій АДАМОВИЧ

доктор історичних наук, професор, завідувач кафедри теорії та історії держави і права Прикарпатського національного університету імені В. Стефаника, вул. T. Шевченка, 57, м. Івано-Франківськ, Україна, індекс 76000

Мета дослідження. Автор у статті на основі архівних та мемуарних матеріалів і наукових досліджень опрацював малодосліджену біографію відомого військового діяча Дмитра-Ярослава Вітовського і проаналізував його роль та місце у діяльності Української повстанської армії (УПА) у 1943 -1946рр. Крім того, у статті широко висвітлено історію першого Словацького походу УПА в 1945 р. Методологія дослідження спирається на принципи історизму, системності, верифікації, об'єктивності, а також на використання загальнонаукових (аналіз, синтез, узагальнення) та спеціально-історичних (історико- генетичний, історико-типологічний, історико-системний) методів. Наукова новизна полягає у тому, що постать Дмитра-Ярослава Вітовського, який займав чільні посади в УПА (керівник Військово-польової жандармерії, командир рейдуючих частин УПА в Словаччині в 1945 р. та тактичного відтинку "Маківка") залишається слабко дослідженою і єдиним значним джерелом до сьогодні залишаються не верифіковані матеріали кримінальної справи радянської спецслужби. Висновки. Феномен постаті Дмитра-Ярослава Вітовського розкривається уже в тому, що, незважаючи на виховання у сім'ї польського офіцера та навчання в радянській авіаційній школі, він під впливом Пласту, Організації Українських націоналістів (ОУН) та за допомоги митрополита Андрея Шептицького сформувався як українській патріот і значною мірою доклався до створення і функціонування УПА. Разом з УПА діяч ефективно проявив себе на різних ділянках життєдіяльності армії: брав участь у формуванні української офіцерської еліти в старшинській школі УПА "Олені", забезпечував збереження дисциплінованості повстанських формувань на посаді керівника Військово-польової жандармерії, організував перший пропагандистський рейд у Словаччину та керував підрозділами Тактичного відтинку-24 "Маківка". Невдалі спроби закінчити життя самогубством під час затримання у березні 1946 р. та у в'язничній лікарні, матеріали кримінальної справи і сам судовий вирок радянської карально-репресивної системи (розстріл) - схиляють до думки, що Дмитро-Ярослав Вітовський залишився вірним українській національній ідеї і спростовують поширювані радянськими спецслужбами версії про його зраду повстанців.

Ключові слова: Дмитро-Ярослав Вітовський, Організація Українських націоналістів, Військово-польова жандармерія, Словацький рейд УПА 1945 р., Українська повстанська армія.

The Problem Statement

vitovsky soviet authority ukrainian

During the period of eighty years since the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, in the Ukrainian historiography there have not been written detailed biographies of its leading figures, among whom the person of Dmytro-Yaroslav Dmytrovych Vitovsky (a pseudonym Zmiyuka, since July of 1945 - Andriyenko) is poorly researched. The study of Dmytro Vitovsky's biography acquires a special significance from the point of view of the generational inheritance of the Ukrainian liberation struggle, since his father D. Vitovsky became the organizer of the November Uprising of 1918 in Eastern Galicia and the first minister of defense of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR). In addition, in general, the study of the national liberation movement in Western Ukraine in the 1940s and 1950s of the 20th century is topical, since in foreign historical science there is the opinion, that in Ukraine decommunization processes are associated with a non-critical analysis of the history of the OUN and the UPA, and that the state historical policy supplants an open discussion on this issue in the society (Peters, 2016).

The Analysis of Recent Research and Publications

V Viatrovych and P. Sodol made an attempt to do a scientific analysis of D. Vitovsky's biography (V'iatrovych, n. d., Sodol, 1995). D. Vitovsky's activity in Plast is outlined by A. Sova and Yu. Yuzych fragmentarily (Sova & Yuzych, 2015). Nowadays the part of D. Vitovsky's criminal case is published in Volume 9 of the new series “Chronicle of the UPA” (Kokin & Ishchuk, 2007). Fragments of D. Vitovsky's activity as the head of the Military Field Gendarmerie were elucidated by V. Ilnytskyi (Ilnytskyi, 2016, 24). D. Vitovsky's role in the organization and conduct of the UPA raid in Slovakia in 1945 was analysed in the works by V Viatrovych and V. Ilnytskyi (Ilnytskyi, 2015; V'iatrovych, 2001). In Volume 48 of “Chronicles of the UPA” and publications by R. Drozd, M. Syrnyi and M. Shmigel, the first insurgent raid into Slovakia is analysed through the prism of the Slovak and Czech documents (Drozd & Smigel, 2020; Shmigel, 2010, Shmigel & Syrnyi, 2019).

The Purpose of the Article

At the current stage of scientific research, the figure of Dmytro-Yaroslav Dmytrovych Vitovsky's military activity is researched in historiography insufficiently. The scientific article focuses on D. Vitovsky's role in the activities of the OUN and the UPA.

The Results of the Research

It should be noted that there are different interpretations of Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky's birthplace (born on July 7, 1919). In some sources there is mentioned a small village of Broshniv-Osada as his homeland, and in D. Vitovsky's testimony in the criminal case of the Ministry of State Security, the town of Rozhniativ is mentioned (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 2), although this village and town are located next to each other in Kalush district of Ivano-Frankivsk region. The future national figure was born in the family of Dmytro Vitovsky, a prominent ZUNR figure, and a teacher Mariya Lishchynska, who registered their marriage in the village of Broshniv on April 30, 1916 (SA IFR, f. 631, d. 8, с. 162, p. 281). D. Vitovsky junior was called in the sources differently: Dmytro, Yaroslav, Oleh. The answers to these questions are provided by the church record book, in which it is written that during the baptism by the priest Volodymyr-Rudolf Yatskovsky, the child was named Dmytro-Yaroslav and he was born in Rozhniativ. Dmytro-Yaroslav's godparents became Roman Kurbas, a well-known public figure, a lawyer, and Bohdana Borodyievych, the wife of a centurion of the Ukrainian Galician army Yevhen Borodyievych (SA IFR, f. 631, d. 9, с. 45, p. 90).

After a short time, Dmytro Vitovsky and his mother moved to the village of Broshniv- Osada to live with Pavlina Lishchynska, a grandmother. In 1926, the activist's mother married the Polish officer Jozef Dzikan and moved to the town of Ozarow (Poland). In 1929, a young man and his family moved to the city of Vilnius, and in 1937 he graduated from the gymnasium and entered the University, Geography Faculty.

As D. Vitovsky noted, since 1934 he had already been financially independent because of his stepfather's and the family's unfriendly attitude towards him. He was a member of Plast, a participant of the Plast Camp in Pidliute (1930), an educator (children aged six - eleven) in Ostodor camps (Sova & Yuzych, 2015, p. 59). Thus, in 1938, M. Sayevych was the guardian of in “Choty Krylati” camp in Pidliute, and D. Vitovsky was his assistant. As Ya. Dubytsky mentioned, D. Vitovsky was disliked in the camp because of his excessive desire for punishment for infractions of discipline violation, and that is why, the camp commandant even sent him to supply the camp with food (Dubytskyi, 1996, p. 59).

In August of 1938, in Pidliute D. Vitovsky met Metropolitan A. Sheptytsky, who promised him a scholarship for studies because D. Vitovsky was the son of a prominent ZUNR figure. Owing to this support, D. Vitovsky moved to Lviv and until June of 1939 he studied at the Faculty of Geography at Lviv University (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 8). In March of 1939, on the initiative of the organizational referent at Lviv University (a pseudonym Lys), he became a member of the OUN and the organizational referent at the Faculty of Geography and a head of the society of 15 people.

In February of 1940, after the occupation of Western Ukraine by the USSR, D. Vitovsky was mobilized into the Red Army and studied at the aviation college in Engels near Saratov. In March of 1941, he graduated from the college having the rank of a junior lieutenant, specialty - a reconnaissance-pilot, and was sent to serve in special Squadron 273. In the summer of 1941, on the eve of the German-Soviet war, D. Vitovsky received a leave of absence in connection with the injury received during the plane crash and arrived in Lviv on June 12, 1941. In Lviv he re-established contact with the OUN owing to the aforementioned Lys and University Professor Yuriy Poliansky. D. Vitovsky never returned to the Red Army. In 1940 Dmytro Vitovsky married Halyna Katerynivna Holobrodska, who was a student at the Geography Faculty of Lviv University.

From July 3 to December 30, 1941, when the Germans invaded the region, the activist worked in Perehin district as a forester of A. Sheptytsky's metropolitan forests, then as a forester in the village of Borove, Rava-Ruska district, and from June of 1942 to July of 1943 in Pidhirske Forestry of Kalush district. In the village of Dovpotiv of Kalush district, after a meeting with Yaroslav Melnyk (Robert), the OUN regional leader, and Volodymyr Livy (Mytar), the representative of the OUN Security Service of Stanislaviv OUN, D. Vitovsky changed his legal status into illegal (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 9-11).

In the summer of 1943, he joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, received the rank of khorunzhyi, became an adjutant to the commander of the UPA starshynska school “Oleni”, Fedir Poliovy (Pol), at which he was responsible for economy and security. During this period, he participated in 4 battles with the Nazis, caught deserters, found a new location for the school. In total, at the first and second schools “Oleni” there were graduates, i. e. about 700 senior officers (starshyn) and candidates for senior officers (Ilnytskyi, 2016a, p. 387).

In November of 1944, the commander ofMilitary District-4 “Hoverla” Mykola Tverdokhlib (Hrim) appointed D. Vitovsky the commandant of the Military Field Gendarmerie (MFG) of the UPA in Stanislavsky region (nowadays - Ivano-Frankivsk region). Zmiyuka was guarded by 24 fighters, his responsibilities included territorial leaders management of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and investigation of desertion cases in the UPA (according to the investigation case about 240 people were sentenced to death in Stanislavsky region, 14 of them were personally executed by D. Vitovsky), he arrested the UPA leaders who started cooperating with the enemy. D. Vitovsky and his bodyguard were involved in combat clashes with the Red Army units in the area of the villages of Pidsukhy, Kropyvnyk, Hrabivka, Chorny Potik, etc. (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 16).

As Ya. Dubytsky mentioned, D. Vitovsky was assisted by two dogs with the nicknames Hitler and Stalin, and he “was strict, but very fair” (Dubytskyi, 1996, p. 59). Thus, Z. Tershakovets (Fedir), D. Vitovsky, M. Bobanych (Triasylo) and the others were engaged in the case investigation of the “Mesnyky” hundred, whose fighters robbed the population, did not follow orders, abused alcohol, did not carry out any action in the village of Kozakivka (nowadays - part of Bolekhiv, Ivano-Frankivsk region) during the winter. Commander Andriyenko made the decision to execute the commander of the “Mesnyky” hundred and every tenth one to be shot and to disband this unit in the summer of 1945. The sentence was carried out, the hundred was disbanded, and the rest were sent to other units. The military tribunal also considered the case of Volodymyr Vereshchynskyi (Yasmin), the commander of the “Haidamaky” hundred (TD-23 “Mahura”), due to the fact that he did not organize a proper breaking through the front line, dispersed fighters and was unable to organize the “Haidamaky” hundred again (Ilnytskyi, 2016b, pp. 96-97).

D. Vitovsky was the author of the UPA disciplinary statute which consisted of 119 articles, which provided for the following degrees of punishment: warning, transfer of the guilty to another department, arrest and trial, and execution for particularly serious violations (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 82).

In May of 1945, the functions of the Military Field Gendarmerie were transferred to the Security Service of the OUN, and D. Vitovsky was appointed a commander of TD-24 “Makivka”. According to D. Vitovsky, there were hundreds in the territory of Drohobych region, with a total number of 1,188 people (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 15-16). According to Yu. Melnychok, in the spring of 1945, the composition of TD-24 “Makivka” included: “Yavora” hundred, a commander Ivan Pankiv-Yavir; “Wolves” hundred, a commander Stepan Hnativ-Karmeliuk; “Mesnyky” hundred, a commander Mukha (disbanded in the summer of 1945); “Falcon” hundred, a commander is unknown; “Bulava” hundred, a commander Volodymyr Hoshko-Myron; “Brodych” hundred, a commander Mykola Lavryk- Brodych; “Bui-Tur” hundred, a commander Dmytro Suslynets-Bui-Tur; “Krylati” hundred, a commander Victoria (defeated on January 1, 1945); “Yevhen” hundred, a commander Mykhailo Hushtak-Yevhen (defeated in spring-summer of 1945) (Melnychok, 2018b, p. 82).

P. Sodol characterizes D. Vitovsky as an “energetic, combat commander” (Sodol, 1995, pp. 16-17). On Andriyenko's instructions, only in July of 1945, a “Zhuravli” hundred killed 34 soldiers of the Red Army in the area of the Maidan Forest, “Myron” hundred - 16 soldiers of the Red Army near in the village of Skorodne, Nyzhni-Ustrytsky district, “Falcons” hundred from the Prut range attacked a distillery in Sambir district, 23 enemy automobiles were destroyed. In particular, the above mentioned hundreds became active with the aim of disrupting the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 10, 1946, and the district centers of Drohobych region were attacked (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 17, 83).

Andriyenko contributed to the formation of the Heroes cult, and during the Whitsun of 1945, near the graves of the fallen insurgents in the battle with the Germans in 1943 - 1944, a commemoration of the dead took place. D. Vitovsky opened the commemoration ceremony. He called for a one-minute silence to honour the fallen heroes, and after that he made a short speech (Sodol, 1992, p. 114).

Since July of 1945, D. Vitovsky was the commander of the Slovak Raid, whose task was to carry out propaganda work in Czechoslovakia and establish cooperation with the local anti-communist underground. As noted it was noted by the Slovak researchers M. Shmigel and M. Syrny, “from the beginning of the preparation of the raid to its end, the priority was given to creating the most positive image of the Ukrainian nationalist in Slovak society” (Shmigel & Syrnyi, 2019, p. 26).

V. Ilnytskyi emphasized the experience and authority of D. Vitovsky, pointing out that it was the latter who was tasked with organizing and carrying out the UPA raid into Slovakia in 1945 (Ilnytskyi, 2015, p. 33). In the raid there were involved the following hundreds: a hundred “Bulava” (a commander Volodymyr Hoshka-Myron) from TD-24, and from TD-22 “Chornyi Lis” - the “Pidkarpatskyi” fire brigade (a commander Pavlo Vatsyk-Prut), which included hundreds “Zmiyi” (a commander Mykola Korzh-Sokil), “Zavedii” (a commander Buria). Preparation for the raid began in Sambir region, it included a month-long training course, where special emphasis was focused on political education classes to train not only a soldier, but also to form a propagandist (Ilnytskyi, 2015, p. 33).

On July 25, 1945, at 10 p.m. in Sambir region, a meeting of all commanders of the combined division was held. Andriyenko, who had arrived the day before with his headquarters and a security detachment, gave each division the direction of march and mustering places in case of divisions defeat. Due to the fact that it was quite far from the Curzon line, and the territory was filled with Bolshevik troops, the divisions had to move in sub-divisions in order to rejoin into one division in Lemkivshchyna later and head towards the Slovak border (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 33; V'iatrovych, 2001, p. 64).

As Ivan Bohuslavskyi (Spivak), a senior vistovyi, recalled in his memoirs, that Andriyenko joined “Pidkarpatskyi” kurin in the forest between the villages of Sprynia and Nedilna. A commander Prut assembled the division and made a report to D. Vitovsky. In his speech, Andriyenko said: “we will go on a raid on Zakerzonnia, and maybe even further” (Sodol, 1992, p. 91). Hryhoriy Kostiuk (Nezlomny) recalled about the reception of Zmiyuka by the riflemen: “The commander Zmiyuka (Andriyenko) was of a high stature... He knew how to speak well, perform clerical tasks well, and in battles he passed the initiative to his subordinate UPA senior officers” (Sodol, 1992, p. 113). Zmiyuka's hundred was numerically smaller than “Pidkarpatsky” kurin, but they had better uniforms and were not so exhausted by the campaign. D. Vitovsky invited the kurin fighters to his place and treated them to “goulash cooked by him”, which also shows Andrienko's leadership qualities from the best side (Sodol, 1992, p. 113).

Kurin under the command of Prut went on a raid on the night of July 25, and Andriyenko with the rest of the divisions on July 29, 1945. Sambirsky, Starosambirsky, and Ustrytsky povits were crossed in three days. On August 2, the insurgents engaged in a battle with units of the division of internal forces of the Bolsheviks near the village of Skorodno, in which three soldiers were killed and one was seriously wounded, but they were able to break through the border (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 33).

On August 3, 1945, all insurgent divisions gathered again in the forest near the village of Lopinka in the commune of Tisna in Lemkiv region, where the last two-day rest took place (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 33). After that, the units under a command of Andriyenko were engaged in battle with Polish armed units twice, D. Vitovsky also tried to establish relations with the Polish anti-communist underground through negotiations with one of their leaders under the pseudo Rolek (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 83-85). Thus, the UPA units had a battle with units of the Polish Army and the Polish Security Government in the village of Prybyshiw, in which 18 Poles were killed, and there were 27 killed and 20 wounded the UPA fighters in the battle near Odrekhova later (Sodol, 1992, pp. 91-92).

On August 22, the last meeting of units commanders before leaving for Slovakia was held in the village of Poliana Surovychna. A commander Andriyenko “once again discussed the raid to Slovakia precisely” (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 33). That same night, about 500 UPA soldiers crossed the Polish-Slovak border without firing a single shot (V'iatrovych, 2001, pp. 64, 66). According to the aforementioned Spivak, “every time we were further from the border, people treated us more and more kindly. We raided the areas of Medzhylabyrtsi and Stropkiv. A commander Andriyenko went to Pryasiv region with two groups and, as we later found out, he had to make some negotiations with the UPA representatives there, who were supposed to be in Slovakia at that time” (Sodol, 1992, pp. 92-93).

D. Vitovsky emphasized that riflemen should not engage in combat with the Slovak military units, unless the UPA were attacked by the Soviet special services units (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 35). In general, during the raid there were no significant combats between the units of the Czechoslovak army and the UPA riflemen, and in all insurgent reports on the first Slovak raid there is emphasized the extremely friendly attitude of the Slovaks towards the UPA riflemen. A friendly attitude was even characteristic of some employees of state security agencies (V'iatrovych, 2001, pp. 69, 74). As for the local population's support for the UPA riflemen, the Czechoslovak communists blamed internal political opponents - non-communist parties, especially the Slovak Democratic Party, as well as the Greek Catholic Church (Drozd &Smigel, 2020, pp. 104-105).

The raiders entered the villages in the evening. First of all, they occupied the local police station, detained its members and assured them that the UPA riflemen would not use violence and it was forbidden for them to offend the local population. Propaganda lectures were held in the villages, at which they explained their goals and reasons for the struggle. Then the population was gathered, and during the meeting, a political worker of the UPA or OUN promoted the activities of the Ukrainian partisans. Other riflemen of the UPA went from house to house and had individual conversations. At the same time, they looked for overnight accommodation with the possibility of cooking. At night, or at dawn, the UPA riflemen left the village (Shmigel, 2010, p. 17).

It should be noted that already in the first village on the Slovak side, the insurgents managed to get the support of local residents during a joint prayer: “...when the villagers heard the Our Father..., they did not know what was happening to them. Then they just saw that we were not any bandits” (Propahandyvnyi reid, 1946, p. 34).

On August 28, in the village of Diyapalovtse of Stropkivsky district Andriyenko, after receiving a dispatch from Ukraine, conducted a division of the raiding unit. A part of it, led by D. Vitovsky, went through Transcarpathia to Galicia, another part under the command of P. Vatsyk-Prut returned to Lemkivshchyna, and it was there on September 10. V. Hoshko- Myron led the rest of riflemen who continued the raid in Slovakia, along with several members of TD “Makivka” staff (V'iatrovych, 2001, p. 69).

And only on September 11, 1945, a military operation was launched by the Czechoslovak army in cooperation with the Soviet troops to clear the territory of North-Eastern Slovakia from the UPA units. A military operation started late, because at the same time (on September 10-11, 1945) two of the three raiding hundreds of the UPA, including the commander Andriyenko, left the territory of Slovakia (Shmigel, 2010, p. 22).

After the end of the raid in Czechoslovakia, TD-24 commander Andriyenko with his staff and VPZh returned to Stryishchyna through Zakarpattia to the place of post (at that time, in the headquarters there was a political educator of TD-24 H. Dulyn-Kruk, Mirshuk- Klymenko, Baran-Smok, the Italian Grandi and the others) (Ilnytskyi, 2015, p. 33). By order of the Main Military Staff of the UPA, part 3/45, “Zmiyuka” was awarded the rank of a lieutenant with the date of seniority on August 31, 1945 (Melnychok, 2018a, p. 184).

Serious losses in combats with the operational military forces of the NKVD-NKGB and the inequality of combat capabilities, along with the need for specific actions to preserve forces and disrupt Sovietization, led to the development of new foundations for the tactics of the armed underground of the OUN (Viedienieev, & Seheda, 2020, p. 179). In December of 1945, the commander of VO-4 “Hoverlia” M. Tverdokhlib, issued an order to Zmiyuka to disband hundreds of troops in the districts of Drohobych region. After that, the commanders of tactical units, kurins, and hundreds had to coordinate all work with the field leaders of the OUN. The placement of hundreds under the numbers from 470 to 478 was carried out by D. Vitovsky and it was based on the activity of the Soviet punitive and repressive units, the size of districts, the relief of the area, the forest cover (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 46, 52-53).

Zmiyuka developed a special cipher for correspondence with hundreds, which prevented the enemy from using captured documentation (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 46-51).

On January 21, 1946, military Chekist units attacked Zmiyuka's place of staying, but he had been warned by two fighters of the fighter battalion a day before and moved to another hideout. However, on March 19 (26), 1946, near the village of Kamianka of Skoliv district in Lviv region, D. Vitovsky with a group of his bodyguards was ambushed by the group of rifle regiment 215 of the internal troops under the command of Major Makarov. One of the guards, as D. Vitovsky said, turned out to be a traitor and led the punitive group to the winter shelter place, on the other hand, L. Shankovskyi, based on some data, claimed that the traitor was one of foreign couriers (Shankovskyi, 1990, p. 210).

At that time, Andriyenko with 12 guards and the district leader of the Security Service (a pseudonym - Chornyi) with 14 guards, the district organizational leader (a pseudonym - Arkadiy) with two people and one person responsible for economic OUN of the village Kamianka were in winter shelters. The insurgents broke through the encirclement and tried to escape from the Chekists. On March 21 (28), 1946, they encountered the enemy again. Eight insurgents died in the battle, their commander, in a hopeless situation, shot at his temple using a Belgian pistol . The prisoner was found with Sudayev gun, four maps, correspondence with the UPA officials and “Magura” UPA staff (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 4, 7, 22, 42-43). A. Rusnachenko claimed that the capture of Zmiyuka was the result of the work of a special group, which included re-recruited insurgents (Rusnachenko, 2002, p. 292).

After that, severely injured D. Vitovsky was given a medical care in the prison hospital in Stanislaviv. During the treatment, the soldier made an unsuccessful attempt to strangle himself (Sodol, 1995, pp. 16-17). The Soviet special services hoped to get valuable information from him, that is why, doctors saved his life. On June 25, 1946, according to the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Strokach, the wounded man was transported to Lviv Department of Internal Affairs, and interrogation began immediately. In the criminal case there is provided a verbal description of the arrested person: tall (171-180 cm), a thin figure, shoulders down, a thin neck, blond hair, gray eyes, an oval face, a high forehead, long-sighted wide eyebrows, a long thin nose, a small mouth, thin lips, a sloping chin, small ears (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 6).

On July 3, 1946, a warrant was issued for the arrest of D. Vitovsky and he was to be held in prison No. 1 of Lviv. By the decree of July 4, 1946, he was again staged to the city of Stanislav, and on August 9, he was taken to the city of Kyiv (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 3, 23, 40). Such movements of the arrested person can be explained by his importance for the Soviet penal and repressive authorities.

The investigation lasted from June 25 to December 16, 1946. In the indictment dated December 25, 1946, the first charge was: “betrayed the Motherland, joined the OUN, whose goal was to separate Ukraine from the USSR and create an independent Ukraine” (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 71).

The Soviet punitive and repressive bodies distributed leaflets as if Andriyenko had admitted his guilt, repented, called on the participants of the underground “to confess” (Horyn, 2003). In the criminal case of D. Vitovsky, there is a list of 36 people whom Zmiyuka described as members of the resistance movement, but the question remains open to what extent they were reachable and needed by the Soviet special services at that time (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 61-64).

On February 5, 1947, during the court session, the insurgent declared: “Our goal and task is uncompromising struggle against the state security agencies of the USSR, in the indictment it was incorrectly stated that we had fought against the Red Army. Our main goal is to separate Ukraine from the USSR and create an independent state” (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 82). Thus, from the perspective of the norms of international humanitarian law, D. Vitovskyi emphasized the postulate of the right of any nation to self-determination and its own statehood and thereby legitimized the Ukrainian national liberation movement (Lysenko & Pastushenko, p. 152).

In his speech, Zmiyuka also emphasized that “he was strict and demanded the unquestioning execution of all orders” (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, p. 82). As a result, the tribunal rendered a verdict - to deprive D. Vitovsky of the military rank of a junior lieutenant and, on the basis of Articles 54-1 “b”, 54-II, to sentence him to the highest degree of punishment - execution and confiscation of all personal property. On March 14, 1947, the Military Board of the Supreme Court of the USSR rejected the cassation appeal as unfounded and the verdict was not changed. On April 8, 1947, the head of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR V. Ulrich ordered the head of Department “A” of the MGB of the USSR to find and repress the adult relatives of D. Vitovsky (fortunately, they were not found), and execute the sentence regarding him immediately. However, there is no information on the execution time of the sentence in the criminal case (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 87, 91-92), although the date of his death is in the sources as April 29, 1947. It should be noted that L. Shankovskyi, without indicating sources of information, wrote that when D. Vitovsky refused to cooperate with the Soviet punitive authorities, he was sent to a concentration camp in the village of Potma, and the insurgent was seen there suffering from lung disease by the German prisoners of war (Shankovskyi, 1990, p. 210).

It should be noted that on April 8, 1997, in independent Ukraine, O. Atamaniuk, the military prosecutor refused to rehabilitate a repressed Ukrainian activist, because “he was an active member of the organization, which set itself the goal of waging armed resistance to the bodies of the Soviet authorities to the detriment of the military power of the USSR, state independence or the inviolability of its territory” (SSA SSU, f. 5, с. 67449, pp. 97-98).

The Conclusion

Thus, Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky played an important role in the formation and activities of the UPA, he distinguished himself in various areas of the Ukrainian armed underground activity. Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky took part in the education of senior cadres, he was an organizer of the Military Field Gendarmerie and the author of its statutory documents, he distinguished himself as an organizer in the propaganda raid of the UPA in Slovakia in 1945 and in the management of TD-24 “Makivka”. The fate of Dmytro- Yaroslav Vitovsky was similar to the fate of other Galicians who were under pressure of the occupying Polish, Nazi and Soviet regimes, but during his life, Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky kept to Ukrainian statesman positions. His attempts to end his life by suicide during detention and in the prison hospital, as well as the death sentence handed down by the Soviet court, are proof of his indomitable Ukrainianness. However, Dmytro-Yaroslav Vitovsky's youth period of life remains insufficiently studied, and his participation in the UPA is not fully researched.

Acknowledgement. We express sincere gratitude to all members of the editorial board for consultations provided during the preparation of the article for publishing.

Funding. The author did not receive any financial support for the research, authorship and / or publication of this article.

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