The soviet factor in the armed struggle at the territory of “Halychyna” district of the General Governorate (1941 - 1944)

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Article

The soviet factor in the armed struggle at the territory of “Halychyna” district of the General Governorate (1941 - 1944)

Vasyl Hulay, PhD (History), PhD hab. (Politology), Professor, Head of international information department, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine

Vira Maksymets, PhD (Politology) Associate Professor, Department of International Information, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv region, Pustomyty district, Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of the study is the analysis of the provocative role and sabotage-intelligence nature of the actions of the Soviet underground and partisans against the Nazi regime and the Ukrainian nationalist underground at the territory of “Halychyna" District. The study methodology is based on the application of a complex of historical (problem-historical, chronological, retrospective, synchronic), political (comparative, structural functional, systematic analysis, normative) and general scientific (analytical and synthetic, inductive and deductive) methods. The scientific novelty of the article is that for the first time in modern Ukrainian historiography an attempt has been made to do a comprehensive comparative analysis of the sabotage-intelligence activities of the Soviet security and military intelligence groups at the territory of “Halychyna" District of the General Governorate. The Conclusions. Therefore, based on the historical study, we can conclude that the characterization of the hostilities at the territory of Galicia, especially since the summer of 1943, should not neglect the existence and influence of intelligence-sabotage groups and individual agents of the state security agencies of the USSR and the UkrSSR and Intelligence Directorate General of the Red Army General Staff, the Soviet organized underground and partisan formations. The revealed archival documents together with other critically treated historiography make it possible to confirm a significant external factor in the organizational design of the pro-Soviet underground and partisan movement. At the same time, despite frequent effective actions against the Nazi occupation administration and the Wehrmacht, the struggle of the Soviet underground and partisans did not receive the support of the local, especially dominant Ukrainian population.

Key words: “Halychyna” district, armed struggle, the Soviet factor, intelligence and sabotagegroups.

РАДЯНСЬКИЙ ЧИННИК У ЗБРОЙНІЙ БОРОТЬБІ НА ТЕРИТОРІЇ ДИСТРИКТУ “ГАЛИЧИНА” ГЕНЕРАЛЬНОГО ГУБЕРНАТОРСТВА (1941 - 1944)

Василь ГУЛАЙ, кандидат історичних наук, доктор політичних наук, професор, завідувач кафедри міжнародної інформації Національного університету “Львівська політехніка", м. Львів, Україна

Віра МАКСИМЕЦЬ, кандидат політичних наук., доцент кафедри міжнародної інформації Національного університету “Львівська політехніка", Львівська обл., Україна

Анотація. Мета дослідження - аналіз провокативної ролі та диверсійно-розвідувального характеру дій радянських підпільників та партизан проти нацистського режиму та українського націоналістичного підпілля на території дистрикту “Галичина” Генерального Губернаторства. Методологія дослідження спирається на застосуванні комплексу історичних (проблемно-історичний, хронологічний, ретроспективний, синхроністичний), політологічних (порівняльний, структурно-функціональний, системного аналізу, нормативний), та загальнонаукових (аналітичний і синтетичний, індуктивний і дедуктивний) методів. Наукова новизна полягає у тому, що вперше в новітній українській історіографії зроблена спроба комплексного порівняльного аналізу розвідувально-дисерсійної діяльності груп радянських органів безпеки та військової розвідки на території дистрикту “Галичина” Генерального Губернаторства. Висновки. Отже, на підставі проведеного історичного дослідження можемо дійти до низки висновків, що при характеристиці воєнних дій на території Галичини, особливо від літа 1943 р., не варто залишати поза увагою існування та впливу розвідувально-диверсійних груп та окремих агентів органів державної безпеки СРСР й УРСР та Розвідувального управління Генерального штабу Червоної армії, радянського організованого підпілля та партизанських формувань. Виявлені архівні документи в сукупності з іншими критично опрацьованою історіографією дозволяють твердити про вагомий зовнішній чинник в організаційному оформленні прорадянського підпільницького та партизанського руху. При цьому, попри непоодинокі ефективні акції проти нацистської окупаційної адміністрації та Вермахту боротьба радянських підпільників та партизан не отримувала підтримки місцевого, передовсім домінуючого українського населення.

Ключові слова: дистрикт “Галичина”, збройна боротьба, радянський чинник, розвідувально- диверсійні групи.

The Problem Statement

halychyna nationalist underground soviet

The proposed research topic is relevant both in the scientific and theoretical aspect, allowing for the first time in modern Ukrainian historiography to analyze comprehensively the intelligence and sabotage activities of the Soviet security and military intelligence groups in “Halychyna” District of the General Governorate. In the applied dimension, to use the factual material and conclusions to cover the outlined topics in a public discourse, in particular, in order to counteract effectively the negative informational and psychological impact of modern Russian propaganda around the neo-imperial concept of the “Great Victory” and the important role of heroic Soviet underground and partisans in the struggle against the so-called Nazis and their allies.

The Analysis of Sources and Recent Researches. An introductory description of the historiographical base of the proposed historical research is given in a previous publication by one of the authors (Hulai V. V), which should be supplemented by a critical analysis of ideological memoirs of the Soviet underground members and partisan movement, mostly in various literary publications, including V Varyahina, Н. Vakulenko (Variahina, Vakulenko, 1979), S. Makivka (Makivka, 1959), D. Medvedev (Medvedev, 1990).

In view of the considerable historiographic array of the Soviet period, which was conditioned by the need to satisfy the ideological demands of the Communist Party, some sporadic mentions the latest Ukrainian historiography about local pro-Soviet underground groups, intelligence and partisan groups, who came to Galicia from Volyn occupied by the Nazis, and later more and more from the neighboring Lublin district of the General Governorate, and the need for the involvement into historian discourse the latest works by Russian and Polish researchers, it may be promising to prepare a historiographic publication. It is appropriate to draw attention to the publications of O. Hogun (Hogun, 2012), A. Sukhykh (Sukhykh, 2016), M. Slobodianiuk (Slobodianiuk, 2010) and the others.

In particular, we would like to draw attention to the unpublished documents, which were critically interpreted and first introduced into scientific circulation, found by the authors in the Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine and the State Archives of Lviv Region.

The Purpose of the Article. The purpose of the proposed article is the analysis of the historical lessons of the provocative role, the sabotage and intelligence nature of the actions of the Soviet underground and partisans against the Nazi regime and the Ukrainian nationalist underground at the territory of the “Halychyna” District of the General Governorate.

The Basic Material Statement

It is common knowledge, the General District of Volyn-Podillya (the center - Lutsk), which covered the territory of Rivne, Volyn, Kamenets-Podilsky (now Khmelnytsky) regions, as well as the southern districts, directly bounded the Halychyna District of the General Governorate as well as Brest and Pinsk regions of Belarus, from where to the lands of Galicia came (except for a small number of saboteurs arriving by air bridge from the Soviet historiography “Big Earth”), reconnaissance groups and partisan formations.

Attempts by the Soviet authorities to organize a partisan movement in the rear of the enemy under the conditions of a catastrophic beginning of war, chaos, disorder were unsuccessful, in particular, because of serious organizational difficulties. Off-front and sabotage activities at the territory of Ukraine during the war were engaged in three structures - the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine (CP(b)U) and the Workers and Peasants Red Army (WPRA). During the first period of the war, an intense interagency struggle for control over the leadership of the partisan movement was waged between the party, the army and the state security agencies. On May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was established, and on June 20, 1942, the Ukrainian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (UHGM) (Herasymenko&Pyliavets, 2009, p. 77).

During the fall of 1942 - the spring of 1943, 29 organizational groups (355 persons) directed the deployment of the partisan movement, most of them did not reach their destination, including Lviv region (Klokov, 1994, p. 44).

In the autumn of 1941 the Soviet underground groups emerged in different settlements of Lviv region: in the village of KrasneBuzky district (the organizer - a former member of the CPSU, I. Dubas), the village of Uhry of Horodotsky district (S. Hregil), the village of Luky of the same district (D. Rybak), the village of VyrivKamyanka-Buzky district (M. Protsyk), the village of Sasiv of Zolochiv district (P. Kundius), Stryi town (V. Hrytsiak), Zhovkva town, Stebnyk town and the others (Zamlynsjkyj, 1976, p. 51).

Let us dwell more on the information of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U on the organization of underground party organizations and partisan units at the territory of the USSR on October 10, 1941. In particular, 2 partisan detachments of 24 persons were exiled to Ternopil region and 23 communists were underground. In addition, an underground regional party committee of 3 persons was created. In Lviv region, 12 partisan detachments were sent to 140 people, 36 communists and 3 people underground. In Stanislaviv region there were 7 partisan units with a total of 113 people, 27 communists in underground work under the direction of an underground corps (3 persons). In neighboring Drohobych region there were 4 partisan units of 116 people and 48 underground communists (Smolii&Lozytskyi, 2001, pp. 50-51). In our opinion, the above figures are more than modest, based on the personnel of the Soviet security organs and arrived in the region during the previous year and a half (1939 - 1941) of the party asset. Special attention should be paid to the effectiveness of a contingent from the East, alien to the Galician cities and villages of the Soviet underground and partisan, or rather sabotage, intelligence.

Resolution of the USSR State Defense Committee No. 2403 of October 11, 1942 envisaged for the winter of 1942 - 1943, among other things, to direct in each of the former Soviet regions of the USSR, which now belonged to the region to the district “Halychyna” (Lviv, Drohobych, Stanislavska and Ternopil) one reconnaissance and subversive group and a regional task force of 3-5 people to coordinate the guerrilla movement (Kovalenko, etc., 2011, pp. 139-141). The virtually insignificant number of agents planned to be deployed to Galicia are given, the question arises of their ability to resist the Nazis. Once again, we have to deal with the desire to demonstrate, in small quantities, the Soviet presence in Galicia as a whole and its individual industrial areas and transport hubs.

Beginning in the spring of 1942, several communist and socialist groups emerged in Lviv, meeting to discuss the political situation in Western Ukraine and preparing to organize an underground partisan war against Hitler's invaders. Among their members are former members of the CPTU and members of the CPSU(b) V Hrushin, J. Wiesenberg, K. Kyryliuk, M. Berezin, D. Tvardovsky and the others. At the same time, the same groups emerged in a number of other cities and villages of modern Lviv region. For example, in the villages of Zhydovychi and PolyukhivVelykyi of Hlyniany district - V.Dorozhko group, in Sambir of Drohobych region - I. Serakovsky group and the others (Variahina&Vakulenko, 1979, p. 28).

In the spring of 1942, a group of Polish communists led by A. Khmelevsky and Z. Cholianek sent from the USSR landed successfully in Lviv region, which helped to intensify the activity of the Polish anti-fascist underground of the pro-Soviet orientation (Brechak, 1974, p. 81).

Authors found in the State Archives of Lviv Region documents drawn up by party workers immediately after the liberation of the Nazi occupation allow one to speak of the important role in the organizational strengthening of the Soviet underground of Lviv, one of the leaders of the Polish Workers' Party (Polish: PolskaPartiaRobotnicza, PPR), who came from Moscow to Warsaw and from which the leaders of the Avengers' National Guard (later referred to as an organization in the Soviet historiography and propaganda as the People's Guard of the Western Regions of Ukraine or the People's Guard S. Franko - Authors) received instruction books and financial assistance for (State Archives of Lviv Region - SALR, f. 3, d. 1, c. 78, p. 159). To strengthen the National Guard of the Avengers, on the instruction of the said “Franek”, on February 23, 1943, Ivan Kurylovych (“Richard”) was sent to Lviv, who became the head of this organization. By the end of June 1943, the Avengers' National Guard numbered up to 500 people, taking over the group in Drohobych, Brody, Helm, Stryi, Stanislaviv, and Ternopil (SALR, f. 3, d. 1, c. 78, p. 160).

As for the national composition of the members of the People's Guard, an indirect idea of this can be obtained from the elaboration of biographies of participants in journalistic apologetics, co-authored by one of the members of the organization, a Russian - V. Variahina.

Thus, of the 93 listed members of the “National Guard”, 56 were the Ukrainians, 15 - the Poles, 9 - the Russians, and 3 - the Jews. 1941. Thus, even the non-Soviet authors could not hide in their biographies the fact that a large part of the Ukrainians and all Russians came to the region with the beginning of the so-called “Sovietization”, but among the Poles (natives of Lviv and other cities, which during the interwar period belonged to Poland) the vast majority were former activists of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine and the Polish left parties (Variahina&Vakulenko, 1979, pp. 172-227).

In the summer of 1942, a former member of the Communist Party Y. Wiesenberg travelled from Lviv to Warsaw to establish relations with the PPR, who easily managed to renew the connection with the Communists, who became the members of the PPR, and to obtain the underground publications of the newspaper “The Tribune of Liberty” - the PPR body and “The Guardian” - the body of the Guard of Lyudova (Variahina, Vakulenko, 1979, p. 29).

S. Zay, J. Slivka, J. Bier, O. Leshchynsky, A. Smolensky, T Gayevsky, A. Polubiak belonged to the Polish organizers and leaders of the underground in Lviv. In the fall of 1942, they came under the leadership of the PPR Central Committee and the General Staff of the Army of Lyudova and formed the centers of these organizations (Kondriatiuk, 2011, p. 115).

Due to the extension of the actions of the People's Guard to the districts of Drohobych, Stanislavsk and Ternopil regions, which were the part of Halychyna district, the council of the organization focused on propaganda work increasingly, which is discussed in detail by the author in his previous work.

In August of 1943 the name “People's Guard of the Avengers” was replaced by “Partisan Council of the Western Regions of Ukraine”. However, the former abbreviated name of the People's Guard continued to be used in advocacy.

In the second half of 1943, the Soviet underground was transformed into an organization of the partisan movement of the western regions of Ukraine. The CPR Central Committee transmitted it to the CC of CP(b)U and the Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters (Kondriatiuk, 2011, p. 115).

For instance, in the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b) In “On the state and further development of the partisan movement in Ukraine” in July 1943 it was noted: “In the winter of 1942 - 1943 and in the spring of 1943 the partisan movement expanded significantly and organizationally. ... The masses of the Soviet population rose to active struggle against the German invaders”. At the territory of Lviv, Drohobych, Stanislav and Ternopil, the People's Guard of the Western Regions of Ukraine functioned, renamed at the end of 1943 as the Partisan Movement of the Western Regions of Ukraine (up to 600 people). In Hlynianskyi district of Lviv region the organization “Homeland Liberation” was active. However, the underground committees of the CP(b)U in Drohobych, Stanislavsk, Chernivtsi, Izmail, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Lviv regions were not restored (Slobodianiuk, 2010, p. 56).

After a radical break in the battles on the Eastern Front and the rapid approach of the Red Army to the terrain of Lviv region, partisan groups and detachments became more active: in the regions: Brody partisan group, Krasnyansky sabotage partisan group, Rava-Ruska sabotage partisan group named after Ivan Franko and the others (Fedchenko, 1960, p. 114).

During the period 1943 - 1944 the partisan group “Patriots of the Slavs” under the command of V. Popov, numbering up to 22 people, operated at the territory of Buzkyi and Kamyanka-Buzkyi districts of Lviv region (SALR, f. 3, d. 1, c. 78, p. 155).

Thus, writing about the activity of P. Kundius' detachment (also called the Zolochiv partisan detachment - Authors), K. Kondratyuk points at its main purpose - to protect the population of several predominantly Polish villages from the UPA detachments (Kondriatiuk, p. 115). Summarizing the data of the Soviet historians and modern Ukrainian researchers, the publicist D. Chobit points out that in 1944 P. Kundius's detachment numbered up to 600 people, 90% of whom were the Poles (Chobit, 2020, pp. 214-215). The party archival documents drawn up immediately after the liberation of Lviv region state explicitly that P. Kundius took command of the Polish partisan unit and led it to liberate the Red Army of Zolochiv, Olesko and Krasnyansky districts of Lviv (SALR, f. 3, d. 1, c. 78, p. 157).

Similar activity in the district of Dorogobych was carried out by the “Orlik” detachment of the Army Lyudova Army under the leadership of Y. Vazhynsky. In June of 1944 near the village of Sianky, together with the Soviet airborne group, the “Orlik” detachment attacked the German detachment of 200 people. About 80 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded (Kondriatiuk, 2011, p. 115).

I. Iliushyn rightly notes that during the years of the German occupation of the western Ukrainian lands, the Soviet partisans cooperated not only with local Polish sympathizers of the Communists, but also with representatives of “Pro-London” military groups. However, in his opinion, the importance of such cooperation should not be exaggerated, as there are also many examples of the Polish-Soviet partisan warfare. For instance, on July 25, 1944, one of the organizers and leaders of Ivan Franko National Guard, M. Berezin, was killed by the Polish “narodovtsi” (Iliushyn, 2009, p. 349).

Y. Kyrychuk draws attention to the fact that the campaign in the second half of 1943 by the partisan union of S. Kovpak from southern Belarus to strike at the Boryslav-Drohobych oil basin was, among other things, to become a political demonstration of the Soviet presence in Galician lands where there was the Ukrainian national consciousness strong traditionally (Kyrychuk, 2000, р. 66).

According to O. Hogun, the military success of the Carpathian raid of Sumy Union of S. Kovpak in the summer of 1943 was insignificant, but its political importance is highly appreciated: the operation showed the weakness of the occupation administration (Hogun, p. 110). In practice, they did not refer to the activation of other small partisan detachments and underground groups in Galicia, despite the bold promises made by Commander Kovpak and Commissar Rudnev in the letter of June 9, 1943, in the name of the leader of Soviet Ukraine, M. Khrushchov: Stanislavskyi, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions of the USSR and to prepare the population of these areas for an armed uprising.

O. Hogun emphasizes quite rightly the paradoxical consequence when the underground of AK and Bandera were activated in Galicia due to the Carpathian raid (Hogun, 2012, p. 111).

Responding to the claims of the chief of the Ukrainian staff of the partisan movement T. Strochach, the failure of the winter campaign of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian partisan division named after Kovpak (formed on the basis of the former Sumy Union of S. Kovpak) P. Vershigor stated on March 4, 1944 that “the Soviet partisans in Galicia ... feel as if they were in Germany and in Poland not worse than in real Soviet areas” (Hogun, 2012, p. 117).

In Ternopil region, the former head of Mykolaiv district executive committee Ya. Kravchenko created an underground organization “VUYKO” with a population of about 30 people, mostly based in the villages of Nastasiv and Veselivka in Mykulynetskyi district, where in 1940 the Ukrainian settlers from Lemkivschyna were resettled and one of the first collective farms was organized in the region. On March 18, 1943 in the village of NastasivKravchenko and his closest assistant were killed (Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine - CSAPAU, f. 1, d. 22, c. 571, pp. 2-7).

It is undeniable that the local Poles cooperated actively with or even fought in the Soviet partisan and army subversive units, which increasingly directed into Galicia in the winter and spring of 1944. Only in the forests around the villages of Sasiv and Pobich to the north of Zolochiv there was active the group of 150 Soviet paratroopers and 30 Poles (Bohunov, 2005, р. 1088).

In October of 1942, a partisan group, “Liberation of the Fatherland”, was formed in Hlyniansky District, under the leadership of the communists V Dorozhko and I. Holovchenko, who had been active since October 7, 1942, until the day of the Red Army's arrival - July 23, 1944. The partisans had their own programme which required: 1) to carry out constant agitation and propaganda work among the population, 2) to unite in the organization of supporters of Soviet Ukraine to fight against the Nazis and bourgeois nationalists of all stripes; 3) to form combat and sabotage partisan units and to join workers of different nationalities; 4) to save the workers from the brutal fascist massacre; 5) to conduct a systematic reconnaissance of the forces and actions of the enemy in order to combat the occupiers effectively; 6) to conduct public awareness work on exposing hostile lies against the Soviet Union and the Soviet Army; 7) to prevent enemies from exporting material from Ukraine; 8) to study honest people from the intelligentsia, involving them into the ranks of active fighters with fascism. The partisans had a steering committee and six grassroots groups. The Liberation of the Fatherland group maintained a close contact with the Polish self-defense group of the village of Hanacheva, Hlyniany district, Lviv region (Fedchenko, 1960, pp. 119-120).

Such may be the previous historical and political characterization of the evolution of the organizational structure and communicative mechanisms and scope of the propaganda activities of the Soviet underground and partisans in Lviv region during the Nazi occupation of the region.

The mass influence from the winter of 1943 - 1944 on external influence to intensify reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the interests of the Red Army, which was approaching the territory of Halychyna district, should be emphasized separately. Thus, in the winter of 1944, as a result of successful offensive operations (Korsun-Shevchenkivska, Rivne-Lutsk, Nikopol-KryvyiRih), a large number of partisan formations, some of which also interacted with the Red Army troops actively, found themselves in the Soviet rear. In connection with this, a number of connections were reorganized - by the resolutions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b). In February 9, 1944, 10 detachments of Zhytomyr partisan division named after M. A. Shchors under the command of S. F. Malikov headed for independent action in Lviv and Ternopil region; 7 units of Rivne Union № 1 under the command of V. A. Begma, 3 detachments of Rivne Union named after M. A. Shchors under the command of M. V.Taratuty and 8 detachments of Rivne Union № 2 “For Motherland” under the command of I. P. Fedorov - to Lviv region; 7 detachments of Kamyanets-Podilsky compound named after G. K. Zhukov under the command of I. E. Skubko and 3 detachments of Ternopil Union named after M. Khrushchov under the command of I. I. Shytova - to Ternopil region. The team members of the connections were called to the disposal of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U to organize the collection and summarization of all materials and documents on the activities of their subordinate formations (Vlasenko, 2015, p. 71).

Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) B of March 24, 1944, the Chernihiv-Volyn partisan unit under the command of A. F. Fedorov, which numbered 11 detachments with a number of 3100 people, was disbanded, and two units of 500 units were formed on its base (under the command of G. V Balytsky and D. I. Rvanov), who were to operate at the territory of Drohobych (now the part of Lviv) and Stanislavsky (now Ivano- Frankivsk) regions (Vlasenko, 2015, p. 71).

The fact that the activities of the Soviet partsan-sabotage formations were primarily provocative in nature, leading, in the first place, to “retaliatory” actions of the Nazi regime against the civilian population of the region, can be traced through the lines of party reports, such as, for example, that on April 9, 1943, detachment of A. Odukha, taking away food and equipment, leaving the territory of Shumsky district, but as a result of Hitler's terror, about a thousand civilians were killed and several villages burned (Central State Archive of Public Associations of Ukraine (CSAPAU, f. 1, d. 22, c. 571, pp. 8-9).

Sometimes in the party reports we also find the information about the counter-intelligence successes of the Nazis in the fight against mostly arrived, not local, the Soviet underground and partisans led by Moscow. Thus, among the others, the activities of the former Soviet prisoner of war Yakushev, who was recruited by the Nazis and pretending to be a commander of Zhytomyr partisan detachment, neutralized in Husiatyn, Kopichesk and Borshchiv districts of Ternopil region, an employee of the Vinnytsia UNKVD, I. Hryshchenko, a former deputy head of the military department the CC of the CP(b)U Dovoda and the others (CSAPAU, f. 1, d. 22, c. 571, pp. 8-9).

Another striking example of the individual terror of Moscow-based “national avengers” when, on June 1, 1943, the members of the Soviet underground organization of the former first secretary of Zabolotsk RK of the LKSMU of the Stanislav region of I. Golubtsov, killed a priest of the village Ilintsy, M. Volanski, for appealing to local residents to go to work in Germany and join Halychyna Division (CSAPAU, f. 1, d. 22, c. 538, p. 18).

The hostility of some of the local population was repeatedly pointed out by the commanders of the Soviet partisan formations, who were increasingly directed to the region as the Red Army approached. On March 17, 1944, commander of one of the Soviet partisan detachments Starinov reported on a hostile, even worse than towards the Germans, attitude of the local population of Ternopil region: “I have fought the fourth war, but have never encountered such hostility as in the liberated regions” (CSAPAU, f. 62, d. 1, c. 289, p. 14).

In continuation of the chosen strategy implementation by the Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b) of April 8, 1944 the formations and units operating at the territory of Rivne, Volyn, Kamenets-Podilsky (now Khmelnytsky) regions were reformed and reduced, and in their place there were created 14 independent maneuver units, numbering 350-500 people each, who were supposed to be fighting in the occupied areas of Lviv and Drohobych regions (Vlasenko, 2015, p. 72).

The most massive transfer, from the occupied Red Army in the winter and spring of 1944 to Volhynia and Podillya, reconnaissance and sabotage detachments intensified significantly the pro-Soviet partisan movement at the territory of Halychyna district.

The Soviet special services, controlled by most underground groups and partisan units throughout Ukraine, sought to use toponymy for propaganda purposes, especially, in the areas under the Nazi occupation, in particular, in Halychyna district. For instance, Ternopil partisan unit named after Khrushchov (this is what it was called from mid-October of 1943) under the command of the ethnic Russian I. Shytov never acted in Ternopil, but balanced on the border of modern Rivne and Zhytomyr regions (Sukhykh, 2016, p. 103).

One of the largest Soviet partisan formations that was targeted in the winter and spring of 1944 on the Galician land there was a unit named after J. V. Stalin. From January 6 till March 22, 1944, the unit attempted to break through to the south, encountering large forces retreating to the west of the German troops. In the areas adjacent to Ternopil and Kamianets- Podilsky, the partisans conducted 18 battles against the Nazis and 15 against the UPA.

Unable to reach the area of Pervomaisky, the unit went to the west to the territory of Lviv region. From March 25 till March 30, 1944, the partisans attempted to cross the railway and Ternopil-Zolochiv road route, guarded by considerable enemy forces. Only the detachment named after Nevsky and 30 subversive groups were able to carry out this task. The rest of the detachment of 1 156 troops on April 5, 1944 met with the Red Army and left the rear temporarily (Smolii&Lozytskyi, 2001, pp. 106-108).

On April 23, 1944, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (b) U to exit in the district of Boryslav-Drohobych, a unit of almost 900 people crossed the front line again and plunged into the rear of the enemy. The route ran through the northern slopes of the Carpathians in the Chernivtsi, Stanislav and Drohobych regions. Moving through difficult mountainous terrain, bypassing settlements, the unit reached the designated operational area on May 22, 1944 and was located between Skole and Turka. Until July 9, 1944, while in the districts of Boryslav - Drohobych - Stryi and Skole - Volovets and Turka - Sambir - Sanok, the partisans conducted 9 battles with the Nazis and 2 with the UPA, organized 16 ambushes along the roads, detonated 21 enemy echelons, 6 railway and road bridges. 22 fuel tanks, oil refineries and 3 sawmills were destroyed. Due to the approach of the front line, on July 9, 1944, the partisans crossed the territory of Poland and, on August 25, 1944, crossed the border with Slovakia (Kovalenko, etc., 2011, pp. 445-446).

April 26, 1944 employees of the radio unit of the partisan unit named after V Lenin (Commander L. Ivanov) O. Khablo and M. Vovchyk-Blykitna reported to the Ukrainian partisan movement headquarters: “During your existence, Ivanov's union failed to fulfill any of your orders, because the command postpones the time until their execution. It will become impossible and the unit continues to be inactive”. It was further stated that, having received the USHRR order to enter the territory of Lviv region, the command of the unit instead of its execution began to search the bases and depots of nationalists and lost the opportunity to break into the specified operational area (Kentii, Lozytskyi, 2011, p. 535).

The Conclusions

Based on the historical research, we can conclude that the characterization of the hostilities at the territory of Galicia, especially since the summer of 1943, should not neglect the existence and influence of intelligence-sabotage groups and individual agents of the state security agencies of the USSR and UkrSSR and Intelligence General Staff of the Red Army, the Soviet organized underground and partisan formations. The revealed archival documents together with other critically treated historiography make it possible to confirm a significant external factor in the organization of the pro-Soviet underground and partisan movement. At the same time, despite frequent effective actions against the Nazi occupation administration and the Wehrmacht, the struggle of the Soviet underground and partisans did not receive the support of the local, especially dominant Ukrainian population. In this context, it is necessary to analyze separately the national composition of the mentioned structures of the Soviet Movement of Resistance at the territory of Galicia, close links with the Polish anti-Hitler underground of the pro-Soviet left orientation and the desire to assume the role of the defender of the Polish population in the context of the escalation of the Ukrainian-Polish conflict in Galicia in 1944, which could be a promising field for further historical studies.

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