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Bitter Truth: The Criminality of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) : The Testimony of a Ukrainian

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Polishchuk, a courageous, scholarly Ukrainian political scientist, has been smeared, (e. g., "KGB agent"), and donated copies of his book have been removed from libraries. (pp. 7-8). Far from being an Ukrainophobe, Polishchuk is proud of his Ukrainian heritage. He defends Khmelnytskyi, the haydamaks, etc. (p. 21), and agrees that the prewar Polish government undercounted the 5.1 million Ukrainians (p. 258), and was unfair to them. (p. 237, 258). However, he also contends that Ukrainian grievances against the Polish government found satisfactory expression through democratic channels. (p. 132).

Most prewar Polish repressive actions were an understandable reaction to UVO/OUN provocations. (pp. 109-110). Only 9 or 19 Ukrainians died during the Polish pacifications (p. 117) against dozens of Polish and Ukrainian victims of UVO/OUN political violence. Death sentences were leniently commuted (p. 115), and not one Ukrainian political prisoner was tortured to death at Bereza Kartuska--with all remaining inmates released at Poland's 1939 defeat. (p. 23, 127).

That OUN is fascism is obvious from an entry in the Nationalist "Encyclopedia of Ukrainology", quoted by Polishchuk: "The humanist traditions of the pre-revolutionary Ukrainian leadership were characterized as naïve...Some publicists even openly advocated Machiavellianism...integral nationalists considered international relations as a `struggle for existence' that was decided purely by force...The political order of the future Ukrainian state was to consist of a one-party system and would be based on a principle of supreme leadership (vozhdyzm). There would be only one political organization (OUN), which would consist of a supraclass of 'better people'...The closest relatives of Ukrainian nationalism were not German Nazism and Italian fascism, which were the product of industrialized and urbanized societies, but similar ideologies of parties among agrarian peoples in less-developed countries of Eastern Europe, including the Ustase (Ustashi) of Croatia, the Rumanian Iron Guards...The Ukrainian movement also adopted certain symbolic paraphernalia (such as forms of greeting)." (pp. 58-60).

The OUN, however, IS Machiavellianism par excellence, as exemplified by its emphasis on deception as well as its 7th Commandment, which says to not hesitate to commit the greatest crime if the Cause demands it. (p. 66). Polishchuk thinks that the post-Stalingrad OUN metamorphism into democracy was more tactical then genuine. (e. g., p. 66, 287). A chilling 1992 OUN map still shows present-day southeast Poland as rightfully part of the Ukraine. (p. 70).

Prewar OUN violence was motivated primarily by "permanent revolution", and the dread of a peaceful, non-separatist Polish-Ukrainian rapprochement. Far from being "poor Ukrainian peasants oppressed by Polish landlords", most prewar OUN leaders were young, educated Ukrainians from privileged backgrounds. (p. 90, 93, 118).

The murderous personality cults of Bandera/Melnyk paralleled Hitler/Roehm. (p. 92, 144, 146). The WWII OUN-UPA genocide of Poles was a direct application of the amoral might-makes-right teachings of Dmytro Dontsov, the "father" of Ukrainian fascism, as well as one of the planks of the 1st OUN Congress back in 1929. (p. 297). The latter called for an ethnically-pure Ukraine, and the destruction (not relocation) of all non-Ukrainians, thus resembling Hitler's Final Solution. (p. 94-95, 218, 258-249). The creative sadism used by UPA murderers stemmed from Dontsov's teaching that severity was a hallmark of patriotic will. (p. 218).

The "cruelty of the times", cited as an excuse for OUN-UPA conduct, was caused by human choices, not natural disasters. (p. 100). Polishchuk examines and debunks the rationalizations and blame-the-victim arguments of OUN-UPA apologists of the genocide of Poles. (p. 142, 225, 233-237, 296). After many interviews with knowledgeable Ukrainians, and mostly-fruitless solicitations of testimonies, he concludes that Polish revenge killings of Ukrainians were uncommon. (pp. 280-284).

Mr. Polishchuk seems to be a man with a flare for twisting history. This book dosn't even make for "poor" reading of history. It leans towards one politacl agenda, "discredit" the fight for freedom by the Ukrainian people. Mr. Polishchuk, stay with fiction, your not bad at it. The testimony of a Ukrainian? Come now sir...