The Ideological Confrontation of Soviet Guerrillas and Ukrainian Rebels in Volhynia in 1942-1944

On the basis of archival materials, as well as other sources and scientific literature, the article attempts to present the little-studied historiography of the ideological confrontation between Soviet guerrillas and subordinates of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Bandera's faction, who were Ukrainian rebels on the territory of the historical and ethnographic Volhynia, now part of Volyn, Rivne, parts of Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil and Zhytomyr Oblasts. The chronological framework of the confrontation covers the period from 1942 (the establishment of the Central and Ukrainian headquarters of the Guerrilla Movement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine; raids of Sumy guerrillas under the command of S. Kovpak and A. Saburov to the Right-Bank Ukraine; the emergence of armed self-defense groups of Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Volhynia and southern Polesia, which, as part of the rebel territory, made up a separate entity called "Northwestern Ukrainian lands") till 1944 (Nazi invaders' expulsion from the territory of Ukraine). The article emphasizes that actions of Soviet guerrillas and Ukrainian rebels were subordinated not only to military-political aims, but also to the ideological principles of Bolshevism and Ukrainian integral nationalism, respectively, which had diametrically opposite approaches the solution of the national question. The article covers the forms and techniques of the ideological struggle used by the opposing parties. Different aspects of their propaganda among the local population are considered. The propaganda was aimed at influencing people's mood, winning them to the parties' sides, securing their loyalty and support, discrediting the opposite party and its ideology in their eyes. There was a great reaction of the local population to the political work done by Soviet guerrillas and Ukrainian nationalists. There were cases when representatives of the national units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army joined Soviet guerrillas: those were mostly former Red Army soldiers. The ideological struggle of Soviet guerrillas was more successful in locations where they had a military advantage and protected the locals from the occupants' taxes and punitive actions. The propaganda by Ukrainian rebels was successful in terms of receiving support and increasing national public moods in Volhynia's people, but its anti-guerrilla vector never reached the expected result. Attention is drawn to the fact that the attempts of Soviet guerrillas and Ukrainian rebels to reach an agreement on some questions failed in most cases because they had a lot of ideological contradictions, different military and political goals, and mutual hatred that arose in the long and uncompromising struggle.

Keywords

Authors

References