Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
| Ukrainian Insurgent Army Українська повстанська армія |
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|---|---|
| Participant in World War II | |
 Battle flag of the UPA
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| Active | 14 October 1942 – 1949 (active) 1949–1956 (localized) |
| Ideology | Ukrainian nationalism |
| Leaders | Vasyl Ivakhiv Dmytro Klyachkivsky Roman Shukhevych Vasyl Kuk |
| Area of operations |
Volhynia Polesia Halychyna Podilia Carpathia |
| Strength | 20,000–200,000 (estimated) |
| Part of | Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists |
| Opponents |
 Soviet Union (Red Army, NKGB, NKVD, Soviet partisans) Nazi Germany (1943–1944) Polish Underground State (Armia Krajowa) People's Republic of Poland (People's Army) Czechoslovakia (Czechoslovak Army) |
| Military History of Ukraine |
|---|
 Kievan Rus'
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 Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
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 Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
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 Zaporizhian Host
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.svg){kind=small} Austria-Hungary
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 Ukrainian People's Republic
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 Free Territory
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Carpatho-Ukraine
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Ukrainian National Government
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 Ukrainian SSR
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Ukraine
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The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian: Українська повстанська армія, УПА, Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya, UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan army that engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and both Underground and Communist Poland. The insurgent army arose out of separate militant formations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera faction (the OUN-B), other militant national-patriotic formations, some defectors of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, mobilization of local population and other. The political leadership of the army belonged to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera.
Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942, day of the Intercession of the Theotokos feast. The Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army at the period from December 1941 till July 1943 has the same name (Ukrainian Insurgent Army or UPA).
The OUN's stated immediate goal was the re-establishment of a united, independent, mono-ethnic national state on Ukrainian ethnic territory. Violence was accepted as a political tool against foreign as well as domestic enemies of their cause, which was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a dictatorship that would drive out what they considered to be occupying powers and set up a government representing all regions and social groups. The organization began as a resistance group and developed into a guerrilla army. In 1943 the UPA was controlled by the OUN(B) and it included people of various political and ideological convictions. Furthermore, it needed the support of the broad masses against both the Germans and the Soviets. Much of the nationalist ideology, including the concept of dictatorship, did not appeal to former Soviet citizens who had experienced the dictatorship of the Communist Party. Hence, a revision of the OUN(B) ideology and political program was imperative. At its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly on 21–25 August 1943, the OUN(B) condemned "internationalist and fascist national-socialist programs and political concepts" as well as "Russian-Bolshevik communism" and proposed a "system of free peoples and independent states [as] the single best solution to the problem of world order." Its social program did not differ essentially from earlier ones, but it emphasized a wide range of social services, worker participation in management, a mixed economy, choice of profession and workplace, and free trade unions. The OUN(B) affirmed that it was fighting for freedom of the press, speech, and thought. Its earlier nationality policy, encapsulated in the slogan "Ukraine for Ukrainians", was dropped in favour of the rights of national minorities.
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Wikipedia