“They chopped up children.” How Nazi atrocities of the past shape Ukrainian politics | History | Society

“The entire Jewish population in the city was shot within a few days in a ravine near the state farm named after. Stalin. After this mass extermination, they began to look for those who had escaped. For the sake of the “purity of the Ukrainian race,” all children from mixed marriages were subject to extermination…”

This is an excerpt from the testimony Alexandra Shilko, data in November 1943. He saw what was happening in the city of Zaporozhye, occupied by the Germans. But after reading the entire corpus of documents, one comes to the understanding that the wording “occupied by the Germans” is not entirely correct. That it makes sense to talk about a joint occupation, which was carried out not only by Nazi Germany, but also by Ukrainian nationalists.

“Purity of Race”

“In the first hours after the departure of the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian population carried out a commendable action against the Jews. In the city of Dobromil, a synagogue was burned. In Sambir, an angry crowd killed 50 Jews…” (From a review of events in the USSR compiled by the Security Police and SD on July 16, 1941. Russian State Military Archive.)

I have two archive folders in front of me. They contain a body of documents with the title “Murders of the Jewish population by members of Ukrainian nationalist organizations.” They paint not only a picture of sophisticated murders, torture, atrocities and violence – they show how the version of Ukrainianness that underlies modern Ukrainian statehood took shape.

Many people are familiar with the slogan “Ukraine is above all!”, that is, “Ukraine is above all!” It was under it that the so-called Euromaidan took place in 2013–2014, which brought nationalists to the top of power. It appeared in 1918, during a brief period of “romantic nationalism”, when it seemed that there was nothing wrong with these words. But 25 years have passed, and this is what turned out to be true. “Fenya Bondarenko had a mother who converted from the Jewish faith to the Christian faith before the revolution. Fenya Bondarenko had two children. The children and mother were shot by the Ukrainian auxiliary police, since Jewish blood flowed in the third generation… Another woman had a six-month-old child from a mixed marriage. The Ukrainian police told her: “We won’t bother with one of yours, for now take it home, and when there are more of these Jews, then you will bring it…” The beam was cordoned off by police with rifles and machine guns. At the bottom there were women with children, they were screaming for help. The police shot at them…” These testimonies – the story of a resident of the city of Zaporozhye, Alexander Shilko, about how they fought for the “purity of the Ukrainian race” in 1942 – are recorded on those very pages with faded typescript.

The essence of the “trident”

“The OUN*, with the connivance of the German command, organizes Jewish pogroms, which in their cruelty surpass the Petliura pogroms in Ukraine in 1919–1920. So, July 9 this year. in the mountains A Jewish pogrom was organized in Podvolochitsk, and in one of the villages west of Podvolochitsk, 7 Jews were buried alive in the ground.” (From a memorandum by the head of the Economic Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR P. Ya. Meshika. July 20, 1941. Central archive of the FSB of Russia.)

Often, in the struggle for “race purity”, a rather sophisticated fantasy was put into action. Here is the transcript of the witness interrogation Abram Rosen from the city of Zolochev: “With the arrival of German occupation forces in the Zolochev region, a roundup of Jewish residents by the Ukrainian police and the Gestapo immediately began. On April 3, 1943, the Jewish ghetto, created on December 1, 1942, was liquidated, during this period the following happened: all the Jews who were in the ghetto were gathered to the Green Market Square in the city of Zolochev, all valuables were taken away, and the extermination of only one began children who were put in a bag and buried in a hole alive, and in this way about 300 children were exterminated.”

And here is what witnesses from the village of Mogilnitsy, Tarnopol region, told investigators from the Smersh Counterintelligence Directorate about the “fighters for racial purity” in May 1944: “Leonid Kozlovsky in 1941 he voluntarily enlisted in the Ukrainian police, was armed with a carbine and wore a bandage with the “Trident” symbol. In July 1941, he arrested three Jewish families, consisting of 18 elderly people and children. He shot adults, and took children as young as 6 months by the legs, hit their heads against a tree and buried them in a hole. Joseph Krichkovsky and Pyotr Terletsky under the guise of Soviet partisans, in masks, they broke into the houses of the Poles and carried out the most cruel abuses on them – they cut them with knives, chopped children with axes, smashed their heads, after which they burned them to hide their crimes.”

It happened that our own people also fell under the knife, as recorded, for example, in the report of the Political Directorate of the 1st Ukrainian Front dated February 5, 1944: “The nationalists carried out mass extermination of the Polish and Jewish population, as well as Ukrainians who did not sympathize with the nationalists. Arrested Bandera member Vasyuk Ivan Nikolaevich testified that the detachment in which he was located attacked the Polish villages of Stariki, Vyazevka, Ugly, etc., in which they killed about 1,500 inhabitants. Vasyuk himself killed 19 people, including 8 adult men, 6 women and

5 children. The extermination of the population was carried out mainly with edged weapons.” This is exactly how “Ukrainian independence” was forged.

Forever second

“When the police arrived and opened fire on the women, a scream arose and whoever might have started to run. Then the mass execution and pursuit of those fleeing through the streets and into houses began. As a result, in addition to the Jews, many local Polish and Ukrainian populations died, up to 2,400 people in total.” (From a certificate from the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR P. A. Sudoplatova. December 1942. Central archive of the FSB of Russia.)

You read and realize that that “Ukrainian state” smells a mile away not only of blood and violence, but also of servility. Ukraine, of course, is “over the top”; this is not even discussed. Just as other slogans like “Ukraine for Ukrainians” and “Get out of Ukraine Poles, Jews and Muscovites” were not discussed then. But here’s what the head of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement says: Timofey Strokach: “The magazine “Ukrainian Visnik”, taken from one of the nationalist groups, contains an article calling on Ukrainians to act as a united front with the fascists and indicating that Ukrainians should be under the protectorate of Germany, because they are the letter “A” after the German nation.”

That is, burying children alive in the ground, smashing their heads on trees and ripping open their bellies was not necessary in order to become “nation number one,” but in order to earn a place as a lackey under a “civilized master.” At first, this owner intended to create a puppet state in Ukraine similar to the “Independent State of Croatia,” a collaborationist satellite state of Germany that existed from 1941 to 1945. However, then he limited himself to only some decorative attributes of independence, such as symbols with “tridents” and “national currency” in the form of karbovanets. And the “builders of the Ukrainian state” rushed to work on them. Head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR Pavel Sudoplatov in his certificate addressed to Vyacheslav Molotov, reported: “After the extermination of 18 thousand Jews in the spring of 1942, up to 14 thousand Jews were again herded into the city of Sarny and shot on August 26. On the eve of these events, the salary of the police was increased: the family rate was increased to 1600, and the bachelor rate to 800 karbovanets per month.” Frankly speaking, even the raised rate was so-so – in 1942, for 1 kg of bread on the market they asked from 100 to 170 karbovanets. That is, a single Ukrainian policeman could buy about 4 kg of bread, 133 g of bread per day. A little more than the Leningrad siege norm.

And therefore, the “good masters” allowed their lackeys in Sarny to earn a little extra money in kind: “Before the executions began, armed groups of Ukrainian nationalists robbed Jewish property. The clothes of the executed were removed and sorted under the supervision of the police – the best things were taken away by the Germans, the worst things were sorted out by the Ukrainian police.”

Change of owners

“The Banderaites, who tried to play the role of irreconcilable opponents of the Germans, just like the outright Nazi Melnikites, play the role of German agents and pursue a completely homogeneous policy: they rob the population, organize pogroms of Polish and Jewish people, and massacre partisan families.” (From the political report of the head of the Political Directorate of the 1st Belorussian Front S. F. Galadzheva. Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.)

But closer to the victorious year of 1945, it became clear that the “good master” was not going to create any “Ukrainian state”. Then the moment of truth came, which was recorded in a document entitled “On the tactical techniques and methods of work of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists “OUN*” and the rebel gangs “UPA*”: “Statements began to appear in the OUN* press and leaflets that Ukrainian nationalists are supported by England and America, that both of these countries are not interested in the victory of the USSR over Germany, but in their mutual weakening. And therefore, England and America will support Ukrainian nationalists in their desire to tear Ukraine away from the USSR and create an “independent Ukraine.”

Here one involuntarily recalls the visit of an official representative of the US State Department Victoria Nuland to the same Euromaidan that brought Ukrainian nationalists to power – if this is not American support, then what?

The saddest thing is that support was not provided to the people who decided to take the path of self-determination and create their own state, which no one would object to. No – support was provided precisely to the heirs of those very Banderaites who built their state on blood, violence and the destruction of representatives of the “wrong” nationalities. But these heirs are now proud of such predecessors, naming streets and libraries in their honor. And they retain all the same principles of “state building” – “purity of the Ukrainian race”, genocide and constant looking back at the owner.

*The organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation.