REQ: Polish and Ukrainian resistance AFTER WWII

[lightfire]

I am looking for any material,info, pics etc. regarding polish and/or ukrainian resistance after WWII to the soviets. Knowing there was such resistance I would like to compare those with my countrys' partisan movement. It lasted from 1944 till 1956 roughlly.
What were the numbers of resistance movements in Poland and Ukraine? I know about fractions in Ukraine and some ties with the nazis, but polish resistance to the soviets must have consisted generally from Armija Krajova, am I right?They were the main threat to soviet rule in Poland.
What were the organisational capabilities of resistance (f.e. any separate operational regions, joint operations etc)?
What kind of weaponarry mainly used and were there any foreign sources for that?
Were there any major battles with NKVD or regular soviet forces, or was it group of small engaements/ambushes? Were there any bunkers, partisan controled areas?
What was the national supprot for the resistance and how long(if) it lasted?

thanks

[AROUETLJ]

Read the Osprey book "Ukrainian armies 1917-1940something"

[CPL Trevoga]

I am looking for any material,info, pics etc. regarding polish and/or ukrainian resistance after WWII to the soviets. Knowing there was such resistance I would like to compare those with my countrys' partisan movement. It lasted from 1944 till 1956 roughlly.
What were the numbers of resistance movements in Poland and Ukraine? I know about fractions in Ukraine and some ties with the nazis, but polish resistance to the soviets must have consisted generally from Armija Krajova, am I right?They were the main threat to soviet rule in Poland.
What were the organisational capabilities of resistance (f.e. any separate operational regions, joint operations etc)?
What kind of weaponarry mainly used and were there any foreign sources for that?
Were there any major battles with NKVD or regular soviet forces, or was it group of small engaements/ambushes? Were there any bunkers, partisan controled areas?
What was the national supprot for the resistance and how long(if) it lasted?

thanks

Do a google search, "bandits in western Ukraine", "Bendera".

[Switek]

It's hard to find anything in the web.

Anyway, period 1944-53 is called in our newest history a "civil war".


The German population of the newly gained territories was forcefully expelled (over 3 million), the area settled by Poles, many of whom originated from the provinces in the east, now lost to the USSR. In the course of the war, Poland had lost most of its once large Jewish population (which used to account for 11 % of Poland's prewar population); now, there were only a few thousand left. Still, in 1946 a pogrom against the Jewish inhabitants of the city of Kielce occurred.
In a Poland the borders of which had been redrawn and the ethnic composition of the population had been considerably altered, a multiparty coalition government was formed, comprising of members of the London-based exile government and of communists; the latter claimed the key ministries of the interior and of justice. However the communists were not the leading political force in the country; both the Peasants Party and the Socialists were stronger. Political pressure was put on the socialists to merge with the communists; the socialist party split and her left wing was integrated into the communist party (1947). Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, former prime minister of the exile government based in London, head of the Polish Populist Party (PSL, moderates) and a member of the provisional government, fled the country in 1947.
The policies of suppressing democratic movements as well as the forced emigration of Poland's ethnic Ukrainian population met armed resistance, which continued over several years (AK / Home Army, NSZ / National Armed Forces; UPA / Ukrainian Insurgent Army) and cost an estimated 30,000 lives.
As in other Soviet occupied countries, the communists, with the support of the Soviet military administration, put pressure on so-called 'counterrevolutionary elements'; in 1948 massive purges were carried out against persons who had served in institutions of democratic prewar Poland, against persons with a bourgeois background or other 'suspicious' elrments; c. 100 labor camps were established for this clientele. In 1948 the Polish Workers Party (i.e. the communists) took sole control of government, proclaimimg a People's Republic.

source (http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/eceurope/poland194548.html)

The result of Ukrainian resistance activity in southeastern Poland was Operation Wisła (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wisła).

[Mr.K]

this thread will be fun.

[Switek]

this thread will be fun.

I'm curious who first is going to lost his temper. Even for us Poles this time is ambiguous. Few years ago Polish patriots who dared to fight against "people power" were just "bandits" in official history. Now they are called (mostly justified) "freedom fighterts".

[Mr.K]

Did they have popular support?
Any goverment will call armed opponents "bandits".

[lightfire]

Any goverment will call armed opponents "bandits".

perhaps, but

if that "government" is brought by a foreign force,or actualy it is a foreign force-a totalitarian regime as well.... then I gues they are the only ones who's gonna use term "bandits".

[jamaKinson]

This site is quite huge.

http://oun-upa.org.ua/

[Switek]

Did they have popular support?
Any goverment will call armed opponents "bandits".

1945-1989 official name: Bandits
since 1989 : Freedom Fighters

From the very begining, IMHO they had qute wide support. Significantly abating since 1948 becouse of obvious reasons... :|

[MrX]

I am looking for any material,info, pics etc. regarding ukrainian resistance after WWII to the soviets.

There wasnt such thing like ukrainian resistance to germans or soviets. The way of acting of murderers from oun-upa was to collaborate with germans and to avoid soviets. Main activity of these subhuman barstards was genocide of Jews and Poles in western Ukraine. From 1943 to 1945 these oun-upa bastards murdered 150.000-250.000 Jews, 100.000-150.000 Poles and 30.000-40.000 Ukrainians in most cruel massacres in world history (yes, even Rwanda massacres of 1994 are relatively nice in comparison with Volhynia Slaughter of 1943).

[lightfire]

There wasnt such thing like ukrainian resistance to germans or soviets. The way of acting of murderers from oun-upa was to collaborate with germans and to avoid soviets. Main activity of these subhuman barstards was genocide of Jews and Poles in western Ukraine. From 1943 to 1945 these oun-upa bastards murdered 150.000-250.000 Jews, 100.000-150.000 Poles and 30.000-40.000 Ukrainians in most cruel massacres in world history (yes, even Rwanda massacres of 1994 are relatively nice in comparison with Volhynia Slaughter of 1943).

aha..mhm...


I am looking for any material,info, pics etc. regarding ukrainian resistance after WWII to the soviets

[Desadsky]

"Bandit" is a pretty good name for that guys. They often killed civilians if they supported Soviet power, even old persons and women. Ukranian bandits - "ukranian partisan movement" were completely suppressed in a few years after the end of the war. They used soviet and german weapon. Small engagements took plase, but there were no any kind of partisan controled areas. That's all.

[Switek]

Ukranian bandits - "ukranian partisan movement" were completely suppressed in a few years after the end of the war. They used soviet and german weapon. Small engagements took plase, but there were no any kind of partisan controled areas. That's all.

I dont think so. They had in Polish controlled area quite big support. My father told me that they were taught taught partisant methods of war based on efficiency of UPA. It was classified info in 1970's. ;) They were damn good. Without forced deportation of southeastern Poland's Ukrainian, Boyko and Lemko populations it was impossible to defeat them.

[Desadsky]

In Polish controlled? Well, may be...

[Switek]

Not only. In western Ukraine as well. AFAIK they were active till 1952 there. There is no objective historical research about this topic.

[Desadsky]

That's right. Western ukranians always had strong dislike to all soviet and russian. Even now.

[Flamming_Python]

1945-1989 official name: Bandits
since 1989 : Freedom Fighters

From the very begining, IMHO they had qute wide support. Significantly abating since 1948 becouse of obvious reasons... :|

A bit like...

Afghanistan 1979-1989 = Freedom Fighters
Afghanistan since 2003 = Terrorists

Funny how the world works :D

[Son_Of_Suvorov]

That's right. Western ukranians always had strong dislike to all soviet and russian. Even now.

Maybe you should go to western Ukraine and find out for yourself. It's simply not true. As a matter of fact, there was a large pro-Russian movement in Galicia before WWI. Then the Austrians rounded up and hanged almost 10,000 people suspected of pro-Russian sympathies, and that pretty much stopped. They also organized a group of "real Ukrainian" riflemen, as much as to relieve the nationalist problem as it was a sort of precursor to "stay-behind" operations, and that worked, because the members of these riflemen would become the chiefs of the Ukrainian resistance to the Polish occupation of western Ukraine in the 1920s and 30s. These are the same structures and largely the same people that would constitute Ukrainian resistance to the Soviet government. It is important to note that initially OUN welcomed the re-unification of Ukraine that happened as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, at least for a short time. Actually, before Bandera et alia emigrated and started spreading their propaganda abroad, most of the Ukrainian emigrants supported Soviet Ukraine and would have liked to see it unified with western Ukraine. UPA was organized in 1942, and there is every indication that it was backed by the Germans (who says history does not repeat itself?). If you can read Ukrainian, here is a nice publication (printed in Canada, btw) of historical documents, where you can read amusing things like tales of the endless supplies of German materiel the UPA partisans always seemed to have on hand (no doubt captured in battle with the Germans :lol:), and declarations from UPA ataman Taras Bulba from Berlin (no, I'm not making this up rofl):

http://forum.ottawa-litopys.org/vypusk01_u.htm