Isaaк Mazepa. At the Head of the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian National Rada
Isaak Mazepa was one of the central figures of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921. At different times, he headed the Ministries of Interior and Land Affairs, was the Prime Minister of the Government of the Directory of the Ukrainian People's Republic. These milestones in Ukrainian history are described in detail by researchers and I. Mazepa himself, who published several books and historical essays on the creation of the Ukrainian state and his role in the Liberation movement. No less interesting is his participation in the creation and organization of the Ukrainian National Rada (Council- transl.) immediately after World War II, about which not much evidence has survived. It is declassified documents from the archives of the Intelligence that make it possible to fill this gap.
7/27/2021
“Shemet Is One of the Main Organizers of The Hetman Movement Abroad…”
Serhiy Shemet, an attorney-in-fact and long-term personal secretary of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, has been repeatedly mentioned in the Intelligence’s archival documents on various cases. At the same time, only the case-form instituted against him in November 1943 by the 4th (Intelligence) Directorate of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR allows us to draw a holistic picture of his special role in the activities of the Hetman's Office in exile and to find the answer to the question why Hetman valued and was bringing him close to himself.
7/20/2021
Roman Smal-Stotskyi. “Ukrainian Prometheus” of the National Liberation Movement of the Peoples of the USSR
Declassified documents about Roman Smal-Stotsky, which are in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, show that he was of great interest to the NKVD. And this interest was not only due to his work in the emigration government of the Ukrainian People's Republic and his scientific activity as a talented Ukrainian linguist-Slavist. He was a threat to the Soviet government as an organizer and activist of the “Prometheus” movement, aimed at dismemberment of the USSR and national liberation of oppressed peoples.
7/13/2021
The KGB Against Yaroslav Stetsko. Special Operation “Nekro”
Yaroslav Stetsko, the leader of the OUN(b) Provid (leadership-transl.), permanent President of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations(ABN), one of the main ideologues of the Ukrainian national liberation movement and organizer of the struggle for Ukraine's independence, died on July 5, 1986 in Munich. His death was a result of sharp deterioration of his health which was caused by chronic diseases from his time in Hitler's concentration camp, but at the same time — by a special operation of the USSR KGB. Such conclusions are suggested by declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, which are still unknown to the general public.
7/5/2021
June 30, 1941 in the History of Ukraine and in Yaroslav Stetsko’s Biography
The archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine contain a number of documents that cover some circumstances related to the proclamation on June 30, 1941 in Lviv of the Act of Restoration of Ukrainian Statehood. Soviet intelligence documents relating to the events regarding Yaroslav Stetsko, a leading ideologue of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. NKVD officers opened a case against him in the 1940s. At the same time, intelligence reports, notes, protocols of interrogations of witnesses, memoranda reflect his activities in fragments, starting from his youth.
6/30/2021
Mykola Bytynskyi Against the "Russian World". Year 1933
Among the archival documents of the Intelligence there was found a letter from a prominent Ukrainian heraldist, falerist, writer, publicist, graphic artist, vexillologist, researcher and emblem developer Mykola Bytynskyi about the publication in one of the Russian emigrant magazines in 1933 of an article about “Russia- a Liberator”. In the letter, he writes indignantly about the distortion of historical facts and points out that “no hostile agitation or propaganda, or any falsehood or provocation, must be left unanswered by us”. This letter, still unknown to historians, is a clear evidence that Ukrainian patriots have always been able to argue against the “Russian world”.
6/24/2021
Oleksandr Shulhyn. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the “Diplomat” Target of Recruitment Cultivation by GPU-NKVD
The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine publishes declassified archive materials about the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian People's Republic Oleksandr Shulhyn, which are still unknown to scientists, researchers and the general public. He was one of those who, since the declaration of the Ukrainian People's Republic and throughout the interwar years, had done more than anybody else for recognition of Ukraine as an independent state, shaping Ukrainian foreign policy, defending Ukrainian interests in the world and developing international cooperation. His active activities were closely monitored by the GPU-NKVD of the USSR who intended to recruit him.
6/14/2021
Volodymyr Murskyi. “Ukrainian Nuncio” in Istanbul
In the early 1930s, the UPR government in exile returned to the issue of obtaining autocephaly and establishing a local autocephalous church in Ukraine. An important role in this process was played by Volodymyr Murskyi, who at that time was the official representative of the UPR government in Turkey and performed certain tasks of the UPR’s intelligence, as evidenced by declassified documents from the Branch State Archive of Ukraine. Following the meeting of the Ukrainian delegation with Patriarch Photius II of Constantinople, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of the UPR government in exile Oleksandr Lototskyi praised Volodymyr Murskyi’s efforts and called him a “Ukrainian Nuncio” in Istanbul, by analogy with the rank of the highest diplomatic representative of the Holy See.
6/3/2021
The Assassination of Symon Petlyura. From the Foreign Intelligence’s Archival Documents
The Foreign Intelligence’s archival documents, relating to the assassination of Ukrainian statesman and politician Symon Petlyura in Paris on May 25, 1926, show how the event was covered in the foreign press, how Ukrainian émigré circles reacted to it, and how it was interpreted and reflected in operative materials of Soviet special services. The declassified top-secret documents of the Foreign Department of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) of the USSR are a strong argument in support of the conclusions made by domestic historians that the assassination was organized by Soviet authorities and the trial of the murderer was used to discredit both Petlyura himself and the entire Ukrainian liberation movement.
5/25/2021
Yevhen Konovalets Against the GPU-NKVD
May 23, 1938, Pavlo Sudoplatov, an employee of the NKVD of the USSR, killed the head of the OUN Provid (leadership - transl.), Yevhen Konovalets. The fatal explosion in Rotterdam was the culmination of the Soviet GPU-NKVD’s long-running large-scale operation, which was personally instructed by Joseph Stalin. Even though the circumstances of the operation have been carefully studied and described, documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, still unknown to the public, allow to add to the general picture and answer the question discussed by scientists and historians in recent decades: did Ye. Konovalets have a chance in that situation to get rid of the Soviet secret services’ close attention and stay alive?
5/20/2021
