UNVEILED HISTORY
Petro Franko. Mysteries of His Life and Death
On June 28, 1890 (as he himself wrote in his autobiography), the youngest of Ivan Franko’s three sons, Petro, was born. He went down in the history of the liberation struggle as one of the founders of the Ukrainian scout organization “Plast”, a brave Starshyna (senior officer) of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, and Commander of the Aviation Unit of the Ukrainian Galician Army. For Stalin’s regime, he became a dangerous enemy of the people, who was probably liquidated in the early days of the German-soviet war. The details of the murder have not been fully clarified yet. The case file on P. Franko from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine sheds some light on the events related to the commission of that crime by the nkvd.
6/28/2025
Minister of Railways of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Serhii Tymoshenko and His Illegal Trip to Kharkiv
The case against Serhii Tymoshenko, a former Minister in governments of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, was given the operational name “Putieiets” (“Railwayman”– Transl.) by the сhekists. He was well aware of the network of transportation routes in the Ukrainian ssr, and this made him a dangerous enemy of the soviet government in case of a resumed struggle for Ukraine’s independence. He proved this knowledge in practice, having managed to illegally come from abroad to Kharkiv for a secret meeting. This story from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine has never been mentioned in any biographical materials, memoirs, or publications.
6/18/2025
“Crossword” for the OUN. The kgb’s Special Operation
One of the main tasks of the kgb was to prevent unity among Ukrainian emigrant organizations. To this end, they constantly resorted to all kinds of so-called active measures. The goal was to divide Ukrainians, compromise the leaders, and eventually achieve the destruction of one or more organizations or at least a reduction in their activity. A good example of how this was developed and implemented at different stages is the kgb’s “Krossvord” (“Crossword”- Transl.) special operation against different OUN factions.
6/5/2025
Operation “Stavka”. Unknown Documents on the Murder in Rotterdam
On May 23, 1938, in Rotterdam, Pavlo Sudoplatov, an officer of the ussr nkvd, on stalin’s instructions, assassinated OUN leader Yevhen Konovalets. New documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine shed light on some unknown episodes of that operation and provide answers to the question of whether top OUN leaders suspected that P. Sudoplatov and agent “Lebed” were not in their midst by chance, but acted on the instructions of the nkvd, how they were checked, what the OUN leader wanted to hear most from the “fugitives” from soviet Ukraine, why stalin insisted on Yevhen Konovalets’ assassination, and why Konovalets did not want stalin to be killed, and more.
5/29/2025
Unveiled History: russian kazaki in Active Service with Hitler
moscow tries not to mention the russian kazaki (russian word from Cossacks, referred to paramilitary units of russian citizens serving russian government – Transl.) units that fought on the side of Nazi Germany at all, especially on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the victory in the war. Among the documents dated 1944-1945, in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine there is a letter case entitled “kazaki’s Regiments”. It was filed in July 1944 by the 4th (intelligence and sabotage) directorate of the nkgb of the Ukrainian ssr. The resolution stated that a certain amount of official, agent and investigative materials had been accumulated on the activities of kazaki’s units formed by the Nazis to fight against the red army. Thus, the task was to monitor the movement of such units and infiltrate chekist agents into them.
5/5/2025
Hunting for “Voron”
The story of russians’ participation in World War II “on the other side” is in stark contrast to the kremlin propaganda. Any attempts to rethink those events are seen by moscow as an information war against russia and debunk the myth of the russians’ decisive role in the victory over Nazism. The topic of hundreds of thousands of russians who are considered traitors, collaborators and agents who collaborated with the Nazis remains a taboo in russia. The kremlin is especially sensitive to any mention of General Vlasov. The archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine contain documents that reveal the operations of the nkgb of the Ukrainian ssr against stalin’s “personal enemy” – the search for and destruction of Vlasov through the creation of an agent network for infiltration into the “russian liberation army”.
5/2/2025
General-Khorunzhyi of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Yurko Tyutyunnyk. Unknown Facts, Photos, Poems
The archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine contain unique documents that reflect the activities of the Partisan-Insurgent Staff headed by Khorunzhyi General Yurko Tyutyunnyk, orders of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, originals and copies of the government’s documents, personal correspondence during his stay in exile and in Ukraine, his manuscripts of the book “The Winter Campaign of 1919-1920” and some articles, other materials on the Ukrainian liberation movement of the 20th century, as well as photos that have not been published until now. All this was once contained in Yu. Tyutyunnyk’s personal archive and later came to the gpu of the Ukrainian ssr as a result of the chekists’ operation to lure the Otaman to Ukrainian territory and arrest him
4/19/2025
Stepan Skrypnyk. Khorunzhyi of the UPR Army, MP, Patriarch
In the 1940s and 1980s, the kgb residentura in Canada and the United States widely practiced operations to compromise prominent Ukrainian figures who actively fought for spiritual and national revival through the so-called progressive press. One of such operations was directed against the then Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and soon the UOC of the USA, and in the future His Holiness Patriarch of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine Mstyslav. This is told by declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
4/10/2025
Ilko Borshchak. At the Cutting Edge of soviet Special Propaganda in France
Declassified documents of the ogpu/nkvd of the ussr of the 1920s and 1930s from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine show that at that time the kremlin leadership had been making great efforts through its special services to promote soviet ideology around the world and to influence the labor movement abroad, the mood in the emigration community, and the world public opinion in general. Former compatriots with exorbitant ambitions, talented and authoritative individuals, and at the same time prone to all kinds of adventures, were often chosen to carry out such plans and act as agents of influence. Ilko Borshchak was one of them in France.
3/28/2025
Yulian Revai: “The People Will Overcome the Wound, Preserve Honour, Our History, Our State”
Yulian Revai was one of the founders and most popular political figures of Carpathian Ukraine, whose independence was proclaimed on March 15, 1939, and he was appointed Prime Minister. After the defeat of the liberation movement in the region and the fall of the Carpatho-Ukrainian state, he left for abroad with some members of the government. There he continued to fight for the Ukrainian cause. That was the reason for his being sought by the SMERSH, and later – by the mgb of the Ukrainian ssr. Declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine tell us about the course of this operational cultivation and the seizure of the politician’s personal archive.
3/15/2025
Shevchenko in Washington. The Struggle for Values
The process of erecting a monument to Taras Shevchenko in Washington in 1964 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth lasted several years and gained considerable resonance in the foreign press. At the same time, the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr’s activities around that event have not yet been made public. Declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine now allow us to see how the kremlin leadership, American political circles, and the Ukrainian diaspora acted in those circumstances and what position they took.
3/9/2025
Volodymyr Stakhiv. “Do Not Look for Allies at Any Cost, Even the Highest”
After the split in the OUN ranks, the nkvd/mgb bodies of the ussr closely watched those figures who were distinguished by a fundamentally irreconcilable and unyielding position towards their opponents, were not afraid to object to leaders in their own circle, and openly expressed their opinions, even if they went against the generally accepted ones. Such people were actively cultivated in order to use their ambitions in chekists’ interests or to encourage them to take actions that would lead to an even greater split, discord, weakening, and eventually destruction of the national liberation movement. One of those who was subject to special attention in the 1940s was Volodymyr Stakhiv.
2/21/2025
The kgb’s Encrypted Telegram from Bonn
Declassified archival documents of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine repeatedly mention the meetings in Munich held by leaders of the Ukrainian national liberation movement to adjust the strategy and tactics of further struggle for restoration of Ukraine's independence. The ussr kgb residentura in Bonn tried to monitor such events and report them to moscow for appropriate action. A clear evidence of which of those events caused the greatest concern and irritation of soviet special services is the encrypted telegram dated November 1985.
2/13/2025
To the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Vasyl Vyshyvanyi
On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the birth of Vasyl Vyshyvanyi (born February 10, 1895), Austrian Archduke Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine is publishing new documents from the archival case file on him. They add to the information that was previously published and allow us to better understand the multifaceted image of the fighter for the Ukrainian cause, his attempts to persuade influential European politicians and statesmen to take his side and gain support in Ukraine’s getting rid of moscow's influence and joining civilized Europe.
2/10/2025
Mykola Sadovskyi and Mykola Tobilevych. Encrypted Correspondence
Some of the letters that Mykola Tobilevych sent from Prague to Kyiv to his father, Mykola Sadovskyi, were encrypted. But that was not a theater game and was not done for entertainment. The Lieutenant Colonel of the UPR Army had every reason to suspect that he and his father, a prominent theater figure who returned home from exile in 1926, might be being watched by the gpu. Declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine tell us about those events, which are still unknown to the general public.
2/7/2025
Mykhailo Vetukhiv. “For the Ukrainian Cause – from the American Standpoint”
When a number of Ukrainian activists had moved from Europe to America after the World War II, the activities of some of them were monitored by the mgb/kgb of the ussr only through publications in the emigration press. Excerpts and clippings from such articles were used to form operational case files. Today, these materials provide a glimpse of how Ukrainian emigrants immediately after their arrival would join the struggle for the restoration of Ukrainian statehood and the support of this process by the governments of the United States, Canada, and other countries.
1/31/2025
Petro Filonenko. On the Instructions of Insurgent Intelligence
The archival documents of the Intelligence, relating to the activities of the Partisan Insurgent Staff of the State Center of the UPR in exile, headed by Khorunzhyi General Yurko Tiutiunnyk, repeatedly mention Petro Filonenko as an insurgent Otaman and intelligence officer. It is pointed out that he was an extremely brave starshyna (senior officer – Transl.), who, on the instructions of the Staff, more than once crossed the Polish-soviet border with his unit and defeated the red army and chekist units deep in occupied Ukraine.
1/23/2025
Mykola Velychkivskyi. Between the nkvd and the gestapo
On January 11, 1889, Ukrainian political and public figure, scientist, Professor, Head of the Ukrainian National Rada (Council- Transl.) in Kyiv (1941) Mykola Velychkivskyi was born. It was his heading the UNRada that became reason for the nkvd’s opening a case, conducting operational investigation and preparing plans for compromising him. This is shown by declassified documents from the archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
1/11/2025
Platonida Khotkevych. “So That She Would Not Publish Anything About Her Husband”
In the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, a thin file was found on Platonida Khotkevych, the wife of a prominent Ukrainian writer, literary critic, art historian, bandura player, composer, historian, ethnographer, and theater figure Hnat Khotkevych (born December 31, 1877), who was repressed by the stalinist regime and shot dead on October 8, 1938, for “participating in counterrevolutionary activities and spying for Germany”. His wife was tracked down by smersh (The name смерш (smersh) was coined by joseph stalin as a shortening of the russian-language phrase cмерть шпионам (smertʹ shpionam, "death to spies"- Transl.) in Prague after World War II and arrested “so that she would not publish anything about her husband”.
12/31/2024
