Andriy Bandera. A Father Punished for His Son
In the case file on Stepan Bandera, which is stored in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, there are a number of documents relating to his father, Father Andriy. This is a dramatic story of how the chekists switched their hatred for one of the leaders of the Ukrainian liberation movement to his close relatives. At the same time, it is also an example of the strength of the spirit of a person who did not break under the pressure of the totalitarian system, did not give up his ideological beliefs, and did not become an obedient tool of influence, as was planned at the highest level of the nkvd. The documents found in the archives of the Intelligence Service shed light on new, hitherto unknown episodes of this story.
9/5/2024
Andriy Melnyk, Ukrainian statesman, military and political leader, Colonel of the UPR Army, head of the Ukrainian Nationalists’ Provid, second head of the OUN (1938–1964)
To the Day of Ukrainian Statehood and Independence Day of Ukraine, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine publishes from archival documents some statements, quotes, testimonies, memoirs of leaders of the Ukrainian national liberation movement about their participation in the struggle for the statehood of Ukraine. These materials help trace and evaluate the role of prominent Ukrainians in the creation of the state, their contribution to Ukraine's independence and the struggle for its restoration.
9/2/2024
Mykola Plaviuk. Subject to the kgb's Cultivation “Bezdolnyi” and His Fateful Contribution to the Establishment of Ukraine's Independence
Mykola Plaviuk went down in history as the President of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (1978-1981), the long-time leader of the OUN (1979-2012), and the last President of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile (1989-1992). In August 1992, at the celebrations marking the first anniversary of the restoration of Ukraine's independence, it was he who handed over the Letter of Termination of the UPR State Center in Exile, the Presidential Seal, Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s Kleinods, and the Flag to the first popularly elected President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk. By doing so, he confirmed the succession and continuity of Ukrainian statehood traditions. But the kgb obviously underestimated his role and place in the Ukrainian diaspora and the struggle for Ukraine's independence, and measures to cultivate and discredit him were essentially unsuccessful, as evidenced by declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
8/22/2024
“Intensify Intelligence Activities Against the Moratorium on Confrontation in the Ukrainian Liberation Movement”
In the 1980s, the movement for the consolidation of Ukrainians all over the world, development of national identity, unification of efforts in the struggle for a free and independent Ukraine, and the search for compromises on a number of pressing issues of leadership in the liberation movement and ways to achieve the goal set were gaining more and more momentum among Ukrainian emigrants. In order to prevent this, the kgb took a set of active measures to increase disagreements and contradictions between the most numerous and authoritative emigration centers and organizations abroad. This is evidenced by certain circulars, certificates and instructions preserved in the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
8/9/2024
Zenon Snylyk. Participant of Three Olympics
The archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine contain lists of US residents who had Ukrainian roots and could be of operational interest to the kgb. Among them were many members of emigrant organizations, US military, scientists, creative intellectuals, engineers and technicians who had proven themselves in promising industries, and others. Zenon Snylyk was also included in the list for his special achievements in sports – as the only player in the history of soccer (football – Transl.) in the United States to have played in three consecutive Olympic Games.
8/3/2024
A “Souvenir” for the Founder of the OUN Security Service Mykola Lebed
The figure of the founder, organizer and first chief of the OUN Security Service (Ukr. Sluzhba Bezpeky - SB), Mykola Lebed, was the focus of the kgb’s special attention. Even when he was far away across the ocean in the United States, they tried to send agents to him, learn about his views, find out his plans, commit a high-profile provocation, and even intended to use him to resuscitate the search for the OUN gold buried in the Carpathian forests. The declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine tell about all this.
7/24/2024
Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council. Secret Records
80 years ago (July 11-15, 1944), under conditions of strict secrecy, the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR) was proclaimed at a constituent assembly in the foothills of the Carpathians in Lviv region. According to declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, stalin's special services learnt about the creation of this insurgent provisional Parliament or Government of the warring Ukraine only at the end of 1944. Then, as a result of one of the special operations, the chekists got hold of the minutes of the first meeting of the UHVR. Yet for quite a while longer, the nkgb could not find out the real names of the participants in that first Grand Assembly, which were deliberately changed in the document.
7/11/2024
Stepan Lenkavskyi: “You Will Either Have Got the Ukrainian State, Or Die in the Struggle for It”
July 6 marks 120 years since the birth of Stepan Lenkavskyi, one of the founders and ideologues of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, author of the OUN Decalogue (“Ten Commandments of a Ukrainian Nationalist”), in which he outlined the basic moral and ethical principles of a participant in the national liberation movement. It was his principled and irreconcilable stance towards the enemies of Ukrainian statehood that became the grounds for the nkgb’s opening an operational case against him and plan measures to liquidate him. This is evidenced by declassified documents from the archival funds of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
7/5/2024
Yuriy Sheveliov. What Was Not and Could Not Be Included in the Book of Memoirs?
Why did it take Yurii Sheveliov so long to respond to Pavlo Zahrebelnyi’s invitation to visit the ussr, and what warning did he receive from a US congressman because of this? Why did Oles Honchar not want to go to New York and persuade his former teacher to return to his homeland? Why did the kgb leadership, which had been monitoring his activities for several decades, not rest easy when a prominent Ukrainian linguist criticized the concept of the “common russian language”? What questions was the kgb’s residentura in the USA tasked to raise during meetings with him, and did the target of the operational cultivation himself realize who he was dealing with? All of this is in declassified documents from the archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
6/21/2024
kgb of the ussr Against the “Flying Cossacks” of the US Air Force
In the archival funds of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, documents have been found which show that in the 1960s the kgb of the Ukrainian ssr purposefully collected information about US Army personnel with Ukrainian roots. Such persons were included in special lists and put on operational record. Nowadays, familiarization with these documents makes it possible to see that Ukrainian immigrants born in the United States, even in the third generation, did not lose their national identity and lived with the thought of Ukraine.
6/6/2024
